3-30-07

So tired . . want to sleep but must go on!

I swear, the longer I`m in Japan the more I feel like an endurance athlete. I want to see everything and enjoy it but I have little precious time left. It`s tough choosing what to see in Osaka considering I have museums, shrines, temples, a zoo, a peace monument and a shopping district to choose from. Luckily Osaka Castle looked like a winner (my third castle so far) so that`s where I went today, after seriously considering sleeping in more on account of my sore and tired legs. But there were sights to be seen, food to be eaten and photos to be taken!

First and foremost was to get to Osaka Castle which proved easier than I expected as the transportation in Osaka is efficient but also confusing. There are so many different train lines and subway stations it`s hard to get them correct at times. After a false start I managed to get to the right platform which took me almost to the foot of the Castle. I still had to walk about 10 minutes but it was a leisurely walk, and look at the castle! Gold gilded, surrounded by a moat and beautiful. Sure it`s a reconstruction (psssh, reconstructions, give me Kumamoto Castle damnit!) but it`s a really nice one. Much of the wall surrounding the castle is original, the blocks are interlocking and held together without mortar, much like Borobudur in Indonesia. The layout itself is amazing, a past warlord had to lay siege to the castle by damming the river and flooding the area.




Outside of the castle were a few begging monks. If I hadn`t read about them first I would have thought they were cosplayers. But no, these guys were for real and so were their hats. Part of me wanted to go up to one and say `Are you Cain? Can you help me?` but that would be culturally inappropriate wouldn`t it? About as culturally inappropriate as eating while walking down the street? Maybe not.




Inside the castle was an impressive permanent exhibition of scrolls, paintings and videos (in Japanese) describing the history and heritage of Osaka Castle. It`s quite amazing, the history of castles is always interesting but Osaka Castle was struck by lightning, had the surrounding area flooded, and went through a civil war. However, the most impressive part was the special exhibition focusing solely on the armaments of ancient Osaka. Now we`re talking. As I mentioned in a previous post I love ancient weapons as most men (adult children) my age do. Not only were there swords but there were full suits of samurai armor, most of which in styles I had never seen before. I mean, when was the last time you saw a helmet like this? Hells yeah!

There were so many suits, so many examples of armor that I couldn`t take pictures of all of them, despite the plentiful `No Photos, No Videos` signs. Of course there was no enforcing of this policy, there never is where large groups of tourists are, the Vatican taught me that much. There they actually have people yelling at you to not take photos but people do it regardless. I always thought they should have the Swiss Guards lay the smack down on picture takers, at least then they could stop looking so funny in their Michaelangelo-designed uniforms and actually get to do something instead of pointing tourists in the right direction of the restrooms.


Anyway there were so many cool things that I actually bought a book on the special exhibition (first time on this trip) just so I could see them all over again. Because honestly, when is the next time I`m going to find a samurai helmet with bivalves on either side? At first I thought they were supposed to be donkey ears, but that didn`t really seem right as you can`t truthfully strike fear into the heart of your enemy by looking like a donkey. Muscles are much scarier cause they . . . grow underwater? I`m still working out why they put bivalve shells on the helmet.



Of course there were plenty of swords and halberds as well, some made by the best sword smiths in Japan at the time. As I gawked and drooled over all of them one in particular caught my eye. A famous sword maker titled `Osaka Masamune` was given permission to use the chrysanthemum crest on the nakago (the tang of the sword which is inserted into the hilt). Upon looking closer to the sword I realized `Sweet jumping jihad, that`s our family crest!`



It`s hard to tell in this photo so I did my best to clear it up and enlarge. Even then it could be another crest, but it`s pretty damn close. I know it`s difficult to see in this photo but if you`re family, you`ll recognize it. This now makes me re-evaluate my family crest hypothesis. Is it a cherry blossom of chrysanthemum? Did we come from peasant blood or samurai blood? I still have no idea but you got to admit this is pretty freaking sweet. Too bad my uncle working on our family genealogy is working on the non-Japanese heritage. Don`t we have any retired Japanese family with a obsession with genealogy? Why can`t we have any Japanese Mormons in the family? I would try to look up this example in the book I bought but it`s back at the hotel. Later I will check it out and see if I can`t get a better picture.

After the inside of the castle I went outside and found . . . a monkey! Jesus they`re everywhere aren`t they? This one was doing the usual Japanese monkey tricks, jumping over things, standing at attention and bowing. But this guy could also walk on stilts and jump over things while on the stilts. I`m working on getting the video online. This monkey was pretty cool but he couldn`t compare to the other monkey that was right around the corner.






Hell, this monkey can juggle knives while pulling off a balancing act! Street performers just love to hang around Osaka Castle. I was able to catch part of a mime show as well and the same monkey show but in a different location. After all this sight-seeing I still had time to stroll through the gardens around Osaka Castle and see some of the cherry blossom trees. Unfortunately most of them are still not in bloom or just stating to open their blossoms so it wasn`t as impressive as I would have liked it. I know, just know that as soon as I leave Japan I`m going to turn on the TV somewhere and see all the places in Japan I`ve been under a veritable carpet of cherry blossom petals and it`s going to be absolutely breathtaking. Whatever, I still got to see them which is more than I can say for the other 99.99% of the world population.

Oh yeah, I also (finally) got to eat squid on a stick. And you know something? It`s delicious! I don`t know why I never tried it before with all the other strange things I`ve eaten. Speaking of eating, I got to try a local (Osakan?) dish that looks like the cross between a pizza and a frittata and tastes unlike anything else I`ve had. I found out it`s called okonomiyaki and is about as Osakan as food gets around here. Except I`m still trying to figure out why they put mayonnaise on the top of it, probably the same reason they put mayonnaise on the octopus balls.