EN: Since my work puts some limits on my time which I can spend outside, I am usually able to spend several hours on my tourist duties. It takes some time to get from my place to the city center of Osaka, so I have to count off approximately 90 minutes just for traveling. Even though I managed to see several important sights, one of them is no doubt Osaka Castle, which is one of the most famous castles in Japan. It’s a beautiful building with castle grounds also open for public and even if it’s not the original building (once again burned down several times in the past), it’s the iconic landmark of Osaka. A little warning – the castle is really nice from outside, but the interior is less rich than the ones I’ve already visited, plus, you can’t take pictures of almost anything, which is a shame. After that I headed to Umeda station, which was recently renovated into modern shopping and entertainment center, from which I walked towards Umeda Sky Building, which is famous for its futuristic design and the observatory called Floating Garden Observatory in the middle. The entry costs 700 yen and the views of Osaka are definitely worth the money. It’s a bit surprising but before I wanted to call it a day I found out that there is a local version of Oktoberfest in front of the Umeda station. Really, at the end of May, there were numerous stands where you could purchase German beer, Schnitzels, Bratwurst and other food typical for this event.
SK: Keďže mám veľa roboty, dnes som sa túlal po Osake iba niekoľko hodín. no za ten čas som stihol tri ďalšie atrakcie – lokálny hrad, ktorý bol niekoľkokrát vypálený a preto musel byť postavený odznova, stanicu a centrum Umeda a na záver aj Umeda Sky Building. Posledná menovaná má perfektný dizajn, dve veže sú spojené takzvanou “floating garden observatory”, pod ktorou sa nachádzajú aj najvyššie eskalátory na svete. Neďaleko stanice Umeda sa koná Oktoberfest (fakt), takže tam sa ešte možno zjavím na jedno pivečko. V každom prípade – čo sa týka hradu, zvonku je pekný, ale zvnútra žiaľ oveľa chudobnejší ako tie, ktoré som navštívil predtým, okrem toho sú zakázané fotoaparáty, takže škoda. Všetko ostatné stálo za to, vadil iba ten neskutočný hic.
