Our ship stayed overnight in Kobe which was a good feature of this cruise. We booked an Osaka highlights tour which took us to visit the Osaka Castle and Sumiyoshi Taisha.
The early tour was sold out so we were on the 10:30 tour. The drive to Osaka took approximately one hour arriving at the castle at 11:30 am.
It rained lightly the whole time we were on the tour. Fortunately we were prepared with rain jackets and umbrellas. We had 90 minutes to tour the castle. It was interesting to see how the Castle was turned into a museum with dedicated pathways and stairs to go up and down to visit the three floors.
On one floor a photographer had set up a scene where the visitors dressed up as warriors and geishas. Of course we waited in line for getting dressed up and had photos taken. This took away some of the time to see the castle but that was fine. We saw what we could and then proceeded to leave to meet our group at the appointed time. Walking to the bus we enjoyed the cherry blossom trees. We were lucky that most places we visited on our trip the trees were in blossom.
Last stop was the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. http://www.sumiyoshitaisha.net/en/#about. We stopped here for one hour. The Shrine grounds were so peaceful, quiet and well maintained.
There were several booths with items for sale. We walked around with the guide explaining the purpose of the temple and different customs. After her explanations we 20 minutes to walk around and take photos.
At 3 pm we got on the bus for our ride back to the ship.
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| Osaka |
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| Osaka |
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| welcome at the terminal |
Got back to the ship around 4 pm.
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