I came to Osaka primarily for the food, and for the fact that I could save a couple hundred dollars in airfare by flying home out of KIX. I knew very little about the city before visiting, and thanks to a typhoon, I got an extra day to explore Osaka when I moved around my plans to avoid traveling during the storm. Osaka became my home base for four of my last five days in Japan and I enjoyed wandering the city in search of some fun. I found night to be when Osaka came alive, but there was plenty to enjoy in the city during the daylight hours as well.

Top of my list, and a perfect way to while away some time during that typhoon passing through, was the Kuromon Market. Its long aisles of merchants featuring exotic (to me) food was a great respite from the wind and rain raging outside.

I sampled quite liberally here trying the octopus on a stick, a variety of pickled and fermented vegetables, and a number of tasty seafood bites. I also made this a shopping trip to pick up some snacks and drinks for my hotel room for the duration of my stay.

Speaking of drinks, and acting on a tip from the woman who was my sake tasting guide back in Tokyo, I visited the renowned sake shop, Asano Nihonshuten Umeda. This shop was in a definitely off the beaten tourist path, and when I walked in I was the only westerner in the store that doubles as a bar. Through a combination of hand signals pointing to what others had ordered and stating “dry” for my sake preference, the shop owner made three selections for a tasting flight for me. These were all delicious and I selected the bottle on the left to bring back home with me. When the store owner initially wrapped it up for me, I mimicked an airplane, he nodded, took the bottle away and came back a few minutes later with it boxed up ready for the long-distance journey I had ahead of me.

Carrying my sake bottle with me, I visited the Umeda Sky Building about a 20 minute walk away. I was eager to see the lights of the city and the sprawl of Osaka from the observatory on top of the tallest building in the neighbourhood.

The evening was warm and calm, and standing outside on top of the building, I felt very far from home (in a good way!). Osaka below looked different than North American cities and to my ears, even sounded different. I found an open spot along a railing and watched plans come in to land at the airport, mesmerized by the size of Osaka stretching off to the horizon in all directions.

The next morning I took the metro a couple of stops south of my hotel in Namba to visit the Tsūtenkaku Tower. It dominates the skyline in this neighbourhood of Osaka and is an impressive sight to behold from the ground beneath it.

En route to my next stop, I walked through a burial ground and a number of temples. While not on my plan for the morning, I lingered here a while.

The shrines, the grave markers and the temples were all beautiful and made for an unexpected and peaceful detour. As I write this during a pandemic where my next trip is uncertain, remembering this simple act of wandering makes me wistful for when I can do this again.

The morning’s explorations were all leading in the direction of Shitennō-ji, the oldest officially administered temple in Japan.

When I came upon it, I was floored. The pagoda is stunningly beautiful and ornate. I popped into the temple buildings and loved the serenity of this place.

Off to one side of the pagoda, I watched a group of school children sketching the buildings as they took their art classes from a nearby school outdoors under the studious eyes of their teachers.

After quite a bit of walking in the neighbourhoods just south of the city centre of Osaka, I found a bench in Gokuraku-jodo garden to rest. A bit of shade, the sound of the breeze through the trees, and the muffled sounds of the city around me was a wonderful respite.

On another day, I visited Osaka Castle, one of the most famous landmarks in Japan. The outer moat delineates the approximate one square kilometre grounds of the castle.

The heat and the crowds on this mid October day required some patience, but the castle was well worth waiting in a few lines to visit.

While in line and just about to enter the castle, this made me chuckle. Much like the Citadel in my hometown of Halifax, NS, this castle had a noon gun that fired every day to ensure all around knew the precise hour of 12 o’clock.

The views from the top of the castle were stunning. During my time in Japan, I was getting a glimpse of the early fall progression of the trees changing colour, and here in Osaka, the leaves were really only now just starting to turn to shades of red, yellow and orange.

Leaving the castle, I was a touch giddy, the way only a good travel day can make me. On my way to the metro to travel to a highly anticipated meal, I paused here to look back at Osaka Castle.

This was my last day in Japan, and as I stood here I let my mind wander through all my experiences, even back to my initial apprehension after I booked my flights. By this point, all of that had washed away and I was in the middle of feeling simultaneously perfectly comfortable while also feeling the striking realization of the reality that I was far from home in Japan. While I wanted to just stand here feeling that, I had a meal to get to that ended up being my favourite memory from the entire trip.