Today we're visiting the place
everyone must visit when they come to Osaka,
the Osaka Castle.
I'm Renata and I always travel with my husband, Gordon.
-G. -G what?
-Just G. -G?
-Yeah. -Gordon.
-Like Prince. What does he you have? -Prince is Prince.
-Wasn't it O?
He doesn't speak that much. But when he does... Right?
-Two words. -Two words. That's it
-Two and words.
-I speak with the camera. -Yeah.
[music]
A thousand. That's all we can put on.
Yeah.
The same Pasmo card from Tokyo works here.
Suica works, too.
[beeps]
PA: We will be stopping at Osaka Business Park.
Station number N21.
[music]
-We are here in the bottom. See? -Yes.
[Music]
You arrive here at this beautiful park
and you can already see the castle over there.
Now, we got to walk all the way up there.
Hello again. Thank you for joining us on this trip.
It's our second day here in Osaka.
I'm linking the entire playlist up here,
so that later you can watch all our videos here in Japan.
Today, Osaka is the economic hub of Western Japan
and the city was already the capital of Japan for three times.
Very briefly.
Once for 11 years, then for six, and finally for a few months.
All this in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Very briefly, but it was.
[music]
Well, let's jump ahead almost one millennium,
and we arrive at the time when the most famous landmark in Osaka
was starting to be built,
the Osaka Castle.
[music]
Look at what a cool view you got to the city here.
Do you see that the stones are also marked here?
It's just like in Nagoya.
It might be for the same reason, so that the people who donated
know exactly which stones came from what property.
The construction here started in 1583.
So the first castle here was built even before
than the other one we saw in Nagoya.
And I say first because like other historical monuments in Japan,
it was destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries.
That was because of natural disasters and also war.
The castle is one of Japan's most famous landmarks
and it played a very important role in the unification of Japan
in the 16th century.
It is a perfect reproduction of the original.
But now, it even includes elevators.
[music]
You can come here, walk all this,
take as many pictures as you want, it's all free.
You just pay if you want to go inside the castle.
And that's not a traditional castle because inside it's a museum,
so bear that in mind.
-That's it. -Yeah.
How modern! You buy the ticket directly at the machine.
They don't sell it here.
-Arigatou gozaimasu (thank you very much). -I like your T-shirt.
-Yes!
Is it "be happy", really?
-Yes. -Be happy.
-I wish you happiness.
-I wish you happiness. Excellent.
-Arigatou gozaimasu (thank you very much). -Arigatou (thank you).
I wish you happiness. Not be happy.
-Walk it up? -Let's walk.
Look at the line if you want to use the elevator to go up.
So, we chose the stairs.
[music]
You can stop at the floors to get a break,
there are nice exhibitions you can see,
but you cannot photograph anything.
So the only thing I can show you is this.
It's the view from up here, which is really good.
[music]
There are some windows here without the screen.
Oh, do you see? It's the same symbol as in Nagoya.
-Yes. -Both castles are actually...
The structure is very similar, right?
-Uh-hmm. -The design.
They were all built in the same period and by warlords that were very connected
People who had contact with each other.
-Ready?
Okay, coming down we found a place here
where we can take pictures and film.
So let me tell you a little bit of what's in this exhibition here.
You actually learn a lot about the person who built this castle.
His name was Hideyoshi Toyotomi.
I'm hoping I'm pronouncing his name right.
And he worked for the person who built the Nagoya Castle, Nobunaga Oda,
until he became a warlord himself.
He built this castle with the intention of making it the permanent residence
of the ruler of Japan,
and remember that Japan was not unified at the time.
But unfortunately, it didn't work.
You also learn a lot about wars and battles that happened here,
especially the Battle of Osaka that happened just outside
on the castle grounds,
where today you see that beautiful park.
After his death, Hideyoshi Toyotomi was enshrined as a God
and became a deity.
Today, there are shrines and temples dedicated to him all over Japan.
[music]
To be opened in 6970, 5000 years after the Expo '70
You can go for a boat tour around the castle here,
a thousand yen.
This is the highest stonewall in the entire Japan
and there is something interesting here.
There's a human-faced stone.
It is very hard to find.
But I went online and searched for directions and pictures.
So walking here, I could spot
It is right there, left from the entrance
All the way up there.
This is a story that's been going on for generations.
Rumor has it that it looked more like a face
way back when.
Time and weather just took the features away.
Today it reminds me more of an E.T.
[music]
This is Osaka Station.
Another massive train station here in Japan.
And if you go all the way up, you arrive at a sky garden.
The lady at the information desk even gave me a map here.
There are gardens like this already since the 10th floor
and you keep going up until the 14th.
This is actually a mini-farm here, with plants...
There's wind energy being generated over there.
Who would have guessed?
All this peace up here and all that crowd down there.
[music]
Let's do like the Japanese, perfect place for a picnic.
There's a convenience store right here.
That's where we're going later, that building
-Yeah? -Yeah.
It's very cool, huh?
And I think it's two different towers you can cross from one to the other
via escalators.
-Uh-hmm. -Excited?
-Maybe.
-Are you tired? -Maybe.
[music]
Congratulations!
[laughs]
Remember that in the first video, I said that central Osaka
is pretty much divided into north and south?
In that video, we walked around the southern part, Minami.
Now, we're in the northern, Kita.
This area here specifically is Umeda.
It's the financial heart of Osaka.
And here in the north, you can also find some covered shopping streets
like in the south,
and a lot of department stores.
Ooh, Chanel.
It's so amazing. Everything interconnected.
You leave one store, enter another.
Everything interconnected even with the train station.
Hep five, high five!?
[laughs]
What face is this?
[music]
Tunnel of Love. Tunnel of Love.
Smile.
[laughs]
Look at these desserts here in Japan.
I've been seeing this everywhere.
Ice cream on a danish.
Mmm. There's some caramel, too.
Very good combination.
[music]
We're closing the day with a view now from up there.
[music]
Fun Fun Plaza. Is that where we go?
You're not allowed, Renata.
[laughs]
Fun Fun is for you?
-Yeah. -Fun Fun Plaza.
-Yeah.
-[laughs] -Ha-ha-ha.
We have the whole elevator only for us.
It looks like not that many people are coming here today.
Or we're in the wrong place
Oh, baby.
We're going from one building to the other.
Look at this, via the escalators.
If you want to come here just for the escalators, it's free.
We didn't buy the ticket yet.
Oh, and that's the observatory up there.
-Two adults, ¥3,000, right there.
- Print. -No, baby.
- You need to put money first. [laughs]
-Shhh.
-Even the machine told you, "Please insert money."
-Fine. -[laughs]
This is so futuristic.
[music]
This is such a cool place.
You basically go for a 360 walk and you can see down there.
This place is so cool.
We came rushing up here to see the view.
Here it's out in the open and it looks like it's going to rain.
-Look at the rain coming. -Yeah.
Oh, that's Osaka Station. And the rooftop where we were.
Here it explains that the architect that designed this building
thought originally of a sky garden
like midair crater in between,
then when he saw the final project,
he thought that it looks more like a spaceship that flew away.
[laughs]
[music]
Yes, there was some rain and no sunset.
But at least I'm happy that we had a view before that.
And I'm even happier because we have one more day here in Osaka.
Actually, it's the last day of our trip to Japan.
So, if you've been following this series, if you're enjoying it,
click the subscribe button,
so that you don't miss the very last episode.
[music]
That's really cool.
-Do not fall through the hole.
-No, let's go, let's go.
[laughs]
That's the Tunnel of Love. Do you see?
[laughs]
Do you want to go for a walk?
♪ In the tunnel of love ♪
Isn't there a song like that?
♪ In the tunnel of love ♪
[laughs]
Is this how you carry your cellphone?
-Yep.
-All the way up here?
-Just admiring the view? -Uh-hmm.
-What do you like most? -Me.
-Oh, no.
Oh, my God! This is the most organized chaos I've ever seen.