Osaka-jo

There's a lot to see in Osaka (it's the second biggest city in Japan behind Tokyo), so with that in mind I thought to rent a bike. I hadn't looked any up, so I went to one of the many Tourist Information centers. This was near a subway station, and attached to one of the many underground/covered shopping districts littering Japan. It's the rain, and the heat which drives shoppers underground. People think the streets of Japan are crowded, you should see one of these places on a busy Saturday afternoon, also it's a maze with multiple complexes connected.

The information center was able to point out a bike rental place nearby, along with sell me Museums Grutto Pass KANSAI 2008, a great deal I had not known about for museum admission in the Kansai area. I stopped at a bakery cafe for breakfast, there's a lot of these in Japan too, you walk in, get a tray and you own tongs, then select from bins of baked goods that all seem to be fresh from that same day. Lots of variety.

I tried finding the bike place, but couldn't and ended up wandering for a bit. I stopped at Hōzen-ji, a tiny little temple with a moss-covered statue. Wait your turn, then throw water at the statue and onto the plants to either side. The ripples and waves of plant matter inspired me. This is supposedly a shrine popular with sea-faring tradesmen. Continued walking, I saw a gallery advertising an 'Art as Line' exhibition, but after I went in I was a little disappointed. Not a very large collection, the most interesting pieces were sketches and gesture drawings, which wasn't saying much.

I continued heading north and went through a few more covered shopping areas. I passed a bike shop that offered rental, but he was closing early that day and I didn't think it'd be worth it. It was a hot day, tall buildings to either side until I came out into the open area surround Osaka-jo (castle). I approached the moat, and just blown away by the scale! I've seen a few castles in Europe, but this was different, and I could just picture a massive army trying to get across that moat and up the wall. While I was admiring the view, a pair of Japanese student, perhaps high-school age, came up to me all friendly and excited. They were less interested in conversation, but really wanted to have their picture taken with me. I guess I'm funny looking, but I agreed, we said hello, then said goodbye and went our separate ways. They didn't even ask me my name.
Approaching the castle, I went through a series of gates and bridges. Over a secondary moat, overgrown with weeds, I came to the main gate. I read a few signs talking about the massive size of individual stones used along the inner wall, but it was all a wind up as the next sign told me that after recent excavation, it was discovered to something of a cover-stone, tall, wide, but only 6" thick.

Up through a couple more gates, past a few little shops, then I had a good view of the actual castle, Osaka-jo. It was actually a somewhat recent reproduction, being destroyed by lightning and rebuilt in 1931, but it looked impressive to me. Examined an international time capsule from 2007 in the courtyard, then paid for my ticket and went in. There were two lines, one for the elevator, another for the stairs. I took the stairs and went all the way up as instructed, the exhibits are designed to be viewed on the way down.

From the top, I had great views of the surrounding area. A park surrounded the castle, but everything beyond was city and tall buildings. I looked around in the little gift shop, then started my way down. There was a lot of history of the castle, names and dates, clans and factions battling over control. Mixed in were artifacts and art, reproductions of a portable tea room transported around by the controlling warlord, swords, armor, a few screen paintings, and I was happy to find a lot of english language text that I could read. On one floor they had a bunch of dioramas, with actor recordings over laid on glass, almost like watching ghosts perform a play. Altogether, it was a pretty good museum, though very site specific. I enjoyed it.

I went out a different gate than I came in, heading generally east, I followed the road and eventually found myself on a nice wooded path. I started to hear drums in the distance, and as I got closer, I came to a big open-air performance area with a festival of some sort. I took a seat and watched the next performance. I wouldn't call it an iconic Japanese performance, though the performers were Japanese, it was more african beats, for lack of a better word, something of a hippie festival, with beads, drum circles, free-form dancing, it was fun, then I continued walking.