01.12.2011 Osaka Castle and Naniwa-no-Miya Palace in Osaka

---

I don’t know about you but when you get really excited about something like a birthday or a vacation or a new toy you can’t sleep the night before and you wake up 5 minutes before the alarm goes off. Lucky for me this was one of those days.

The train rides are defiantly getting easier to find which place is which and how to get from one place to another. Osaka Castle is not one of those places you can miss, mostly because you can see it from the train. The problem was, once you get on the street you lose it and you are lost. I would highly suggest getting maps or finding some kind of tourist guide, it makes finding and going places ten times easier.

After goofing around and trying to find the Castle I finally approached the south side by the Inui-yaguri Turret and had one of those pause and look moments. I walked over to the Otemon gate to get a better look and had to shoot a picture for the books. The day was somewhat chilly however the sun was shining and there were little to no people at the castle. There was a nice couple with children that were kind enough to take my photo, I of course followed up and took one for them (that seems to be the trade off with photo taking in Japan). The castle entrance was enormous, never have I seen such a large structure and the individual stones were larger and wider than me. Upon entering Minami-Shikirimon gate there is another gate to pass through to get inside the “outer wall”. When you enter the Castle there is a cleansing location where you wash your hands and your mouth. The first interesting point was called the Rokuban-yagura turret where the guards would patrol 24/7. I passed the Shudokan martial arts training facility since it was closed and went onto the Hokoku-jinja shrine. It was close to other shines I have seen however there were some great distinctions that make this so unique. First there is a straw ring that you pass through then walk by the cleansing fountain and past the karate training facility. While approaching the shrine there is a different essence and felling to this place, you come to realize this is a vast castle ground with many secrets and surprises. The castle entrance, known as Sakuramon gate over crowds the castle grounds and you can see that this was meant to keep people out. There are a few stone tablets that explain more about the history and background of each place in the castle. You pass through the narrow wall entrance and arrive at the old Osaka city museum. It was later replaced and moved to another location outside the Osaka Castle Park around 1931. Once you turn away from the old museum you can see the castle gleaming in the sunlit sky. It is remarkable how large it is and the architecture is stunning. It has exquisite marks and small details that you need to get up close to see. The entrance was easy to find and the ticket to get inside the castle was ¥600. There is also an Osaka Castle commemoration sign in the front that is apparently a mosaic.

You tread up the stairs and make your way to the front gate with a large turret to the right side. The entrance doors are huge and you almost feel like royalty when walking through them. I decided to start on the eighth floor and work my way down instead of jumping all around. When you enter the castle you can see a significant difference in the space that is used and it turns out to be much smaller inside than you would think when looking outside. Look at some of the pictures and you can see that inside is beautiful and very sturdy. There is an elevator that takes you to the fifth floor then you walk two flights to the eighth, and yes you did hear that right, there is no sixth floor. The eighth floor is the observation deck which gives a magnificent panoramic view of Osaka city. Inside there are three dimensional landscapes that show old Osaka and views of Naniwa. Make your way down to the seventh floor to see the life of Hideyoshi, who built Osaka Castle and succeeded in unifying the entire nation. There are some really cool 3-d dioramas that show movies depicting Hideyoshi and history of Osaka Castle. I worked my way down to the fifth floor to where there is a folding screen of the summer war in Osaka. There is also a miniature set of warriors from Sanada and Matsudaira battling each other. I enjoyed the detailed explanations about the different types of flags and the very detailed battle scene with the miniatures. There is also a timeline of some of the warriors that participated in the battle and those who are well known in the history books. The exhibit is very well orchestrated and constructed for floors seven through three, but you cannot take pictures on floors four and three! So for this part it’s going to be all words without pictures, sad day. I was very impressed on the fourth floor with the different pieces on exhibit and for the first time I saw real samurai armor and traditional warriors clothing, helmets, but no swords were on display. If you look close at one of the armor pieces you can see that the chest piece had been shot but nothing passed through the armor. There is a curirass (domaru type), braided with light indigo and scarlet cords. Some people taking picture and you could tell other people were giving them the ugly eye. These artifacts were from the Sengoku period which is around the 15th century. It also shows the castles reconstruction by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The third floor had a full scale replica of the golden tea room reserved for only royaly that also has gold silverware and dishware. One piece included a surcoat bearing the design of Mt. Fuji on yellow and black wool background. Another piece was some declarations and farewell poems composed and written by Hideyoshi. The folding screen was a huge surprise, it was made to show the summer war in Osaka but this has extreme detail and description. Once you reach the second floor you lose interest since it consists of facts and figures with one exhibit that showed a dolphin shaped fish and crouching tiger. The bottom floor is basically the gift shop and a small room that shows a movie about the Castle and the history.

While walking out of the Castle I was both happy about the tour but yet it seemed to have been somewhat smaller than I anticipated. Some other reviews online share the same view, yet I am still very happy to have gone and seen Osaka Castle. I would highly suggest to all people to visit the grounds of you don’t have a lot of money and the tour is only ¥600, so you get what you pay for. The Castle grounds are defiantly the best part, and there is also a plum garden to the east side of the tower. The garden is amazing during the spring time with the cherry blossoms but since its winter I wasn’t able to see them. The garden is a great place to get lost in and give you some peace a quiet to reflect on life and such. Overall Osaka Castle is by far one of the best highlights in Osaka Japan.

After the castle walk I walked around to find some food and passed a McDonalds. I glanced at the menu and found the ¥100 menu, which is more like the $1.20 menu thanks to the wonderful economy. Kaori showed me a great coupon internet site on my phone and I found a coupon for coffee since I was pretty tired after walking 21,022 steps which was 16 kilometers, about 10 miles. The meal was filling and sitting down was amazing! I almost passed out and fell asleep but knew I needed to power on and get to Naniwa Palace remains.

I needed to walk through the castle grounds again to get to the Naniwa remains so it was another trek across the streets of Osaka. I really enjoyed the walk and thinking time you get when touring around the area. It might have been a colder day but that didn’t get me down. Eventually I arrived at the Naniwa Palace remains and took a short but gratifying stroll through the park. I asked one person passing by to take a photo and it turned out they could speak very good English. The grounds were a good finisher for the day but I also wanted to pass by one more place on the way to the train. I walked over to the Osaka Museum of History to see what it was about. It seems like a great place if you have some time in the day to look around and the student discounts were reasonable. I unfortunately didn’t and was too tired to do pretty much anything at that point. I ended up heading back to the station and boarded the train home. The ride was calming and the train was vacant, it was a great end to a long day.

---