osaka castle area

Monday, I had an appointment but it was cancelled last minute.

Since I had planned to check out the ume at Osaka Castle before the appointment, I decided to get out and about anyway.

It was sunny and a little on the warm side.

The area in front of the Osaka Castle station has gotten a face lift.

Lots of eateries.

If I'm not mistaken, I think this area opened up late last summer.

I told Satoshi about it and he wants to check out this are too.

Spring is coming, slowly but surely.

Hope you are having a nice week.

the lilies

Last Sunday, we had checked out the white lilies at Ikeda Castle Ruins but they weren't quite ready.

A week later...they were beautiful. The fragrance, amazing.

Too bad the skies were overcast and cloudy.

Here's a panorama shot of the area and what 2000 lily plants look like...cool, yeah?!

What did you do this weekend?

miyazu-fukuchiyama-osaka

Breakfast was Japanese-style again and this time they offered to cook our "raw eggs"...whew!

After breakfast, the minshuku dropped us off at the station and we were able to ride the Aomatsu (blue pine) train.

Willer has three types, Akamatsu (red pine), Aomatsu (blue pine) and Kuromatsu (black pine) for various lines in the area, some are reservations only, some have extra fees and some can be ridden without added costs.

Aomatsu could be rode without added costs, so we were happy to be able to get seats.

It was like sitting in a moving café. It was a great experience.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Fukuchiyama was get some coffee and then find the castle ruins.

It takes about 10 minutes from the station to walk to the castle ruins.

The inside of the castle is modernized, but you can see the city from the top.

There were crazy Japanese people sticking their selfie sticks outside of the castle windows to take pictures of themselves inside the castle...geez!

It was so hot that we stopped for some gelato at Adachi Otoemon. This Japanese confectioner makes lots of sweets using local Tamba kuri (chestnuts).

Satoshi ordered a 2 dip (flavors) with Marron gelato and Kuri (chestnut overkill?) his scoops had tons of chestnut bits in it. Delicious!

I chose Uji matcha and bitter chocolate. The rich chocolate balanced out with the bitter matcha.

Refreshed, we checked out the Chisui (flood) museum. This museum is located in a restored home and provides information on floods and also teaches about flood control.

About a year or two ago, Fukuchiyama was flooded out. The volunteer explained that the older style home floors were protected with flood control techniques but the newly built home floors were destroyed with the flood.

It was a neat and informative place to check out.

Lunch was at Konamono-ya.

Earlier while walking to the castle ruins, a banner caught my eye..."B-kyu gurume Gomuyakisoba".

If you know some Japanese, you'll know that "gomu" means rubber...I knew we had to check out this place.

I ordered the gomu yakisoba meshi and Satoshi ordered the gomu omusoba.

The noodles were "rubbery" but what was interesting was the topping of a little marinara and basil mayo, which actually matched their yakisoba sauce.

I'm glad we tried this!

We brought home some canned sardines and a tokkuri ika. The squid is shaped and dried into a tokkuri (bottle) for you to put your sake into. The top is shaped and dried into an ochoko (cup). After drinking your sake from this several times, the squid becomes soft enough to eat as a chaser. I'll be sure to post about this when we try it.

We had a nice time and for the most part the weather was cooperative. I hope you enjoyed our adventure as much as we did.

Adachi Otoemon
44-18 Naiki
Fukuchiyama, Kyoto
Hours: 9:00-19:00 daily except New Years Day

Konamono-ya
251-2 Aza Amadaekimae-cho
Fukuchiyama, Kyoto
Phone: 0773.22.0032
Lunch: 11:00-14:00, Dinner: 17:30-20:00
Closed Tuesdays

osaka castle bairin (again)

Satoshi had the day off, so we bought some items for lunch and went to check out the bairin at Osaka castle yesterday.

I think the temperature was close to 20C (68F), which is considered "warm" for us, since we've been in single digits for awhile now.

Spring is coming, I can't wait! (though I won't get too excited as they say we may have a cold snap next week...)

It's Friday here, I hope you have a great weekend.

osaka castle bairin

The weather has been warming up. Unfortunately, we have also been having major air pollution from China.

Personally, I think we all gotta stop giving them so much work to manufacture stuff for us.

Anyway, on Tuesday, I thought I'd check out the bairin (apricot orchard) at Osaka Castle before an appointment I had.

There were tons of people who also had the same idea.

The orchard is only 50% in bloom, but it was still quite nice.

I hope Satoshi and I can check it out again soon.

osaka

I gotta admit that in Osaka, there aren't much "sights" to see, especially if you want to entertain someone with children. My friend from college, Len and his family are here for several days. I met up with them yesterday to take them to the Aquarium, Osaka castle and some shopping.

After the Aquarium, we went to the Tempozan Village for lunch then rode the "World's Largest Ferris Wheel" (that's what my ticket says). I think the ride was about a half an hour. They even have one special car that has a see through bottom...yikes! I'm glad we rode in the "normal" car. The day was sunny and clear. Afterwards we walked to the Tempozan Park to check out some of their cherry blossoms.

Osaka Castle's cherry blossoms have just started to bloom, and the air is still very chilly, so I think it may be another week before we see more blooms.

I'm glad I was able to meet up with them and I hope Len and his family enjoyed Osaka and will enjoy the rest of their trip!

Gosh, the month flew by. I still have some posts waiting to be published...I guess they will have to wait a little longer.