There is this noodle store called yi lan that can found near the Nagahori-gawa canal in the Osaka Shinsaibashi area that serves the most yummy pork soup based noodles. Everything about it is perfect and the additional egg was really good! Cooked with hot spring waters, the egg is cooked inside out rather than outside in. Yummy!

After dinner, I took a stroll along the Dōtonbori street and there were just so many good food to be found. Fresh seafood and the famous tako pachi (octopus balls) with a crazy long queue.

The rest of the evening was spent shopping. There are so many departmental stores as well as little boutiques in the area. This place is probably the harajuku of Osaka. I also went to the Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street which is the longest straight and covered shopping walkway in Japan! 2.6km long with lots of shops on either side. It was a real shopping excursion for me! Which is probably why you don’t see much photos taken after my dinner

There are countless sake that have “masamune” as the second half of their brand name, but the very first one is said to have been Sakura Masamune from Nada in Hyogo prefecture. Sakura Masamune is a very old, famous and prestigious brewer, and eons ago their founder visited a friend that was the head priest at a hermitage called Gensei-an. There, he looked up on a bookshelf and saw a book of scripture by the Rinzai sect Zen master Rinzai Masamune. In a moment of inspiration, he realized that the characters for “masamune” could also be read “seishu,” which is a homonym for the legal term for sake. And so, the first of hundreds of meigara bearing the term “masamune” was born.

I learnt a lot about Sake brewing from this 400 year old establishment. Sake is not just science but an art as well. While most things have been modernized, many traditions have been kept and the process is still rather labor intensive. I got to play around with the traditional equipment of sake making and you can hardly imagine how huge those barrel were! There are a string of ropes and knots tied at the entrance of the brewery area to show that you have entered into the realm of the spirits as the Japanese believe that Sake is the drink of the Gods and sake brewing used to be done in the temples.

After the factory tour, you could sample the different sake, shop for gifts or try out their sake ice-cream. There were many cute balls hanging around and I found out that it was a tradition brought down from the past. A ball of green would be hung up at the main door to tell others that your home is brewing sake. When the ball of leaves dries up completely and turns brown then the sake is ready.

A day of shopping and sightseeing at Kobe’s Habourland. There were so many tiny shops and cafes at the Mosaic area facing gorgeous seaside vista. And not too far off there were departmental stores and quaint restaurants. There was even an indoor canal garden!

My favorite part of the place has got to be the pier area called Takahama Quay. It really reminds me of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf! There were flocks of sea gulls everywhere and I had a great time feeding and snapping photos of them.

Across the street was another mall called Seagull Harbor. How aptly named! It’s a really peaceful and scenic environment. I can see why this is one of the hot spots in Kobe for marriage proposals!

One of the main interest point in Osaka is the Osaka Castle. Entry into the castle is ¥600 and the closest train is Osaka-jō Koen station on the JR Osaka Loop Line.

It is undisputedly one of Japan’s most famous castles playing a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. The castle is built high with a surrounding moat. It’s actually best to come Osaka Castle during the cherry blossom viewing because there are as many as 400 cherry blossom trees in this 1km grounds of the Osaka Castle!

Just before you reach the main building of the castle you will come across a time capsule. In January, 1968, two Japanese companies, Panasonic Corporation and The Mainichi Newspapers, agreed to undertake a joint time capsule project in celebration of the Japan World Exposition 1970: EXPO ‘70. After three years of planning, research and construction, two time capsules identical in every detail were buried adjacent to Osaka Castle. The lower capsule will remain buried for 5,000 years; the upper capsule will be opened for the first time in the year 2,000 and every 100 years thereafter.

The purpose of the project is to send forward in time a visual, aural and documentary record of life in the year 1970 AD. The scale of the project and the size of the capsules is unprecedented: each capsule contains 2,098 objects and recorded items representing the achievements of our civilization and the everyday experience of the Japanese people. The heritage left by our ancient and more recent ancestors is recorded through art, Iiterature and music. Even the ideals and aspirations of people today are expressed in written and recorded messages.

In the construction of the capsules and preparation of their contents nothing was left to chance. Every item was treated with the most advanced preservation techniques known to man at this time; some preservation techniques were devised specially for this project. The Japanese public, together with scientists and scholars from all over the world, took part in the selection process.

The castle has be featured in many period dramas but today it stands as a museum and a reminder to the impressive times when Japan had Shoguns and Samurai a plenty. You can give a museum a miss if you are short on time but do take time to enjoy the park, the birds and day dream about the edo period. The castle reminds me of the last anime I watch which was Samurai Champloo. I love cross genre animations but too bad there aren’t that many around.

My favorite photo of the Osaka Castle is the one below. Past or present, it is a sight to behold.

This reminds me that I’ve yet to post up my universal experience in Singapore!