Osaka and Kyoto, May 3-12, 2024

After our exciting train ride from Tokyo to Osaka (it was actually an easy train ride, it only exciting to go through Tokyo Station on a holiday weekend, by far the most crowded station I’ve ever been in), we made it to our apartment in Osaka.

Osaka is home to Universal Studios Japan (with the newish Nintendo World) and home to the beautiful and impenetrable Osaka Castle. The Castle figures prominently in the book (and, I assume, in the Netflix tv show) Shogun as a key fortress for one daimyo (regional leader) power player and ultimately must be overrun by the man who becomes The Shogun (Tokugawa, who unified Japan and whose descendants all are Shogun between 1603 to 1868). I am excited to see the Castle. I was also excited to plan Universal Studios and the kids were excited about Nintendo World. However.... Mean researcher that I am, I was put off by the TripAdvisor reviews that note how crazy busy the place is; that you basically have no fun unless you buy all the line jumper passes (which I haven't done before). The line jumper passes made the whole thing so expensive for five people, once I told the kids how much it would cost they were like, ehh, we don’t think we’ll like it enough to justify that expenditure, so yah, no Universal Studios day for us.

The apartment was a little walk from the train station and it turns out the place I found was in Osaka’s Koreatown. As we walked through markets and passed casino buildings with old Pachinko and slots signs, I realized that I had booked a place right in the section of Osaka which is the setting for much of the novel Pachinko, which I had just read before we got to Japan (about a Korean family who lives in Osaka). Fun coincidence.

In front of the Pachinko place near our apartment in Koreatown, Osaka.

Our first night was Friday, so we found a pizza place (Alex googled and found Dominos, sigh, his favorite Friday-pizza night place) so, we went there for dinner. Happy kids happy life.

Osaka Castle. First day, we headed right over to Osaka Castle. Sadly, so did everyone else in Osaka. The grounds were so lovely but once we got to the ticket gate, we kept right on walking out, and decided to come back on Sunday earlier in the am. Instead, we headed to the Osaka Museum (incidentally, which was co-located in a multi-level building with NHK, a major news outlet in Japan; I tried to imagine how it would be if a museum were co-located with CNN in the same building; I imagine a lot of “museum-goers” would use their ticket to go disrupt a news station they did not like..). Great museum, helpful overview of Osaka’s history. And, the coup de tai, we were able to purchase museum+Osaka castle tickets as a combo price; we didn’t know what the tickets got us, but we figured we were so close to the Castle , we hustled back, got into the giant line while Scott went forward to see if we needed to stand in it, then, gratefully and graciously, walked passed all the people in line and into the Castle. Oh, a great feeling! Then, we got into the crowded visitor line and marched up to the top of the Castle, to look out over its two moats and to imagine we were standing up there, looking over Tokugawa’s forces and facing a doomed defense..

Side note, not originals. I am not sure if I mentioned this in the Tokyo post, but Japan has suffered many fires, earthquakes, and tsunamis, not to mention the major bombings of most cities during World War II. Because of the earthquake risk, traditional building material is wood. Which means cool things like, the largest wooden building in the world is here (see Kyoto details, below) but also means that nearly none of the historic sights is original. Almost all of the temples, shrines, castles, and palaces that we visited were rebuilt, sometimes several times. So, the Osaka castle we saw was last rebuilt in the 1930s. One has to sort of rely on the Japanese sense of history and believe the recreation is a faithful one. This is not so hard to do.

Our first sighting of Osaka Castle was beautiful! Then we saw the line to get in and…

..described to return to Osaka Castle another day and headed over the Osaka Museum, here we are outside the great building.

..with our combo tickets in hand, we returned to Osaka Castle and walked right past the big line to get inside for a very satisfying visit.

The most giant stone at Osaka Castle. It's... one... giant.. STONE!

Osaka Super Nintendo and Pokémon store. We went to ANOTHER crazy mall store; this one was up like 9 floors on the mall escalator and at the top was a sad and unpopulated wig shop and two mobbed stores, where the clerks were handing out timed-entry tickets so customers would have space to move around and lines to check out that snaked like It’s a Small World entrance queues. Scott and I walked in and then walked right back out to wait for the kids. Katie soon followed. We were trying to figure out why anyone (other than tourists who might want to buy something to have bought it in Japan) would be at these stores. It appeared to be many Japanese people; why don’t they just order these things for delivery? It was very strange.

We took the time to go up to the map rooftop cafe. It’s funny, these cities are so dense - like, real density, so much street life and support for bikes and public transit, just like so much of my working life was about promoting - has so many good effects, but good views are not one of them; this tall tall mall had this rooftop deck overlooking a bunch of other buildings HVAC equipment and other rooftop stuff. The cafe was very hip though, it. had expensive lemonades, a ping pong table, and exposed beams.

Crazy crowded Pokémon store next door to Nintendo store filled with objects that could be found in online ordering (what do I know though, maybe those stuffed characters are ONLY sold in-store!).

Osaka Ferris Wheel. Osaka has several very tall buildings and structures that beckon tourists to come and climb/ride/elevate them for a view. We stayed out that first night maybe a bit too late to ride the Ferris wheel. We had dinner in the mall beforehand, to make sure we would see all the lights on at night, and had a funny experience trying to find both vegetarian and carnivore options. While we were trying to ask the hostess if their dishes that looked like noodles had fish or meat in them, a nice bilingual couple helped us out and we decided to sit at the restaurant. While we were standing there, a tall European woman approached and said in English, Do you have vegan options? Of course, the hostess did not understand and we just marveled at what a hard time she was going to have (Katie just doesn’t eat flesh, she is ok in this circumstance eating noddles in fish broth; pretty much all the broth, unless you go to a vegetarian restaurant and we cannot do that and have Alex and Luke also be happy, have fish or chicken broth in everything). Ferris wheel was ok, it was nice to see the city lite up and we were beat when we got home.

Katie and I above Osaka.

Safe and sound at the bottom of the Ferris wheel.

Shintenno-ji Temple. One of the oldest Temples in Japan, ordered to be built by Prince Shotoku inthe 500s (Prince Shotoku spread Buddhism in Japan, from China). We marched up the tall pagoda with a whole bunch of other shoeless people and at the top was a small box with a pedestal in the middle which had words saying Buddha’s remains (I am pretty sure the translation should have meant something like “our Buddha’s” remains, referring to the Temple founder or Prince Shotoku’s parts of his remains.

Katie at the Temple.

Kids at the Pagoda at Shintenno-ji temple.

We had a fun last day in Osaka, we found the Mecca of all sushi-conveyor-belt restaurants, the chain Sushiro, which the kids just LOVED. You get your numbered booth and then you order from what the kids called the magic iPad that includes incredibly well-priced cucumber rolls [their favorite] and fried chicken and ice cream parfaits - and then on the conveyor belt the items come! And your dishes get stacked up on the table as you eat your way through +20 plates until you’re so full you can hardly walk and then you pay your ~$40 for 5 people what a deal ticket!. Finding this place was great, it was on like the 4th floor of a nondescript building, fronting a sort of car-centered, not very fun for walking street. We also saw on google maps and later in person, that the Main Street we were on, below ground, was a long and giant underground mall, with many other food and goods below ground where people were comfortably walking in the air conditioned and car-free underground “street”.

Our first (of many) Sushiro visits.

Scott was very excited to get his sorbet pot opened (it was sticky).

Parfait on the magic conveyor belt.

We also walked along the canal district of Osaka, which was packed with people, including a large number of women with brightly colored wigs and outfits, who were being professionally photographed. The canal setting makes for incredible photos, so we figured hiring professionals was a common thing to do on the weekend for your instagram..?

That night, we went bowling and packed up the apt to head about 30 minutes north, to beautiful Kyoto.

Go Alex.

Classic Alex face, after many frame results that disappointed him.

In the canal area of Osaka, Dotonbori.

Dotonbori, Osaka.

Alex and I, Dotonbori.

Kyoto! Very good first impression! Ok, here is where my bias sneaks in - If we have a place that is close to a train station, close to grocery (like very close, I do not like carrying all the milk and juice this family drinks very far), close to park, and has a place where I can go jogging in the morning - forget it, that is my favorite city.. so… we arrived in Kyoto a bit too early to check in, so we stored our bags in lockers at the subway station (because, you know, every subway station in Japan has coin lockers big enough for biggish backpacks) and visited the Japan Train Museum. Fun and easily stop. Then, we headed over to our apt which had all the attributes I love (fronted a little park, we opened our window and could hear when kids were there) AND the close by train stop had a mall attached (because, of course) with a whole lot of The Claw arcade games in it. More on that later. On to Kyoto sights!

Train museum - Alex standing right in front of that fast fast bullet train!

Alex and Luke pedaling like mad.

Train museum, Kyoto.

Me in the park, in front of our house; our apartment was the dark brown, short one, so short and skinny.

Nijo Castle. Scenic castle that was my jogging spot for our 6 days in Kyoto.

Nijo Castle, Kyoto.

Nijo Castle grounds.

Goin District. Very crowded and cute entertainment and shopping streets along a river. Travel books note you should go walk there and look for geisha, women headed to and from work engagements where they are hired to play music or sing, however, it seems that’s led to so many tourists looking for geisha to catch in photos and they take some other, protected side streets so, we didn’t see geisha or their apprentices, maikos; we did manage to snap this quick photo of adoring young ladies watching/recording two aspiring boy banders entertaining folks as we entered the subway.

Gion district, Kyoto.

Gion, again!

Katie and me; I’m trying to take a photo of the boy-banders playing to that half circle of young ladies behind Katie’s left shoulder… But I cut out the boys singing and only got the

Kyoto Imperial Palace. Kyoto is famous because it was the capital and the home of the powerless and then very powerful Emperor, until 1868 and now powerless again… The palace was his home. It’s mostly a big open space and garden now. The building is interesting - like so many significant buildings in Japan, for the Japanese room style, aka, no furniture, just tatami mats and decorated sliding doors or folding screens. It is interesting to contrast it with say, the Tower of London, which was a royal residence until the 1600s-ish.. The light, wooden Japanese structures are much nicer in terms of light and spaciousness but the no furniture and decorations (at least, none are displayed or seem to have survived) makes me wonder, where did the emperor keep his clothes and hair and make up?

Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds, one of several buildings.

Kinkaku-ji, aka the Golden Palace Temple. An important daimyo created a retirement villa at this spot and his family turned it into Buddhist temple grounds. One of the main buildings is painted with gold leaf and makes for a spectacular sight, out in the middle of the pond. One tour guide we eavesdropped on said that some of the Buddha’s relics are inside (no one can enter); then noted that Buddha was probably the size of an elephant, given how many temples claim to have relics from his remains. Very fun time at the Temple as we exited; you see, I had been wanting to get some kind of a tea ceremony but my family is not the crowd for that… But, the Temple offered a tea and sweet service and Scott took Ale and Luke around the grounds while Katie and I did it, it was very enjoyable! We sat carefully and quietly on the tatami mats; the tea server came and gracefully served us the tea and sweet, explaining how we should proceed; we both heard different things so we carefully watched others on how to proceed with the somewhat bitter tea and sweet sweet. Then we carefully watched one solo tourist do all the wrong things (he at one point stuck his finger in the tea and stirred it, barehanded!).. Very fun tea with Katie!

Golden Palace Temple.

Getting matcha tea and sweet with Katie at the Golden Palace. Excited to get to do this.

Katie did not love her match tea but she gave it a good college try!

Yasaka Shrine. Shinto shrine fro the 600s. It overlooks that lovely Gion district in Kyoto.

Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto.

Monkey park, Bamboo forest, short hike. On the west side of Kyoto is a famous bamboo forest; Luke gave us a slide show presentation about it and told us we should get up early to enjoy one of Japan’s national soundscapes (wonderful sound as the wind rustles the bamboo). Instead, we slept in and picked our way through hordes of visitors making the universal sound of “move your head a little to the left” as they tried to capture their family perfectly behind the bamboo canopy. That was ok, we had visited the monkey park right before (which included an invigorating 30 minute hike all uphill; the whole time we were hiking up to see and feed the monkeys, I was just shocked at how many adult-groups were doing it.. So weird, I almost thought our kids were too big to do the walk-around-the-cute-free-range-monkeys-buy-a-bag-of-100yen-crackers-to-feed-them stop; I am always amazed at the things people choose to do that I would not choose to do other than as kiddo entertainment). After you leave the crammed bamboo walk, the rest of the park is a lovely set of hiking and walking paths which were very lightly populated and enjoyable.

Nice view on this bridge on our walk over to the monkey park.

Luke feeding the little guy.

Alex trying his matcha tea soft serve.

Bamboo forest.

We found a calm place to walk around after the crowded bamboo forest.

For dinner, we stopped at our station’s mall and checked out the arcade which was fun! First, it is a non-touristy arcade (unlike all the arcades we saw in Tokyo) and I was so excited to see real, regular Japanese kid-crazy-good arcade players; we passed INCREDIBLE Dance Dance Revolution players.. Like, my mind was completely blown, I could not even see the arrows racing on the screen, the person was so incredible. And we also saw a drumming arcade game (some boys were setting up their tripod camera to video themselves) and some other musical instrument game that was so intense, the boys playing it were wearing gloves (either for sliding speed or for calluses, not sure which). Anyway, the kids HAD to play The GIANT CLAW game. We told them there is no way they would win. Each of them spent like $2 playing and Luke came home with a stuffed Red Shell (red wheel from MarioCart). Wow, the excitement from winning was palpable. We also had dinner at this all you can eat meat place, where they bring you places of uncooked meat and sides for up to 60 minutes and you grill it yourselves at your table. And I decided I do not have to do that again because I ate too too much.

Cooking at the timed, all you can eat place.

Cooking! cook faster!

Arcade at Nijo station.

Luke was so excited to win this red shell!

Nara: bowing deer, Todai-Ji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, and Nara visitor center. Nara is an another town which was once the capital of Japan (before Kyoto, in the 700s) and forms a little triangle with Osaka and Kyoto so it’s a common day trip from either place. It is a town filled with stories - It’s thought that a Shinto deity,Mikito, rode to Nara on a deer so the Nara deer are protected; they roam very close to humans all over Nara parks; vendors sell the only item you can offer them, deer crackers. And once a little 10 year old buys those crackers, boy is he mobbed my those sweet (scary!) little deer. The deer have all learned to bow; if you bow to them, they will bow back and you better produce a cracker after that ritual. So! We fed some deer. Then we headed over to Todai-Ji temple which was mobbed with so many people, including many many uniformed school kids, visiting the largest wooden building in the world which houses the largest Buddha statue in Japan (about 50 feet tall). Though very busy, the site was very impressive. Then we walked to Kasuga Taiwan Shrine, which is known for its many many lanterns and was also originally established in the 700s. Lastly, we visited the town visitor center which has great activities for free with English speaking staffers (we made origami, but ran out of time to dress up in Sumo suits or kimonos and to do calligraphy). We ate at a soup place that included a raw egg with one dish that you got to cook yourself in the soup on a hot plate (Japan is big on cook-it-yourself).

Nara Park, oooh, cute little beloved and protected deer.

Oh, hehe, that's a little close guys, one at a time!

Phew, ok, these are better human to deer odds.

At Todai-Ji Temple, the largest wooden building in the world, looking at the excellent, wooden carved guardians.

With one of the guardians inside, making his fierce scowl.

See, it is a very large building.

More deer, this one was posing so we had to take the photo.

Kasuga Shrine, with lovely lanterns.

Inside the darkened lantern room; it was so dark inside I risked life and limb to stop and take this photo!

Proper bow for the deer.

Origami at the Nara visitor center.

Katie is pretty good at it.

Last day in Kyoto! We did a bunch:

Fushimi Imari Shrine - known for having a lot of torii (the Shinto gate to the shrines). I estimated to Luke that they have a lot, like tens; we started walking with a big crowd up a big hill (like, 50 minutes straight up, stairs and path) and Luke counted 3,716 torii gates before we finished the hike.

Fushimi Imari Shrine; it had an excellent but unexpected +1 hour hike right up a hill.

.. with these incredible rows of torii (gates) for much of the walk.

One of the mid-hike views.

The Shrine is home to these stone foxes, thought to be creatures with special abilities, including to possess humans. One website says parents place these red bibs on the foxes when their child has died, asking the fox kami to protect their child in the next world.

Here is near the top! We stopped to pay respects at the shrine and then got the top of the mountain soft serve.

Hike view on the downhill.

Marking the bottom; Luke had counted 3,716 torii gates during the walk.

Having not expected that energy outlay, we stopped at 7-11 for snacks and then headed to our second sight, Chion-in Temple, which was much more (though not totally, this is Japan after all, many hills) horizontal. This temple from the 16th century is (the? Or many one of several?) headquarters for Jodo Shu Buddhism (also called Pure Land Buddhism).

Classic emergency 7-11 stop (7-11 have much better food in Japan than in the US).

At the lovely Chion-In Temple. Pointing to the Tokugawa crests on the roof tiles.

After the kids completed our two Kyoto-last-sights tour, it was time for all kid fun! So! Straight to Sushiro where the magic iPad brought us too many dishes of food. Then! On to a Tower Records (we saw signs for one at Sushiro) and eagerly took the escalate up up up to floor 9 in a Kyoto mall and found that old Mecca of CDs! Oh, it was so fun to look albums and then.. we bought nothing and continued on. Tower Records is alive and well in Japan! Then! On the Yodabashi Camera for the much anticipated Nintendo Switch purchase. Only very close friends will know that, back in 2021, Alex and Luke noticed several friends and family had this thing called a Nintendo Switch (video game)…. They wanted one. Scott and I pointed out that they could save for about 9 months and they would have enough money to buy one. That was in 2021. Ever since then, they have talked on and off about buying one and have saved then fallen off the wagon and spent… But finally, in December 2023… they had enough money! They decided to wait to purchase the Switch until we got home from our trip. Then! In Tokyo the kids realized they could get a pretty good discount (+35%) on the price they expected to pay at home, by buying the Switch in Japan. Fast forward to our last night in Kyoto; we found the giant Yodabashi Camera-everything store and they bought the switch. It was a glorious moment.. And to finish the fun night right… I took the kids to The Claw game, they spent $16 and Alex came away a stuffy winner!