Cherry Blossom Season at Osaka Castle!

I don't actually have too many photos of Osaka Castle, because my camera didn't charge properly the night before and died within my first five shots. I did what I could with my iPhone, but it's only a weak substitute for a proper camera (even to my very basic camera). The grounds surrounding the castle were very nice, with cherry trees everywhere! There was even a plum tree garden, though unfortunately I missed their blooming season by a few weeks (I'll try going again to see the plum blossoms next year!). Perhaps I am a bit jaded due to living next to an amazing castle, but Osaka Castle wasn't anywhere as impressive as Himeji Castle.

I also visited the Osaka City Zoo, which was a surprisingly nice little zoo. They had very nice little exhibits for the animals, versus teeny cages like at Himeji's Zoo. I got to see some cute Red Pandas, a Hippo exhibit with an underwater viewing tank, and a very amazing walk-in aviary full of herons and water birds building nests for their eggs. There were many parks and gardens around the zoo, but I didn't have the time to go see them.

I would definitely recommend visiting both Osaka Castle and the Osaka City Zoo. I will definitely plan to go again to see both of them! For a city as large as Osaka is, it was really neat the way both of these places could make you forget about the skyscrapers all around.

One of the many paths that were lined with cherry trees. There are apparently thousands of cherry trees planted on the grounds of Osaka Castle, and they were all in full bloom!

This was my last shot with my camera before it died. I liked the juxtaposition of the modern skyscraper with the delicate beauty of the cherry tree.

An interesting angle of Osaka Castle.

The castle is very modern on the inside, with an elevator and everything. It was apparently totally rebuilt in the 1930's. The line was really long, so I didn't bother going inside.

The shiny gold accents on this castle were almost blinding in the sunlight! You could see them from quite a long ways off.

A shot of a nesting egret in the aviary at Osaka City Zoo. It's worth going to the zoo just for this exhibit! (Though all of them, minus a few depressing monkey cages, were extremely well done.)

I also stopped at Shittenoji Temple after seeing the zoo, but unfortunately it was already closing by the time I was able to get there, so I couldn't explore very much.

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