Outside the Osaka Castle 大阪城

So like I said on my previous post I decided to walk all the way from Nishinagahori where I was staying to the Osaka Castle. That’s almost 5km according to Google Map. I honestly didn’t mind since I quite hate the tube. First, you smell everyone’s odour, everyone has an arse face and you miss a good part of the whole experience. Hence, I decided to walk and it’s a very enjoyable walk, if you don’t mind walking that is.



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Once you get to the Osaka Castle, I'm quite sure you'll ask yourself “right, so where’s the entrance now” You have many entrances depending if you’re coming from the North, South, East (like I did) or West.


Regardless from which direction you’re coming you’ll find the entrance and the first thing you’ll see is the entrance which really makes you feel like you’re going back in time. If you’re lucky enough like I was, you can ask the elderly people outside the entrance to take a picture of you. If you’ve got a tripod well then don’t bother. These elderly are people who like to explain you everything about the castle, but there's one main problem. They don't speak English only Japanese.

Osaka Castle - Wall on the East side

I couldn’t take a picture of the old people but they were quite helpful and if you understand perfect nihongo (Japanese) then pay them something and I’m sure you’ll have the best tour guide you can have around. 

Ote-mon

Walking in you’ll find the first gate you’ll come to Ote-Mon and you’ll see these huge stones which are the solid wall supports. The elderly were explaining every single detail about the stones but in Japanese.
Unfortunately for me my Japanese is not that good so I had to carry on and keep taking pictures.

Shudokan Dojo - Outside Osaka Castle

Moving on you’ll come to Shudokan Dojo, which lies just outside the castle. Really beautiful and very interesting if you like Martial Arts, in my case Kendo. After that on your right you’ll have Hōkoku Shrine (豊國神社, Hōkoku-jinja) a Shinto shrine with a big statue of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, best known for unifying all political factions in Japan in the 16th Century.

Hokoku jinja Shrine

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

As you pass the main gate or Sakura-Mon you’ll see the Municipal Museum on your right hand side and you can quickly rest a bit, eat something local or go to the toilet. By some particular reason that place was extremely windy so make sure you’ll have a proper fleece or layer – in case you go during a cold season.

Osaka Castle Main View

Sakura-mon