Osaka: Sight Seeing
We had a nice breakfast at the Cross Hotel. They offer a wide range of both Western and Japanese cuisine. After that, we took our time and decided on a boat tour around Osaka. We thought it might be a quick way to see a lot.
Osaka Castle Park
We walked from the hotel through a shopping street to Shinsaibashi Station (心斎橋駅) 🗾, where we took the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line (長堀鶴見緑地線) to Morinomiya Station (森ノ宮駅) 🗾.
This took us to the south-west corner of the park. We walked to a nearby oval with a Starbucks. It was quite hot, so we wanted a cool drink. After that, we proceeded past and through the “Forest of Memorial Trees”, under the Wisteria, past the Imperial Army Artillery Arsenal, and around Osaka-Jo Hall (大阪城ホール), where people were lining up for a concert.
On our left, we had views of the various ponds and the top of Osaka Castle, which we planned to visit later. Having passed Osaka-Jo Hall, we arrived at the boat ramp, where we waited quite a bit before departure. Thank god there was an air-conditioned ticket office!
Boat tour and Osaka Castle
The boat tour itself was interesting, but in the end, not worth the time. We basically went west along the O River, back, and then north a bit before returning to the dock.
After the tour, we considered checking out Osaka Castle. At this point, we had seen quite a few castles, it was very hot, and my wife’s replaced knee was getting tired, so we split up. Our son went to check out the castle, and we waited for him at Starbucks. From there, we retraced our steps to the hotel, freshened up, and rested before our Osaka food tour.