The Writer's Hemisphere: Travel: Travels in Japan

From the vantage point looking out the window of my room at the Hotel New Otani Osaka I could look out towards a park and see the square face and slant angled roofs of Osaka castle. It rose beyond its moat and towering grey block buttress, illuminated at night to give it an ethereal glow.

While the present Osaka Castle is just a modern reconstruction (the original burned down in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration) it is still a beautiful structure and my first glance at the Japanese style of castles that I saw in person. The interior held a museum with artifacts from Hideyoshi's reign, including a reconstruction of a solid gold tea room and implements.

It was a busy time in Osaka with a sumo tournament going on and some kind of concert at the nearby Osaka Conference dome. The hotel lobby was decorated for the tournament, including beautiful flowers and a ceremonial sumo apron on display in the main lobby every day.

I remember seeing hundreds, maybe thousands of people lined up just to get pictures with cardboard cut outs of the band playing that evening. The air was pleasantly cool when I struck out for a walk through the park to take in the castle grounds. The plum blossoms were just starting to bloom there, and the promise of cherry blossoms lingered on the branches of the trees surrounding the castle as well.

The park itself is very large, with the castle grounds alone being 15 acres with trees and paths that go around and through it. Surrounding it are taller apartments and other buildings forming a sort of ring around the whole of the castle park. It was intriguing to walk in a place that was once home to some of the greatest men of the era of unification in Japan. Here Hideyoshi sought to create a dynasty, and here men fought bravely for the honor of his successors when the Tokugawa's sought to create their own. Little remains to show that time, other than the walls and the false facade of the main tower.

There were food stalls everywhere in the park, including the famous Osaka staple of Takoyaki: deep fried dumplings with octopus tentacles in the middle of them. (My dad calls them Octopus Balls and that's an American/Western term for them as well. The term dumpling is more apt.) These are usually served with a nice helping of bonito (dried fish) flakes and mayonnaise. While I couldn't convince my folks to sample the local fare, I can attest that they are delicious and a traveler should at least try authentic Japanese Takoyaki once in their lives.

Unfortunately they didn't allow photography in the main part of the inside museum, but my parents and I waited in line for a tour and got some pictures of the huge decorative golden "dolphin fish" that sit out on the far eaves of the castle towers. These are meant to stave off lightning strikes and fire believe it or not. On the whole the main attraction was the view and the park itself, with our hotel within walking distance. Osaka Castle served as an appetizer to a much larger, more impressive and authentic structure that we would visit the next day.