Wayakama Castles and Shrines

Making our way back to Osaka

From Tanabe, we took the train to Wakayama where we had a few days to relax. Our AirBnB was a fully-equipped apartment that came with free bicycles we used to get around town. This was an excellent find, because there weren’t any trains to where we wanted to go, and because it was free!

We visited a few shrines in the area: Kishu Toshogu Shrine and Wakaura Temmangu Shrine. Perched on the hillside overlooking the bay, it was unique to find entrance gates with such a view.

The view had its price: it was a steep hike to get up the hill. Fortunately, the way down included some switchbacks that made it less dangerous to descend.

The day we went to Wakayama Castle was an off-day for both of us. We sort of went just because we felt obligated to see it and not miss out on our travels, but neither of us really enjoyed it. I did, however, get one good photo of the castle and it was interesting to see the museum inside. I particularly enjoyed the size of the Wakayama castle grounds and how the path up to the castle twists and turns to confuse attackers.

From Wakayama, we headed to Osaka. The first place we visited was the Cup Noodle Museum, which is a free museum dedicated to the inventor of instant noodles. There is a curved wall showing the timeline of cup noodles and several informative displays that were all in Japanese.

It’s possible to make and decorate your own cup noodles for 300 yen, which you would then get sealed in a plastic bag. We thought about doing it, but then what would we do with this souvenir? It would take up too much space. Surprisingly, there’s no restaurant selling cup noodles to eat at the museum. This seems to be a giant oversight to me, as all we wanted to do when we left was eat some cup noodles!