Got off at Osakatemmangu Station大阪天満宮駅 (the right station is actually at
Osakajokoen大阪城公園駅) and
headed to Osaka Castle. Foody was super excited when we saw a little part of
Osaka Castle’s green rooftop behind the high stone walls around it. ‘We are so
close, Dude. Yuhuuuu!!!!!!’ But what? It’s a long walk, if we could say it that
way. Hahahahaha....... Finally very happy to find the entrance gate. But first,
we enjoyed vanilla and green tea ice cream that we bought from food stalls
there. They also sell soba, ramen and other meals.
Osaka Castle (大阪城) is one of
the most famous landmarks in Japan and a popular site for sakura-viewing
(hanami 花見). When
we entered the entrance gate and walked a bit, we could see hundreds of sakura
trees that hadn’t bloomed because it wasn’t cherry blossom period yet in Osaka.
What a pity but we got that at Ueno Park, Tokyo =).
Besides Osaka Castle, you could also find Osakajo hall, Japanese
Archery Field, Forest Park, Osaka International Peace Center, Plum Flower
Garden and Peach Flower Garden. But still, we have to warn you that this is a
extremely huge complex and don’t get lost!
Here is a little bit story of Osaka Castle. In 1496, Honganji
temple was built but Ishiyama War happened in 1570 between Honganji temple and
Oda Nobunaga who attemped to unify the entire nation. Oda Nobunaga won the war
and burnt it to the ground. In 1582, he was killed in a battle at Honnoji
temple and Hideyoshi Toyotomi took the authority from Oda Nobunaga (1583). Soon
after that, Osaka Castle began to be constructed. In 1585, the main castle was
done. Unluckily, in 1598, Hideyoshi Toyotomi died at Fushimi Temple. The new
heir was his son, Hideyori Toyotomi. Ieyasu Tokugawa, that was a chief
retainer, attacked Osaka Castle in order to take over Hideyori Toyotomi’s
power. Attack was started on winter in 1614 and Ieyasu Tokugawa gained his
victory on Summer in 1615. Hideyori Toyotomi and his mother, Yodo Dono decided
to suicide after being defeated.
Osaka Castle was reconstructed for many times. First, in 1620 by
Hidetada Tokugawa. But in 1665, the main tower was strucked by lightning and
was destroyed by fire. And because of war between new government army and
Tokugawa shogunate army in 1868, Osaka Castle was totally burnt. In 1931, this
castle was reconstructed again by the fundraising from citizens of Osaka City.
Since then, it was used as military base. It was known as one of the largest
military armories with 60.000 workers. During World War II, the main tower was
destroyed. About 90% of the arsenal was destroyed and 382 people were killed in
this incident. After all that happened, from 1995 to 1997 Osaka government did the
reconstruction projects and now Osaka Castle is known as Special Historical
Site due to its power of sharing history of unifying entire nation of Japan
with Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa as three main roles.
We visited Osaka Castle on March 21nd, 2015 about 1PM. The
weather was cool. Really interesting to be here and we could find international
tourists all around. Pay 600 yen/person and you are about to enter this awesome
museum.
In front of Osaka Castle, we saw a well-named Kimmeisui. Based
on the legend, Hideyoshi Toyotomi dropped gold to purify the water inside the well but according to researches, this
well was built in Tokugawa period. But still a lot of Japanese and
international tourists threw coins into it. We even saw a sheet of 2.000
Indonesian rupiah into it too, not coin. Hahaha.....
Osaka Castle has five stories outside and eight stories
inside. First floor provides theater room that explains history of Osaka Castle
(with subtitles in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean too), elevator and
souvenir shops. The theather room isn’t too big but we think it is just fine
due to its function which is just a summary of everything that you could see by
exploring museum. Elevator just could take up to 5th floor. We took stairs,
better than queueing in a long line for elevator, especially in peak season.
What we find most interesting are:
5th floor : Miniature figures of Siege of Osaka. All
miniatures are created in awesome details and placed inside big acrylic boxes
so you can enjoy well without making a mess.
7th floor : Diorama that contains 19 scenes. It is kind of
hologram and you could see it as a short movie scene. A really high technology
museum.
8th floor : Observation deck. Its height is 20 metres from
here to the ground. We could observe Osaka Castle Park, modern high buildings
in Osaka and mountains but due to peak season, we could only enjoyed it for a
while.
We won’t talk about how many international tourists that came
here. What we found suprisingly was the amount of Japanese visitors. It was
superb, especially young people. For us, Osaka Castle Museum is a nice role
model that with creativity and new way of thinking, museum could be a fun place
to be explored.
After exploring all stories by stairs (*_*), we explored
forest park, not all but most part of the park. This place is beautiful but yet
so wide. We saw pink plum flowers here.
When we reach exit gate,we found a tree
that was blooming. Saw few of international tourists taking photographs of it,
we followed them. Suddenly, Footy was told by an about 40-years old Japanese
man, who was just stopped because of our curiosity, that it wasn’t sakura
flower. It is peach flower (momo 桃).
He is really friendly and
could speak a little bit of English too. Then, we stopped taking photographs,
thanked him and headed to next destination.
Address :
540-0002 1-1 Osakajo, Chuo-ku
Opening hours : 9AM – 5PM
(last admission 4.30PM)
Admission fee :
Individual : more
than 15 years old : 600 yen
Group : 15
people and more : 540 yen
100
people and more : 510 yen
200 people and more : 480 yen
Website : www.osakacastle.net
Pay attention :
-Restroom is on 2nd Floor only.
-Be careful in stepping down the stairs due to huge crowd of visitors, especially in peak season.
-No photographing and video filming inside the museum.
We eat, we walk, we talk
-FoodyFooty2-
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