Yesterday morning was devoted to seeing the Osaka Castle and the National Art Museum. The castle, known for its eight story pagoda-style toshu, or castle keep, covers 15-acres with a river-size moat circling an enormous outer wall, and a smaller moat outside the inner wall.
Built in the 16th century by the Toyotami clan, it was captured in a famous battle by the Tokugawa clan in the early 17th century. The castle keep with a 36O degree view of Osaka at the top is the big tourist draw. In times of peace it was a storehouse; in war it was fortified.
We marched with the ongoing throng of tourists bent on getting into the castle keep to climb the stairs. There was no slow to the flow. These people were driven.
And once inside the tower, I had to wonder why. Each of the eight floors on the way to the top had some small artifacts, but were mostly devoted to a repeated display of a half-destroyed painting depicting tiny soldiers taking part in the Toyotami-Tokugawa clash. I guess the idea was that if you tired at any floor you could see the signature event. (No photos were allowed or else I would have certainly uploaded shots of the tattered, somewhat indistinct painting.) Although our Koto conditioned legs laughed at how easy it was to stomp up the stairs to the circular balcony, it took some nimble knifing between the people lined up at the railing to get pics of the Osaka skyline along with the panorama of tiny people spread out on the grounds of the castle.
Lately when I visit a world heritage site it seems like I’m participating in a sporting event. First there is the crowd streaming into the stadium, or in this case, the gate to the castle.
Once inside we clog into a scrum of tourists stopping to look at their cell phone directions. Breaking out of the group perusing their directions, we make for the wide open spaces, plazas, paths, and walkways.
Then we maneuver through the mob like running backs looking for a gap to spurt through. When I reach the site where I can finally take in a full view of the monument, I feel like I want to scream, “Goooooooooal!”