The Sightseeing part of the schedule started off with perfect weather and a cherry blossom viewing by boat. The cherry blossom trees in Osaka, lined up alongside the river(s) can be seen beautifully from the water, although I am afraid the pictures with my phone didn’t turn out so well and don’t do the scenery justice.

There are about 4800 trees lined up and from the boat we could already see people wandering under the trees, sitting together on benches and getting something to eat at one of the many food stalls. In the evening the riverside is lit up and the people enjoy not only the food (takoyaki, yakisoba, yakitori, and so forth) but have a glass of cold beer or a sake.

The boarding point was near the Osaka castle and after the boat tour we still had a bit of time and walked to the Osaka Castle to take some pictures (though we did not have time to go inside). Not after long the sunny weather had us sweating while climbing up the way to the castle, but the view was pretty good. The castle itself was destroyed many times and now mainly consists of concrete, but the  walls around still have stones from some hundred years ago. It’s quite impressive to see those big stones, some about 3 tons of weight, which have been brought to Osaka from places over 200 kilometres away.

(the last one being used on my Instagram Sakura_Fujiko)

I’d love to be able the next time to have a look inside the castle and do a bit more sightseeing overall, as I really did not see a lot of the town during this visit.