Chads Blog: Cherry Blossom Party in Osaka

Since the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom the traditional thing to do is get a group of friends together and have a party under the cherry trees. A couple of other teachers I met a while back invited me to come out to Osaka for the day. So I headed out a little early to see some of the sights then met up with them later.

This is called the Umeda Sky Building. Its a huge office building right in the heart of Osaka. Pretty impressive structure. Notice how the elevator shaft goes right down the middle. Its supposed to be a pretty scary ride to the top. But I figure I'll go up when its a clearer day. The visibility was terrible, again due to all the sand blowing in from China.

This is a view of Osaka right off the bay. Its kind of weird, Osaka is a huge city but there not really a downtown like Dallas. Its more as if lots of skyscrapers are scattered around the entire area. Like Houston, except times 1000.

This is a far away view of Osaka Castle. We had our cherry blossom party underneath the trees right by the castle. You can see a couple of cherry trees to the right here...

More cherry trees. This park is kind of like central park. A huge park right in the middle of a downtown metropolitan area.

A good view of Osaka castle. This was rebuilt in the 50's I believe, after we bombed Osaka. Its kind of weird to think about that...

Me and this British guy I met at the party, can't remember his name...

My friend Robbie decided to climb up in the cherry tree. Just to put this in perspective, this would be equivalent to seeing a Japanese person shooting a bald eagle with a gun, then going over and burning an American flag over the dead corpse. Still it was funny...