Ōsaka (大阪) 2
Today we found the "impregnable" castle from 1583, that is Osaka-Jō. The fact that it's been destroyed about three times since then and is currently reconstructed using concrete is nothing but a minor detail. Though it seems a little weird when even the purposefully wooden looking guard rails are on close inspection actually also made of concrete. The surrounding gardens are however currently a popular picnic spot as the Sakura (cherry trees) are currently in full blossom and the beginning of the warm season appears to have just started.
While Transportation museum's are always fun, getting to play with Shinkansen simulators and all that jazz, this museum was on the rather short side. Having a locked gate on the front with no English sign in sight was a little disappointing. The travel guide mentioned being closed on Mondays, except that it wasn't Monday. Oh well ...
Yodabashi is generally always a huge electronics store. In Shinjuku, you get a map of all the different departments, and where they are as they don't all fit into the same small buildings. The one in Osaka was able to fit into one building, but it wasn't allowed to be a small building, being eight stories high, with each floor bigger than a couple of supermarkets. But fun fact, the melody of the Yodabashi theme is the same melody as was used for the theme song of my Year 1 primary song. It is also an absolute earworm after the 20th time that you hear it, so don't say you haven't been warned!
The building which Washinoko was photoshoped, I mean, was standing in front of yesterday, has a glorious layout. They're basically two towers, with a bridge connecting them at the top. To get to the "Floating Garden" lookout platform you have to take escalators to the 3rd floor. From there you can take an elevator to the 35th floor. Here you buy tickets to be allowed on the observation platform, after which you take an escalator which goes from the 35th floor to the 39th while also going diagonally from one building to the other. And then the last floor you have to take the low tech stone stairs. But while the visibility wasn't the greatest, the view was still pretty spectacular, and it provided good view while watching one light go off, and a few million turn back on. It also showed the building with a highway exit stuck through it, and a floor covered in black light sensitive rocks.
