Day 18 & 19 - Osaka

We arrived in Osaka yesterday after catching three trains from Kyoto.  Osaka is a larger city than Kyoto with 2.6 million people compared to 1.474 million.  This morning we visited Osaka Castle and Museum, which has had a turbulent history.  The main Castle site is most imposing, featuring moats around 80 metres wide and 1.6 km in circumference.  We've seen a few castles and moats during our brief time in Japan but this one is on a whole new scale.

The original Castle site was built on top of a temple site by Hideyoshi Hashina (Toyotomi) in 1583.  He built a castle befitting the permanent residence of the ruler of Japan.  However, after his death, political control moved to the Tokugawas and the castle fell during the summer war in Osaka in 1615.

By command of the second shogun, Hidetada, reconstruction of Osaka Castle began in 1620.  It was a large scale reconstruction which took ten years to complete.  He built it ON TOP OF the previous castle site.  To ensure loyalty of the various families they were all asked to transport the massive granite stones from distant quarries, over one million of them.  The end result was an impressively fortified castle.  Lightning strikes and turbulent riots during the transition to imperial rule means few of the original structures have survived.  Osaka castle was also damaged significantly during WWII bombing raids.

There is a lot more to the fascinating and controversial family politics over this period which is so fascinating to the Japanese people that two floors of the Museum are devoted to it and it is also the subject of a popular reenactment occurring in theatres here.







Look at this size of this, the largest granite piece used in the castle, estimated to weigh 108t.  Massive!  Imagine the effort to get this from a distant quarry to the highest point in Osaka in the early 17th Century!!


India with our delightful volunteer English language guide.



This castle also featured a dry moat.


Not a bad view from up top . . . . Osaka stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction it seems.



OIOI is a popular department store in Japan.  If they opened one in Australia they would have to call it OIOIOI obviously.


We visited the nearby shopping district of Namba and found some anime stores.

Sorry most of our food photos are on my phone so perhaps one day we shall upload all of those for a seperate post.  It's 10:30pm here and I need my beauty sleep.

Day 17 - Bamboo Forest at Arashiyama and Kyoto Railway Museum

This morning we rode our bikes to the Hankyu Kawaramachi train station which is a train line which takes you out to Arashiyama in 22 minutes.  This wonderful little town hosts a beautiful bamboo forest which we spent some time walking through.

We then visited the Kyoto Imperial Palace and park.

There are some delightful walkways throughout Kyoto which is also a very bike friendly city.

Then the Kyoto Railway Museum . . . it really is something else and had displays where you could learn in great detail about the operation of all sorts of trains.  There were even steam trains operating with the wonderful smells and sounds which accompany them.

I will not share the over 200 photos from the museum here but if you like trains this is almost worth the trip to Kyoto alone.



Tomorrow we attend Church here in Kyoto then off to our final destination, Osaka.

Day 16 - Nijo-jo Castle and Palace, Kyoto and Nara

Visited the Nijo-jo palace and castle this morning which is only a few hundred metres from our apartment.  This was where the Shogun used to rule Japan and was built hundred of years ago.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace.  This is when Kyoto was capital of Japan.











Then  we travelled an hour by train to Nara to visit the parks where the deer roam freely.

Day 15 - Manga Museum, Tofukuji Temple and Fushimi-inaru Shrine, Kyoto

This morning we visited the Kyoto International Manga Museum which is only 400m away from our apartment.  Not only were there thousands of Manga magazines throughout the museum but the entire history of Manga from the 1940's onwards was on display.  Unfortunately photography not allowed.



There was also an exhibit of models made by various skilled craftsmen which was incredible in their attention to detail and intricacy.

Actually I took the above photo in the museum before realising I should not have.  It gives you a small glimpse of the number of Manga magazines on display.  All can be read, if you live locally you can buy a pass which allows daily access!

Then we rode our bikes in perfect sunny weather (in fact we got sunburnt today) along the beautiful Kamo River around 4km to the Tofukuji Temple southeast of Kyoto.










Then we rode a few more kilometres to the Fushimi-inari Shrine.  There are a large number of torii-gates behind the main shrine along the path to the inner shrine.  These gates are called "Senbon Torii" (thousand gates).

This shrine is a very popular tourist attraction but is also considered by locals to be good for business.  So they donate a torii-gate for good business fortune.  We went through the more famous section of one thousand gates, but if you have the time (an hour each way) to climb to the top of Inari Mountain then apparently you will pass under thousands of these gates.













Kamo River




View east from our apartment block 11th floor

Day 14 - To-ji Temple, Kyoto

Today we caught the subway to central Kyoto where we hired some pushbikes to make our exploration over the next few days easier.  The then went to see the To-ji Temple.

In 794, when the capital of Japan was transferred to Kyoto from Nara, two huge guardian temples were built on the east and west sides of the main entrance of the Imperial City of Heiankyo (the former name of Kyoto).  Today, only To-ji (which literally means "East Temple") remains.

The precinct is made up of several structures, such as a main hall and lecture hall,  but the most imposing is the five story (or 55 metre tall) pagoda.  All of these structures were built in the 17th Century.

It was wonderful to see these structures and the holy relics they contained, as well as appreciating the beautiful gardens surrounding them.

This evening we watched a show performed by geisha.  Although performed entirely in Japanese we were able to appreciate the great acting as well as a live orchestra using traditional instruments and singers.

The weather is forecast to be sunny for the next few days so we look forward to exploring more.