Today Samara and I got lost. but it was the best type of getting lost because we found some amazing sights and had fabulous experiences. We had the intention of finding the Sumiyashi Taisha temple site today, but never quite made it because we were too busy exploring other places that hadn't been on my radar, and one of the best parts about it was not the sights we saw but the people we watched ( I am not complaining that I didn't get to knock something off my to-do list because I had so much fun today and you know there's always next time)
We set out a little later than normal as we slept in after yesterday's adventures and decided to just wander, we had a rough map, telling us which train stations we needed for the places we wanted to see and we knew that if we did get lost we would eventually find a train station and be able to make our way to one of the places on that list.
Our first stop was Kurumon Ichiba Market,
which has been around for over 170years. Although it could be quite touristy because of the area it is in it is also very much a local market with many people from the neigbourhood buying their groceries. The market was great, not just food stalls but other household goods too, but the food, WOW, so much fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh fish and seafood, dried foods and spices, and so much street food I didn't know where to look and what to buy (as we had only recently eaten breakfast) but neither of us could resist fresh scallops.
The scallops were probably not the cheapest street food we could find (being Y750 $8.30Aus for one) but they were opened, cleaned, seasoned and cooked in front of us and they were as tasty as they smelt. (It doesn't quite knock off visiting a fish market off of my list but eating seafood at a market in Japan comes pretty damned close :) )
After we left the market our adventures began as we headed in the direction of the temples, and as we walked we found schools, cemetries. temples and shrines. None of them were on a plan, we 'got lost' (knowing vaguely what train stations were needed just in case we REALLY got lost0 so we just spent time walking, taking stairs
and exploring whatever we found, and we had so much fun, especially after taking a turning up a couple of side streets and going through Ikutama Park and there in front of us was an amazing complex with Buddhist and Shinto temples, Torii gates and Erei-do (a bell tower honoring Prince Shotoku).
The complex was amazing with so many beautiful buildings to looking at and to top it off there was a Sunday market, which gave us an opportunity to do some people watching and eating while we were people watching.
It was an amazing place and I didn't feel like a tourist here (although there were probably plenty of tourists like Samara and I around) but because it was full of local Japanese people who were going about their daily lives it felt like we were part of it,
We spent ages here just wandering around and it was completely special being part of a normal Sunday afternoon in Osaka.
We past more temples as we walked,
stopping to look
at some in detail, others just a fleeing glance as we walked past.
We wandered past Tennoji zoo. and we were tempted to go in and have a look but what could have easily been an hour walk from our hotel took us a lot longer as we wandered around just a tiny part of Osaka (guess that is another reason to come back because we have so much more to see) and there wouldn't have been enough time to have a decent look around so we decided to head towards Osaka castle and hoped to get a glimpse of cherry and plum blossoms there before the sun set and we got a chance to see Osaka-jo at night (and knock that off my to-do list)
We were close to Tennoji station and jumped on the Tanimachi line to get off at Tanimachiyonchome Station and walk towards the castle grounds. (not sure of the cost as you are able to use your Suica card in Osaka too so we just top it up when it starts running down so my travel tips aren't very helpful here)
Osaka-jo and the grounds surrounding it was as impressive as ever and we did see a few trees in bloom, mostly plum (like our last visit) but there were a
couple of cherry trees in bud so it was very pretty. (we still have hopes that sometime in the next few days that we will get to see the full effect of the cherry blossoms but we've been happy with the few glimpses that we've had. We wandered the grounds, watched the sun set and see the castle in it's night attire before heading back to the hotel via Dotonbori
(returning on the Tanimachi line before transferring at Tanimachi 9-chome Station for the Sen-Nichimae line and getting off at Namba station).
It took less than five minutes before the aromas and sights at the food stalls in Dotonbori had our taste buds in melt-down and our empty bellys were filled.
The street was relatively quiet, not sure if it is because it is a Sunday or because it is still a little chilly at night but it made it pleasant for us as we were not fighting hordes of tourists as well as locals and we were able to enjoy eating from the food stalls around us.
Stomachs
full we made our way back to the hotel, for another night of Japanese television as we rest our well walked feet.
We might not have made it to where we had originally planned to go today, but getting lost in Osaka was honestly the best way to spend the day.