O-saka!

I have found around here that when people pronounce the name of this city, they tend to put a small accent and draw out the "O" sound a little. After our Kobe adventures, the next day Mary Ann and I went to Osaka. This is a city larger than Kobe and about a half an hour to the east by train. I don't know how to describe it, maybe like the Chicago of Japan? People in Kobe like to say, "Well, yes, there may be more things to do, but Kobe is much nicer."
I had heard good things about the Osaka castle there, so that's where we headed. Not much trouble getting over there on the train and not a far stroll from the train station. Again, we had a nice Spring-like day and we were greeted outside the castle by a small bonsai garden. The grounds around this castle were huge! We followed the crowd and came upon a bunch of flowering trees. We thought maybe we had hit the early side of cherry blossom time, but later learned we were in the "plum orchard." It was huge! It had countless kinds of plum trees, many very old, all different colors, and it smelled wonderful!! There were also quite a few folks out there selling plums trees and plum bonsai. I wanted to buy one so bad, but figured I would not be able to bring it back to the US. Oh well!
We ambled around the grounds and found one of the main gates. The castle is so huge, it hard to appreciate from photos. Unfortunately, instead of preserving the interior of the castle, the folks controlling this property turned the inside of this castle into a museum. A little disappointing, but intersting nonetheless. Next to the stunning sights and smells of the day, I found the story of the founder of the castle, Hideoyoshi Toyotomi, and the rise and fall of the castle very interesting. The castle fell in a war in the summer of 1615, and there is a replica of a huge painting that details the battle including the famous leaders involved. Incredible! I have included a pic with a shot of the replica and models of period soldiers. There is a companion painting showing the fall of the castle with people fleeing and swimming for their lives. Although the figures in the paintings are by necessity tiny, I think the paintings are amazing because you can actually see a lot of emotion in the soldiers and fleeing courtesans along with actually a good sense of action and movement. Not bad for early 17th century!