It was our final day in Japan & visiting Osaka Castle was first on the itinerary. We checked out of Capsule Ryokan Kyoto with a smile, satisfied with the exceptional customer service in the ryokan. We traveled from Kyoto station to Osakajokoen Station & placed our backpacks in the coin lockers at the station. The walk to the castle entrance took us around 10 minutes & tickets were sold by the entrance.
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| Osaka Castle |
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| Osaka Castle |
Inside, the museum had an interesting exhibition on the turbulent history of Osaka Castle. Visitors were encouraged to start the museum tour from the top to the bottom of the castle to fully understand the history. There are lifts to the top, but only stairs to the bottom. At the top observation deck on Level 8, the 360 degrees view of Osaka was spectacular. Level 7 had a presentation on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who built the castle. Level 5 showed scenes from The Summer War of Osaka. Look out for the panorama vision, which shows the famous scenes of the folding screen of the said war. The other floors had objects associated with Toyotomi & the castle's facts & figures. I was impressed with the full scale replica of the Golden Tea Room & models of the castle. There is a museum shop on the ground floor & also more souvenir shops outside.
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| Exhibit of Toyotomi's life - panorama vision |
From Osakajokoen Station, we changed trains at Tennoji station to get to Nara via the Yamatoji Rapid Service. It was our last day in Japan & we still got lost after we missed our station. After finally getting off the train at the right station, we headed straight to the Tourist Information Centre for a map of Nara. Travelers come to peaceful Nara mostly to see the famous pagodas & also freely roaming deer. As soon as we exit the station, we saw senior citizens sitting around the station, sketching & creating beautiful watercolor paintings. We walked uphill along Sanjodori Street until we reached Kofukuji Temple. There are a 3 storey pagoda & also a 5 storey pagoda here. We encountered the first deer in front of the pagoda. They looked peaceful & undisturbed by the people taking selfies & posing with them. On the way, we stumbled upon a shop selling mochi & we could hear them pounding the mochi from metres away. The mochi was incredibly delicious.
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| Locals sketching & painting |
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| The famous five storey pagoda |
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| Five storey pagoda |
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| Mochi stall |
The number of deer increased exponentially as we walked closer to Nandaimon Gate, the entrance to Todaiji Temple. There were deer biscuits for sale at the souvenir shops along the way. Nandaimon Gate has two large fierce looking statues of the Nio Guardian Kings.
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| Freely roaming deer |
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| Surrounded by deer |
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| Freely roaming deer |
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| Interacting with a deer |
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| Cheeky deer trying to steal biscuits |
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| More deer in front of Nandaimon gate |
We didn't go into Todaiji temple as we were running out of time. After taking numerous selfies with the polite deer, we walked back to the train station to pick up our bags in the coin lockers at Osakajokoen Station. From there, we headed straight to Kansai airport for our return flight to Kuala Lumpur. Before boarding, we had a few Japanese Yen left & we finished them at the airport's duty free shops. We highly recommend buying the Tokyo Banana dessert for family & friends waiting at home!
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| Tokyo Banana |
Budget
Osaka Castle Entrance Fee - JPY600
Mochi - JPY130
This is the end of our Japan adventure for now & we have covered most attractions in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka & Nara. We would love to go back to Japan one day & maybe next time we will be able to explore Hokkaido!
<<Read about our Day 7 in Universal Studios Osaka here
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