The BEST Of Osaka Japan – Osaka Castle | Hidden Gems | Osaka Travel Guide

The BEST Of Osaka Japan – Osaka Castle | Hidden Gems | Osaka Travel Guide

Well, kiawa travel dons and welcome to Osaka. All righty, fellow travelers. Welcome back to Adventures of a Traveling Dawn. And today we are continuing our journey here through Japan. And we have finally made it to the great city of Osaka, the third largest city in Japan. And we are going to be doing about two different videos within the city itself, the downtown area. And then we’ll kind of move out and take a couple of different day trips. Still deciding on where we’re going to go. But in the meantime, I figured if we’re starting here in Osaka, we might as well start at Osaka Castle. Oh, Saka Castle. Let me show you guys right above me. Absolutely fantastic. History goes back to, I believe, 1583 was when the construction of it originally started. And the initial castle was built uh and fully finished in 1598. That was started by uh Toyottomy Hayoshi. I think I got his name right. Uh one of the warlords during the Sangoku Jedai period. But my goodness, what a fantastic castle. The architecture is phenomenal. I’m not going to actually go inside of it um because I I do want to explore a lot more um today u in other places besides Osaka Castle, but I do know that you can go inside um you I think given go up all the way to the top which has got to be pretty cool. But it is a fantastic castle from outside. The grounds itself is worth it by itself. It’s it’s free to kind of walk the grounds. It’s about 250 to 260 acres worth of land. It’s got plenty of trees, gardens, a bunch of different things to check out. You can go and have like boat tours on the moes and stuff like that. I’m going to see if I can get on to that um in just a little bit. But it’s just fantastic. There’s a big shrine to check out as well on the grounds. Just Yeah, it’s it’s outside of going into a couple of the things, doing the boat tours, and actually going into the castle, it is free to wander the grounds. And yes, it is very touristy, but because it’s so much land, you can find spaces like this. like behind me there is nobody here in this little corner and I’m here along one of the uh baileies of the walls here just overlooking one of the parts of the moes and it’s just I’ve got this place all to myself absolutely fantastic but yeah it can be touristy can be congested in certain areas but you can always find your own little uh little spot here in Osaka Castle So, while you’re visiting Osaka Castle, you want to delve more into the history of Osaka itself, come right across the street over to the Osaka History Museum. It is phenomenal with several floors worth of just interactive exhibits, uh different kinds of artifacts from history around Osaka dating from ancient times to the modern era. Definitely if you’re looking for a place to kind of like really explore and understand the true history of the entire area of Osaka, the Osaka History Museum is where it’s at. Heat. Heat. All right. So, after the hustle and bustle of Osaka Castle, you kind of want to get away from the crowds and enjoy maybe a light little snack and maybe a coffee or some tea. Come over as you’re heading towards the north side of the main river that cuts through Osaka and you will find a place called the Oriental Garden. It’s this beautiful cafe with its own garden that is part of an overarching garden. I think it’s called the Fujiwada or Fuja Residence Park. Uh we’re going to go check that out in just a second after this. But it’s a nice little cafe. It’s a little bit more upscale. Um, it’s going to cost you a little bit more money than you would at just kind of like a local spot, but you kind of also paying for the service and the experience. I mean, I’m sitting out here right in front of the pond. You got the koiish kind of like meandering and swimming around through the pond. It’s it’s a beautiful, very peaceful spot here in the middle of a big city like Osaka. And got myself a little espresso here. Very good. Very strong. That’s going to wake me up for the rest of this video. And then a nice little peach sorbet as well. We’ll go ahead and dig into that. Absolutely fantastic. And these two little scoop of sorbet and the espresso is probably about 1,500. So like I said, you are paying more for the experience and having access to the garden and stuff like that. Uh but to me it is kind of worth it for kind of like a nice little one-time thing. Uh after getting all the craziness in Osaka Castle and uh that ice cream was perfect right now cuz it is still it’s October and it’s still in the 80s. It’s just absolutely wild how warm this year has been in Japan. But even still, like I said, nice little spot. Garden oriental or oriental garden cafe uh here at the uh Fuji Fuja Residence uh ruins park. Nice little spot. So this little park here, this Fuja Residence Park, I think is also part of an all bigger overarching Sakura Nomia Park. Um, which is just absolutely gorgeous. Just this whole little southside area uh next to the Oriental Garden Cafe. Wow. Absolutely amazing. the little streams running through here with the ponds and the flowers and everything. It’s just this is absolutely fantastic. We’re going to kind of walk up Sakon Nomia and kind of see the overarching part and get over near the riverside. But just this little part right here, fantastic. All right. So, we’re stopping for a quick lunch. And honestly, when you’re in any of the major cities in Tokyo, and you know, you’re not stopping at something that’s local, particularly, you know, here we’re in the Tennma district, and they’re known for their izakayas, but a lot of that is at night. A lot of those open up after 4 5 6:00. Well, when you’re in the middle of the day, about 1 or 2, when many places do close, a chain that does stay open pretty much at all times, um, at least during the daytime is Coco Ichiba. And this is basically a curry house. And as you can see here, you get a great massive plate of rice, chicken, or pork cutlet or shrimp or however many, whatever you want. There’s a bunch of different combos you can do. And I got myself the chicken cutlet with just the rice and spice level, too. You can pick your spice level as well. We’re going to try this real quick. So good. Just a light spiciness to it. Don’t have to overdo it particularly. Still got the rest of the day to walk around. But man, it is good stuff for, you know, the price that you’re getting for this whole thing with a salad and like a Coca-Cola is about the same price as that espresso and that um that gelato over at Garden Oriental Cafe. It’s less than 1,500 yen. So absolutely fantastic place to come whe whether you’re in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, wherever if you find the Koko Ichiban, stop in and get a great meal. So, our next stop here in the north side of downtown Osaka is the Osaka Tenmanju Shrine. And number one, it is a fantastic shrine around the grounds. The main shrine, and I don’t know why I keep running into this, I just it’s just probably my luck, is the main actual building behind me, as you can see, is going under renovations. This is like the third one I’ve run into uh where they are renovating something huge about the shrine, whether it’s the shrine itself or one of the major gates or something. So, I don’t know why I keep running into this, but the grounds itself is still absolutely fantastic. You can still pray um in front of the shrine. You can see into it a little bit. And honestly, the the best thing for me about this particular shrine is that the main gate right above you as you walk in, look up, there is this wheel that’s got the uh all the 12 zodiac sign, the Chinese zodiac signs on them. And I’m like, okay, that’s a really cool piece of artwork. So, when you come through the main gate on the south side of the shrine, definitely look up and get that picture because that is really, really cool. So, and apparently this is the site of two major festivals, one in February and one in July. And they’re one of the bigger festivals I think in Osaka. Um, if not Japan, particularly the one in uh the summertime. But even still, it’s the beautiful grounds. And again, I’m missing out on the main shrine just cuz it’s all under renovation. Just means I got to come back. So, So, as you are walking through the center of Osaka, you’re going to eventually come across this spot that I’m at now. And this is Nakanoshima Island. And this is a fantastic island in the middle of two different rivers that it separates. You have the Dojima River and the Tosabori River. And this is a place of kind of like culture, art, museum. You have like I think the art museum and the science museum of Osaka, the Osaka City Hall is on Nakanoshima Island. And of course, you have a large Nakanoshima Park and the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden really is kind of like the standout here because it is absolutely phenomenal. Right now, like I said, you know, I’m here in October, so they’re not as vibrant, but there are still some roses that are clinging on to the last vestigages of summer as summer’s kind of extended. uh here in Japan this year in 25. But it is a phenomenal island to just come here, you know, go to like one of the local little spots here at one of the grills right off the water. Get a nice little scotch highball and just sit down and watch people kind of basically people watch as they’re walking through the rose gardens. Um or watch the boats go by and stuff like that. It’s honestly, it’s a great spot. And once you get to a point in the day when the sun is starting to set, uh, like right now, if you can pick a certain spot, a lot of it will be shaded behind the skyline buildings. So, it is a fantastic spot to come here anytime. So, a fascinating gem of a shrine to visit while you’re here in Osaka, particularly on the north side of downtown, is the Tsuyun Notin Shrine or the Ohsuten. engine and this is a shrine dedicated to lovers. Uh the shrine itself I think actually goes back 1300 years but there’s a story I think from the early 18th century uh of two lovers I believe his name was Ohu and Tokubet and Ohu I believe was a local prostitute and Tokay was a clerk and they had this forbidden love that went on almost kind of like I guess Romeo and Julietesque style. Um, I think there was some comment I was reading up on the history and uh people were like, “Yeah, if Shakespeare had been in Japan, he would have wrote about this instead of Romeo and Juliet.” And it’s but it’s a fascinating shrine. It’s it’s it’s got like kind of this like pink almost like technicolor vibe to it. It’s a shrine for lovers to come and dedicate themselves to longlasting love. Uh, you can even get like these heart-shaped um messages that you can post and tag up um to, you know, endure your love over time. It it is fascinating. It’s very, very unique compared to most other shrines that I’ve been to, but it is kind of cool and the backstory, while tragic, is very, very fascinating. So, definitely check out Ohut Tenjen when you’re here in the north side of Osaka. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. So, the next attraction on this Osaka tour, particularly on the north side of Osaka, is here at the Heep Five Ferris wheel. And this is located at the Heep Five department store, which is, if you add in the bottom floors, including B1, B2, and then going all the way up to 8 floor. I think it’s like an 10f flooror department store. Actually, really cool. It’s got like a Disney store, all that kind of good stuff. But seventh floor is where the main attraction is at and that is of course here at the HEP 5 Ferris wheel. So it’s about 800 yen to get in. So enjoy the ride guys and see if you can’t try and get here and time it right in time for sunset. So that was the he five ferris wheel and like I said it’s about 800 yen to go up and one full rotation is close to about 15 minutes. So, you kind of get your money’s worth out of that. And like I said, you get 360 views of this area of Osaka. And if you can plan it to try and get up there around the time of uh sunset, I think we were just about a few minutes off, but we still had some light in the sky and it looks absolutely fantastic. But uh yeah, that is the Hei Ferrisville. Highly recommend. Now, let’s go get something to eat. So, since we did a Japanese chain for lunch, I figured, you know what? Let’s stick with that. And we’re going to do a Japanese chain for dinner. And that’s what I just did here behind me at the Osaku Umea station. And this is Ichiron Ramen. And this is absolutely fantastic for a kind of like cheap and quick eat when it comes to ramen. I mean, I’ve had some better ramen at traditional ramen shops, but still for the price that it is and with the speed that you get it at, it is absolutely fantastic. Now, most of the Ichrons I’ve run into, particularly in the big cities, you’re going to have to wait a little bit to get in. But once you’re in, it’s like that. You basically pick your ramen and you kind of choose what toppings you want on and things like that. I think the smallest thing is if you just get the classic tonkatu ramen, nothing really else added to it. It’s like a little over a,000 yen. So, it is not that expensive at all. It will fill you up. And I think one of the unique things is they actually put in um their own little spice and you can just like with Coco Ichiban, you can basically work on and choose what level of spice you want for your ramen. So fantastic place. Definitely check that out. Any Ichiron that you can find anywhere in Japan, but the one I went to is here at Ume Umea and Osaka Station. Well, so I just ran into a random popup J-pop performance. That was kind of fun. Heat. Heat. So after you’ve walked the city on the ground level and you know you’ve seen castles, you’ve seen some great sites, walk the great parks, had some good food, you definitely want to come up and if you want to get city views, particularly at night, the Omea Sky Building, oh my god, you come up here to the 40th floor. This is basically the rooftop that you’re on. It’s about 2,000 yen to come up to uh the observatory and up to the rooftop and it is just phenomenal. You’re like I said, you’re 40 floors up and you can get a 360 view of all of Osaka and it’s just good god. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely phenomenal. A little bit pricier than things even I think like Tokyo Tower was only like I think 1,500 yen or something like that. So, it’s a little bit more, but honestly, for the views, particularly at nighttime, this is absolutely worth it. The final spot for this video I want you guys to take a look at when you are exploring this part of Osaka is what’s called the island garden. And it is pretty much connected to the Shin Umeda building where the observatory that we were just at. You can actually get a nice little shot of it through the trees. It’s actually really really nice shot uh you know for the IG and stuff like that. But this is just kind of like this little nature paradise in the middle of these high tech uh buildings and it’s just they’ve got a set of falls and streams that rush through. So you just have like this rushing water sound. You’ve got the crickets and whatnot. It’s just it’s fantastic. It’s it’s a nice I’m sure during the daytime it’s beautiful. You can see a little bit more of the falls and everything, but it’s kind of cool at night cuz there’s like no one here and you just have the noise of the waterfalls to yourself. And it’s just I highly recommend whether you come in the daytime or at night, take a walk through the island garden. It’s just a community garden, but it’s here as part of the Shinua complex. And if you’re visiting the Shinomeda observatory and the rooftop, might as well swing over here as well. All righty, travel down. That’s going to be the end of the first video here in Osaka. I got at least one more where we’re going to experience particularly the Doon Buri area. There’s a few other spots I want to get to that are more further south. This was kind of center and north. We’re gonna now take it center and south in the next video. But this was a lot of fun. I got to see Osaka Castle finally. I got to learn a lot of history about Osaka. And then of course all these beautiful walks and parks and shrines and buildings. The views from up top from Umeida building sky building was just absolutely phenomenal. And of course I am full. And honestly, my belly needs a little rest after having both curry and ramen today. It’s kind of gurgling at me going, “What did you do to me?” So, I have to go maybe get some ginger and tea and take care of that back at the apartment. But, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you did, of course, give it a big old thumbs up. And of course, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already, hit that notification bell so you know when any of my new content comes out. And of course, if you want to help support the channel, I do have both a Patreon page and a buy me a coffee account. And I do very much appreciate all the support. And until we meet again, guys, peace out. Have a great night.

Discover the hidden gems of Osaka beyond the typical tourist spots! In this Osaka travel guide, I explore peaceful gardens, historic landmarks, beautiful shrines, and amazing skyline views—plus some of the best food spots in the city.

Destinations Featured in This Vlog:
• Osaka Castle – Iconic landmark with stunning views
• Osaka Museum of History – Learn about Osaka’s fascinating past
• Old Fujita House Garden – A serene traditional Japanese garden
• The Garden Oriental Osaka – Hidden oasis in the city
• Nakanoshima Park – Riverside escape in central Osaka
• Osaka Tenmangu Shrine – Historic shrine with beautiful architecture
• Tsuyuno Tenjinsha Shrine – Charming, lesser-known spiritual spot

Food Spots:
• Coco Ichibanya – Delicious curry lunch
• Ichiran Ramen – Classic ramen dinner experience

City Views:
• Hep Five Ferris Wheel – Sunset and night skyline
• Umeda Sky Building – Amazing 360° night views

If you’re planning an Osaka itinerary, looking for hidden spots, or love exploring quieter parts of Japan, this vlog is for you!
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