I've has an affinity for castles ever since I was a kid. One of the coolest things about Okinawa is that it is home to twenty castle ruins. My inner ten year old comes out when I get to explore one of them. When we planned our trip to Osaka I found out that it was home to a castle, and I told Amanda that we were going. Not that I would like to go. We were going.
Osaka-jo was easily one of the coolest and most striking things I've ever seen. When you approach it the first thing you see are the sixty foot stone walls that were placed by hand. Some of the stones were as tall as I am. The next thing you see is the moat, and that is followed by audible squealing on certain castle enthusiast's part.
The castle had two walls and two moats. They were both imposing and beautiful at the same time.
As we wove our way around the castle walls to get to the inner bailey, we entered the main gate.
And just inside was the biggest stone I've ever seen.
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| No, but really. Hand placed. One stone block. |
A sign next to it explained that it weighed 108 tons and was so big it had a name- the Octopus Stone. I would have gone with the "you're-pretty-much-screwed, welcome-to-Osaka" stone since it guards the front door, but Japanese culture is all about subtlety. Again, hand placed, people. No trucks. No heavy equipment.
After reeling from analyzing the defenses and the building techniques, we rounded the wall and the castle came into view.
The five story tower has beautiful oxidized copper shingles and gold leaf decorations. It was breathtaking and a wonderful last stop before heading home to Okinawa.
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