ヒジャビトラヴェルー大阪
Osaka is Japan's second largest metropolitan area after Tokyo. It has been the economic powerhouse of the Kansai region. Osaka is nicknamed "Japan's kitchen" and is known amongst the Japanese people as the city of gastronomy. For us, as a muslim, is it safe enough for us to eat everything in "Japan's kitchen"? Or we better to keep off from food we don't really know well about the ingredients, etc. Unfortunately, it might be true because I can say most of the famous foods are contained pork,lard, mirin in the soup usually, or even the animals (beef or chicken) slaughtered without mentioning the Name of Allah upon them.
But, don't worry! There are so many HALAL restaurant in Osaka. Furthermore Japan now has become more Muslim friendly country. There're so many ways to enjoy Osaka.. Let's check it out....
1. Osaka Castle 大阪城
You probably can find a brief history about Osaka Castle and every single detail about it from wikipedia or other site. So instead of explaining about that, I'll tak about Osaka Castle just from my perspective at the first place.
Osaka Castle is very crowded especially in the weekend. Sometimes even it's on weekdays, still there are so many tourists there. Osaka Castle is very easy to reach by train and if you just want to stroll around, take a picture with the big Castle just like what I did, you don't need to pay for anything. You're lucky if you go to Osaka Castle when there is a summer, new year, or any other festival. There will be so many stalls who sell traditional Japanese food, people do some attractions, beautiful fireworks and illumitation in the night, etc. However, once again...it's so much crowded...
The picture below was took around 7 a.m in the morning (Not so much people, right!). In addition, Osaka Castle area is a very big and nice park to do morning jog or excercise.
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| Osaka Castle is so beautiful (October 2016) |
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| Osaka Castle on the early morning (October 2016) |
2. Tempozan Ferris Wheel 観覧車
The Tempozan Ferris Wheel is the Osaka's largest. It offers far-reaching, panoramic views of the bay area and the city's skyscrapers beyond from a height of 112.5 meters. It takes approximately 15 mins to finish one rotation inside the car. Basically there're 2 types of cars, the first is a transparant glass door car and the other just a normal car. Even though I rode the ferris wheel twice yet I never tried the glass-door once due to its high number of queue (I don't like waiting on the line). |
| First time going to Tempozan Ferris Wheel in the night (Dec, 2014) |
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| The view of Osaka. 2nd time going to Tempozan Ferris Wheel (Sep, 2016) |
3. Get on Santa Maria Cruise Ship
One of the most exciting trips I took in Osaka is on the Bay Cruise Osaka Santa Maria, which is a replica of the sailing ship in which Columbus discovered. It is 45 minutes excursion cruise around the bay of Osaka, starting from Tempozan Harbour Village. The pirate style ship houses indoors restaurant and also an exhibition below.
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| The Cruise Ship |
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| I remember the pirate ship in "One Piece" |
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| You can also enjoy the beautiful twilight from the top of the cruise ship |
REVISIT? Yes! But it's little bit costly for one ride so it's better you have an Osaka's sightseeing One Day Pass Card (it will cost you no charge for both entering inside some designated tourism objects or riding trains/subways around Osaka. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
[To Be Continued]
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