Today has been incredible, best day so far. We got up nice and early and headed to the train station, where we brought tickets to go and see Osaka castle. The trains are bright green and smooth, playing musical notes as they pull into the station, and repeating instructions in English alongside Japanese.
When we got off at the stop, it was not at all what I had expected to see, I was thinking it would be quite rural, a big castle on a hill, but we were still in the middle of the city. We made our way through the winding paths up towards the castle, and we first spotted the top of it beyond the wall.
It was so beautiful, finally starting to feel like the Japan we had flown all this way to see, with its ornate green roof and golden tiger prowling across the uppermost tier. We went up inside it, into what is now a museum full of hand drawn memoirs and unique paintings, and looked out across the gardens from high above.
The gardens themselves were the most beautiful part, with rows of cherry blossom trees just beginning to bloom. The sun was never undappled, and the breeze never stopped carrying the sweet smell of the flowers through out the journey. Our favourite spot was by a little lake, where a single shrine stood in the middle of the water, with the castle rippling in the reflection and a heron flying past overhead.
We decided to go back again that night, to see the cherry blossom illuminated in the darkness. The grounds were lit up with red lanterns strung between the trees, and the pale petals stood out against the dark sky. And even though some of the cherry blossom hadn’t opened yet, the flowers that had bloomed were the most beautiful of all.
