Osaka Castle

I went into Osaka on Sunday and saw Osaka Castle for the first time with Kazu and his friend, Sam, from Sydney who is staying until Friday. Kazu did homestay in Sydney with Sam last year.

Osaka Castle is in the middle of this huge, wide-open park, which feels strange in the middle of Osaka. The castle itself is rather touristy, as you'd expect, and is full of typical things you'd find in a history museum of the events that took place there involving the wars.
It was interesting to visit and is worth seeing, but still ends up being one of those 'tourist' things that I do my best to avoid. I did like, however, how there were very few foreigners when we went.

The park itself was really nice and the moats helped to divide the areas up. Most of the people in the park that I saw (as I said, the place was huge) were just taking a walk or relaxing, but, when nearly back at the station, we were assailed by 10,000+ girls in their mid-20s/30s.
There's a huge concert hall that had just finished whatever performance it had. We made our way slowly along as they continually swarmed out and ended up walking to the next station rather than wait at that one with a crowd that would have taken a few hours to move.


Sam had a pretty spiffy digital SLR camera that caught my eye, as I've been wanting something better than the one I have for a while now. Might have a look around this week and get a scope on the prices.

... that is all.