After a full day of exploring, Hunter and I finally got to Osaka Castle around five o’clock in the afternoon. We were walking around the outside of the castle when we were approached by a Japanese man. I’m used to this. Usually it’s just some guy that wants to practice his English and give a tour or something. Not this time. Hang on to your hats, folks, ’cause this one’s a doozey.

He spoke in English, made some small talk about the castle, then told us he was interested in the way that ‘black people speak.’ He thinks it’s amazing. He went on and on about how people speak in Jamaica, how it’s super laid back there and people run all their words together. Here’s a little sampler of our conversation:
Man: “Where are you guys from?”
Us:  “…America…”
“How do you feel when a black person walks up to you?”
“Uhhh… fine?”
“Huh, ok. How do you greet people?”
“…What’s up?”
“How do black people greet each other in America?”
“………..What’s up?”
“…It’s the same? Huh, ok. That’s interesting. I’m trying to raise funds to go to South Africa for research. Can you help me out?”
“Yeah, ok, we gotta go. We don’t even have enough money to go into the castle.”
And we walked away, waited until he was distracted, and ran into the castle. It was the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had with a Japanese person.

ANYway, the inside of the castle is a museum, filled with artifacts from the original castle and the surrounding area from the warring states era. We didn’t have much time before closing time, so we went straight to the top.

Aaaand then straight back down. We got out just in time for a beautiful sunset!