大阪城 - Osaka Castle

Okay, let's get the boring stuff over with first. This morning I did laundry, some homework, and worked on this semester's master syllabus.

Then, the rain let up and I jumped on the chance and went to see the cherry blossoms at Osaka Castle! I have been waiting for this for some time! The only train trouble I had all day was on the very last train coming home, which I only had to ride for one stop - it was the line that has the same name as a line going the opposite direction...and I went on that opposite direction one. Thankfully, I hopped off at the next station and got back with no extra charge. Also, my host father showed me a way to save money by buying weekend coupon tickets.

When I was first walking up to the castle, I was a bit surprised. For one, it looked like the K-Pop band Shinee is performing either in or nearby Osaka Castle Park. I saw their truck as well as a lot of Korean people looking very excited (I heard them speaking Korean and saw some taking selfies with the truck). Secondly, after seeing the abundance of sakura in Nara, my initial impression of the castle grounds was that there wasn't enough cherry blossoms. However, as the day went on, I saw more and more cherry blossom trees and beautiful shots of the castle with the blossoms (which I will post throughout today's post despite their incongruity with whatever I will be writing - especially since photography was prohibited inside the castle museum).


















The rain started up again as I was entering the castle, but thankfully it was just a consistent drizzle and I make it a habit to always have my umbrella on me - the adventure was able to continue! The rain also made for some nice shots and scenery. All the umbrellas added color while hiding faces. Also, there were reflections of the cherry blossom trees in the puddles on the ground and, since the castle's blossoms have reached full bloom, the raindrops pushed petals off the stems, making it rain petals as well as water. Funny story, I freaked out when I was downloading my pictures onto my computer because there were two folders instead of one on the SIM card - turns out I reached the 9999 mark on my camera's records and have started over so I don't exceed four digits in the code. So I have now taken over 10,000 pictures on this camera...?

The above picture has a funny story to it too. To get this angle, I had to kneel on the ground, but there was a puddle right where I needed to kneel. So I was in a half-squat, half-split position, looking very funny. And there was a couple behind me giggling, but, hey, LOOK AT THIS AWESOME PHOTO!!

Anyway, as museums go the entry fee was pretty decent. The castle had eight (technically 7) floors with the topmost being a gorgeous, 360-porch viewing point and the entry fee was 600 yen (about 6 dollars, if not less). The first floor was mainly layout and gift shop (which was expensive) and the second floor had information on the construction and composition of the castle. The real museum stuff started on the third floor with art and artifacts concerning the Momoyama period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Toyotomi actually constructed this castle in his attempts to unite the country. Here is a bullet list of things I learned and saw, if anyone is interested.

• Toyotomi's crest was three paulownia flowers and I had to have read the word "paulownia" thirty times today - they were everywhere on his belongings.
• Tokugawa's crest is three hollyhock leaves, which I liked because I love hollyhocks.
• There were several samurai and feudal lords' armor suits. One of which had 3-4 feet long horns and a small crescent moon on the helmet while the body had the maki-e painting of a monkey reaching for a reflection of the true moon. Apparently, this references an old Asian fable in which that monkey slips and drowns, warning against ambition lacking ability.
• There was also a monk's suit of armor with two red two-feet long horns on the helmet (with a golden dragon) and two huge, curved metals pieces creating a circle behind the armor. I'm not sure how it would have worked in battle, but it looked cool in the museum.
• Maki-e is a type of lacquer-ware art technique that is quite pretty (I wish I could describe it more thoroughly, but we do have Google). 
• The oldest known illustration of Osaka Castle is housed in the museum and is a two-panel screen painting
• Lots of screen painting, mainly of the Kano School of art with lots of golden background
• You could also tell when the art was more Heian-period (with a lot of space filled with golden clouds and people are often elaborately dressed) and more Momoyama (playful, simplistic yet detailed)
• Fans, letters, calligraphy, paintings, boxes, swords (bare hilts and elaborate scabbards), tsuba (sword mountings to protect sword-bearer's hands), Portuguese-inspired pants and art, and more
• There were secret books for gunnery schools, similar to how there were secret ninjutsu scrolls of the various ninja houses - these often conflicted. For instance, one school of gunnery claims that guns came from Europe and gave people supernatural abilities while the other one claimed that they came from China in which a deity gave the emperor a gun via a dream as a way to keep control.
• I learned stuff about Hideyoshi that I wasn't able to learn in history class - how he held a tea party and then a cherry blossom viewing party on a grand scale to include commoners: he took over an enemy castle by building a dam nearby and flooding the castle: he really liked China (I kind of knew this from class, but I did not realize how much - for instance, he personally asked the Chinese emperor if he could wear a Chinese-style crown)
• The 7th floor of the museum talked of Hideyoshi's life and had a series of little shadow-box type cases in which little scenes were set up and then, on a timed schedule, little hologram people enacted whatever scene they represented, complete with Japanese dialogue - very neat (made me think of Star Wars)
• Though it wasn't actually on display, one floor explained the Summer War of Osaka Castle, the contributing main figures, and surveyed sections of an gigantic screen painting depicting the war (which the artist was forced to create by one of said figures)
• Date Masamune, a warrior and politician, was known as the "One-eyed Dragon" since he had only one functioning eye, but he forced any artists who depicted him to always include both eyes - so there are no pieces of artwork depicting his true face
• There was a 6th floor, but not accessible. I'm guessing it was a secret, emergency, hiding spot type floor.
• Both this museum and the Todaiji museum had free stamps and ink-pads that visitors could use. I hope that any other museums I visit here have them!
• The scenery from the top floor was quite gorgeous, though it was still drizzling. We could not see as far, but it was kind of neat to see each layer of the city to become fainter and cloudier.

The picture on the right is simply a coincidence concerning colors. I have a rainbow umbrella, and some oil from a parked car (I'm guessing) was in a side street in the park and I thought it was a neat picture.

Though it was not a sunny day, I was so happy to see the cherry blossoms of Osaka Castle! It seems there will be a cherry-blossom-viewing party for study abroad students next weekend at Osaka Castle, however 1. I want to check out the first scuba diving club meeting on that day and 2. Since the newspapers claimed Thursday to be the official full-bloom point of Osaka Castle's blossoms and the projected weather forecast says it will be raining all week PLUS how I saw so many petals falling in just today's drizzle....my host dad agrees that next weekend may be too late. A silver lining though is that I've heard that Osaka Castle has a nice night set-up, with lots of lights and is quite beautiful.

This is from the second floor of the museum, where pictures were still allowed. I'm pretty sure it is a remodeled retired external wall ornament of the castle. It's hard to see in pictures, but the castle has golden tigers, herons, and dragon/fish here and there either as small sculptures or in relief-style. Actually really neat.

And, to the right is one of said dragon/fish things as well as a small glimpse of the view from the top of the castle.

It was so nice being able to take my time reading the descriptions of artifacts in the museum as well as take my time admiring everything. I also could spend however long I wanted on pictures, or check out different spots for good shots. I ended up having a lot of fun.

I think that concludes the day, other than a wonderful dinner and dessert with my host family and my host dad's sister. Turns out, two of my host family's three daughters will be visiting in May - so I will be able to meet them! They all have something they are really good at: one is a certified chef and lives in Indonesia, the other is a level two (or almost level two) kyuudou archer, and the eldest is a mom who works and is amazing at sketching.

Well, good night and sweet dreams - good day and sweet...daydreams? Anyhow, until tomorrow.