Today I will give you a tour of Osaka, Japan's third largest city that doubles as the nation's largest pachinko parlor. If you've ever wondered what it's like to walk around inside one of those pachinko game machines, I suggest taking a walk through Umeda or Nanaba at night. With all the neon and blinking lights, you'd think you were in Las Vegas. The only thing that distinguishes Osaka from Las Vegas is the fact that the Osaka Castle is not a hotel yet.
If you visit Osaka, you'll want to tour Osaka Castle, a building that sticks up obtrusively from among a skyline of large, expensive hotels. Upon entering the castle, you can see how the occupants lived 1,400 years ago. Some of the sights are scrolls on the walls, swords, armor, an elevator and a souvenir shop. They even have signs that tell you which direction to walk so as not to block the tourists.
Yes, the castle had tourists back then. After all, this is Japan, where tourism was invented through a system called feudalism, where peasants gave the shogun octopus balls in hope that some day he'd give them a tour of the castle. If they were lucky, at the end of the tour, they'd receive something from the souvenir shop -- like a telephone card with a picture of the castle. (Yes, they had telephones back then -- made of mochi).