Osaka Castle （大阪城天守閣）

Osaka Castle is a must see for anyone who happens to be in Osaka. It is in a park (appropriately called the Osaka Castle Park) and accessible via a few different subway stops. The castlegrounds is free to visit and there are many small food vendors around selling grilled octopus in dough or たこ焼き. Some of these vendors have little chairs for their customers to use but most have people standing around. There is also a very nice statue in the park erected by "United World Federalist of Japan, Osaka Chapter" with a quote from 1972:

A life of liberty and hope cannot be enjoyed on Earth until the world federation become a reality. That will be the day that planetary citizens closes the curtain on war and opens the door to everlasting peace. By this monument, let us all pledge a concerted effort with love and courage, so that one day the world will be one.

The castle itself is very very pretty. It is very old but unfortunately it was burnt down after a lightning strike and had to be rebuilt. I was lucky enough to catch it in the right light so the details are visible in the image. There is a time capsule close to the castle as well that was buried in 1968 to be opened 5000 years later. I have seen a lot of timecapsules but never one to be opened soo many years into the future. Unfortunately the castle itself was closed for visits that day (it was the 31st of December) and I could not go inside. Well, may be next time...

Universal Studios Japan (USJ)

Universal Studios Japan is one of the newest attractions in Osaka. Having never been to the original Universal Studios in the US, I wanted to check out its Japanese counterpart (which opened only a few years ago) during the few days break I got from work. Entrance tickets can be bought at the attraction (loooong lines), from JR or at the partnering hotels. I got it from my hotel for ￥５８００　for a single day pass (from around 9:30 am to 8 pm). Even though it was pretty windy and cold the place was full of people (mostly Japanese of course) so I am pretty sure on a warmer day or in the summer it would be impossible to get on any rides without waiting a good few hours.

Talking about the wait times - make sure you get in early and buy the express booklets. They basically let you bypass the waiting lines but they run out pretty quickly. You can buy these from the main souvenir shop right at the entrance. There are two types - Express 4 lets you bypass the waiting lines on the four most popular rides and Express 7 does the same on seven (pretty much every) popular rides. They are lifesavers and well worth the money if you think about all the time you are saving (more than half an hour per ride) and all the rides you can therefore try in that extra time. They also had a pretty nice show at night by a huge Christmas tree (even though this was after Christmas) singing carols. Unfortunately I just had a day there but I will try to either go back or visit the original in the US. Since I did not buy the Express Booklets and they ran out, I only got to try two rides - Back to the Future and Spiderman. The second one I enjoyed more since BTF had way too much movement and my motion sickness kinda kicked in. Oh and a word of warning - all the rides are designed in Japanese so you will get to read the descriptions and the warnings in English but all the videos and announcements will be in Japanese...

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (海遊館)

The aquarium in Osaka is right by the ferris wheel and only a 5-10 minute walk from the JR station (Osakako/大阪港). It is one of the biggest aquariums in the world. The entrance is actually on the second floor and one can use the machines there to buy tickets as well as going to the windows. The ticket machine also offers "sets" of tickets with reduced prices. For example I wanted to get tickets for the ship going from the Tempozan port to the Universal Studios port and back and I could combine that with the entrance tickets to the aquarium. The aquarium consists of multiple floors with not just fish but also dolphins, ducks and even penguins on display.

The most impressive part of the museum is the central tank called "Pacific Ocean". It holds 5400 tons of water with a depth of 9 meters. The thickness of the acrylic glass panels they use for this tank is 30 cm, with a height of 5 meters and width of 6 meters. The glass for that tank weighs 10 tons while the glass used in the whole aquarium weighs 314 tons - this is 150% of the annual acrylic glass output of the whole world! I definitely recommend the aquarium to anyone who has a few days to spend in Osaka.