I forgot to show the picture from my expensive room during the day. Here it is.

Today my sister wanted to go to a store called “Saro” so I decided to make my sister and Lim do some old-school Osaka sightseeing. A trip to Osaka Castle on the way to their store north of Shinsaibashi. The park was pretty and the day was quite nice.

On the way in, we found that the castle had lots of volunteer guides and one told us why the largest stone in the wall, the “octopus” stone, has that name. The discoloration is from the iron in the stone and has been there since the beginning.

I wanted a tourist picture with me and my mom.

And one of my mom and sister.

I wanted to see the spot where Hideyori Toyotomi committed suicide since it was on the all the maps. I asked one of the volunteer guides but he just wanted me to see the sandcastle that showed the previous incarnation of the castle.

But I found someone else who would show me the spot and it turns out it’s just a monument in the area where they think it might have happened.

We couldn’t find it earlier because it’s in the woods behind the castle where the wall would have been impregnable historically.

Now there’s trees growing through the wall and a staircase and ramp at the back.

In fact, there’s even an elevator for those with mobility devices.

Then it was off to find my sister’s store. This is what my maps look like sometimes.

On the way we got some lunch at a place that was only semi-open. They must have been having trouble cooking. My mom got the daily plate.

Lim got baked curry.

My sister and I got hamburgers which were really tasty.

The girl at the restaurant gave us directions to “Saro” and on the way we saw a boat going down what I thought was just a canal for wastewater but was an actual river.

Here’s the road down the street. The big blocky building is the highway and there were stores underneath.

It was the wholesale fabric district, but there was a poodle store with teacup poodles.

I’m not sure if the store was a bust or not, but my sister and Lim didn’t buy anything. I’m not sure what shopping is all about, but I’m a dude.

Sometime on our way back, my mom wanted to go to the matcha sweets shop and I said I’d meet them there after getting her a calendar from the National Bunraku (traditional puppet) Theatre. My sister insisted I didn’t have to since my mom didn’t want it and I knew she did. Well, made it there and to the sweets shop in half-an-hour and everyone else didn’t get there until 20 minutes later.

Here’s a picture of what I got after I ate half of it already.

This is what it’s supposed to look like.

My mom got a parfait.

And Lim got something huge made of shaved ice.

We went to the bookstore where my mom somehow ditched us but we all made it back to the hotel after a while. Dinner was a a place that had “Udon Daining”. Here’s mine.

ANd here’s what everyone else got.

We finished up with shopping at the Tokyu Hands where we ACTUALLY BOUGHT STUFF and Lim bought some soup at Daimaru. Twice we found these weird escalators (there’s several in Osaka station) that have a flat part in the middle. I dunno, there must be some reason for the design.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be rainy but everyone seems to want to go to the Instant Ramen Museum. It’s interesting enough that I’d go back.