April 3rd-Sakura, Sakura
For the longest time I’ve wanted to see the cherry blossoms bloom in Japan. Not only is it supposed to be a spectacle of natural beauty, but it is also one of the most prevalent symbols of Japan. It’s really up there with Mt. Fuji. Hiromi and I had decided that we wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Osaka Castle Park (the best spot in Osaka), but we wanted to do it on a nice day, obviously. The weather had been ok, but for the most part, it had been cloudy, and kind of chilly. We had been checking the weather, and planned to make out little outing for hanami (flower viewing), for Thursday when the weather was supposed to be nice. As planned, we I got up, the sun was shining and the sky was clear for the most part. First, Hiromi and I went to get some yakiniku (Japanese style BBQ). It was really tasty and I felt much better after that since I hadn’t really had breakfast. Then we got on the subway and headed over to the castle. The castle is not the original (built in the 16th century or something like that), it’s a reproduction, loyal to the original, but a reproduction just the same. The original collapsed I believe, and then it was rebuilt thirty years later, and then that one was knocked down by its builders so it wouldn’t fall into enemy hands. Then, in the early 20th century, the current one was built and was renovated at great expense in 1995. So, now it’s a nice place! Anyway, the park was pretty crowded. It was filled with friends and families sitting on picnic blankets under the cherry trees in full bloom. In the air were the smells of peach trees, sizzling beef (more yakiniku), ice cream, yakisoba, takoyaki, and a host of other rich spring scents. There was almost a carnival atmosphere around the mote (Osaka castle actually has 2). There were a number of amateur photographers with their cameras on tripods trained at the blossoms. We walked around for a long time just looking at the trees and taking pictures. The weather was great too. In fact, it was almost a little too warm. We stopped for a while at the top of the inner wall to the inner mote just to sit in the shade and look at the people crossing over the inner bridge. We ended up walking around the entire castle grounds (very extensive), and were exhausted when we left. As the sun was on its way down, I remembered something that I read in the guidebook—the view from the Umeda Sky Building at sunset is supposed to be spectacular. So, that’s where we decided to go. It turned out that we missed the sunset by about 2 hours because when we got to Umeda (northern Osaka city area), it was already too late for the sunset and we ended up walking around for a while. We were really tired, and we decided that the best choice of action would be to find a restaurant with a nice view where we could relax and rest our feet. I remember that the top of the Sky Building had a bunch of restaurants in it, so we ended up going up there after all. Our first stop was on the Hanging Terrace Observatory (I believe it was called) a full 173 meters above the city street. Oh, let me explain something first. The Umeda Sky building is constructed with two towers and on the top is the observatory that connects the two buildings. It’s a very modern, impressive looking building. Some people love it for its space-age beauty, while others deem it an eyesore. Anyway, when we got to the top deck on the roof, literally out in the open air, the view was breathtaking. For 360 degrees you could see the glittering, sparking lights of the city below. The air was relatively clear and crisp, and it was a great night for that kind of thing. After a while of walking around up there, we went down to go to one of the restaurants. We discovered that there were only 2, expensive, restaurants below, so we ended up sitting on a bench next to the window almost falling unconscious with fatigue until we made ourselves get up so we wouldn’t fall asleep on the bench there. Eventually, we found ourselves at a Hawaiian restaurant but we were too tired for a full meal so we just got dessert and that was tasty.
-Maikeru