Osaka-Jo

Last night Misato informed Ross and I that we were on our own for today. She is going to spend a day with her longtime girlfriend Noriko so we would need to fend for ourselves.

I think Ross and I will visit Osaka-jo (not a local brand of coffee, "jo" means castle) then maybe head back to Yodobashi depaato so that Ross can buy a smaller camera. I think I am going to look out for a nice prosumer HD camcorder but will wait until I go to Akihabara. Should be a ninteresting day for Ross and I... I have NEVER been on my own in Japan...

... Ross, Misato and I left the condo at around 10:20AM so that we could catch the train and go to the next station (Shin-Osaka) where Misato would meet her longtime friend Noriko for a day of catching up. We looked for her a little while at the platform and she eventually arrived. We all briefly exchanged hellos and I introduced her to Ross and vice-versa then Ross and I left and went to the platform for the JR "Osaka Loop" train.

We made it to the Osaka-jo Koen eki without incident but soon found ourselves a little turned around finding the castle. We located a map, realized it was upside down relative to how we were facing then made our way to the castle entrance. There were busloads of school kids, many of which said "hello" and "goodbye" in English. Most of them had drawing pads and were sketching the castle.

Ross and I went to the top of the castle and rather quickly worked our way down to the bottom. I could have lingered longer since the history is more familiar to me than when I first visited the castle 5 years ago. But we were in and out pretty swiftly.

Ross and I bought a refreshment once we were done with the tour, drank them up then walked to the station. Of course we chose a different route than how we arrived and found ourselves turned around. We finally made it back to the JR line platform and boarded a train that would take use to Nanba from which we would walk to Den-den Machi, Electric Town.