Today we went to Osaka-Jo, a castle in central Osaka originally built in 1583. It took about 100,000 workers three years to finish this symbol of power, built under Toyotomi Hideyoshi to celebrate his successful unification of Japan. Then 30 years later it was destroyed. It went through another round of construction/destruction, and the current building is from 1931.
The full grounds are quite large and well-maintained, and are surrounded by a moat, with turrets in the corners. I believe there were three (?) rings of defense walls.
Each level had a ton of interesting information on the history of the castle, including several videos about its most recent incarnation. It had a segment on the American bombing of Japan during WWII, which was... um, fun... to watch. Surrounded by Japanese.
The highlight was the 8th floor observatory, which had nice views of the city. Gives some perspective on how large of a city Osaka is.
Honestly, you'd think the kid didn't know how to smile. We took three pictures on the observatory and he's making the same face in each: I showed up, what more do you want?
Also, tonight Malcolm was really getting the hang of this walking thing:
1 comment:
yeah malcolm! elle is going to have to watch this so she can study your turn technique...
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