Osaka Castle

The Osaka castle was a 20 minute train ride away, but we were happy to sit inside an air conditioned car for a bit. We arrived at the castle grounds and it was huge. This castle has a moat around the entire area and then another grass only moat around the actual castle.

The entrance into the castle grounds.


The castle...took us a while to get to it.


The castle was amazing; however, access to the top was not so fun. They had an elevator, which only took you to the 5th floor and then you climbed the next 3 flights to arrive at the top. Mike and I must have missed the sign, seeing as how we climbed all 8 flights of stairs after being the in the sun all day. Oh well, it was worth it. The views of the city were pretty. Now I don't remember what direction we started at, but we looked out in all directions





After the viewing from the top, we descended the stairs and each floor had a different aspect detailing the history of the castle and families who ruled/lived/fought for it. It was really interesting. At this point, we needed a break, so we bought some ice cream and sat down to enjoy it before deciding our next move.