Visiting Osaka Castle – Day 2 Osaka
By Dennis | Published | No Comments
Osaka Castle was built in 1583 and it the most popular tourist attraction in Osaka.
The castle and various buildings on its grounds were built, damaged or destroyed, and rebuilt over the last hundred years.
Today the main castle building is entirely modern, but two of the turrets are still standing including the Sengen-Yagura turret which dates back to the 17th century.
There’s a large historic building on the grounds of Osaka Castle that has a number of restaurants and shops within it. One of the restaurants is called Konamon Bar where you can get soft ice-cream topped with a sheet of gold leaf. The gold leaf is so thin that you can eat it. Both cones still cost about $20.
In the basement was a temporary exhibit for a famous Japanese model builder who specialized in anime and science fiction, so we had to go look.
Strange things we noticed
The single most annoying thing we encountered while in Japan was the complete lack of public garbage bins. The expectation here is that you have to bring your garbage home with you. (???)
Most vending machines have recycle containers right next to them (often they’re full). Drinking or eating while walking around is apparently frowned upon by the Japanese, though we’ve still seen plenty of people doing it.
When buying a drink from a vending machine, you’re expected to drink the whole thing right there. We always had our day packs with us, but a couple times we bought “take-out” at a food court, there was nowhere to get rid of our garbage. We had to tuck our dirty, empty plastic containers and chop-sticks in our backpacks and haul it around with us the whole day.
The country has often been super clean, and I don’t know if this is the cause. But it’ll suck for you if you have no convenient way of bringing your trash home with you. Just weird.
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