Osaka Castle and Park 2016

On Friday, we went to the main site in Osaka, the Osaka Castle and its park. The castle is surrounded by two moats which have been partially but not completely rebuilt after numerous historical misfortunes. Depending on how you approach the castle you might not notice one or the other moat. On the way to the castle we didn't really notice the outer moat.

The Aoyamon Gate to the inner moat

Kevin in front of the inner moat.

Moats are cool that's why.

Have fun storming the castle! (That never gets old.)

Me and Kevin in front of Osaka Castle

There aren't that many sites in Osaka, and though we would have liked to eat all the delicious food all day we just couldn't. So even though we knew the inside of the castle isn't supposed to very exciting we went in it anyway. It wasn't that exciting.

Top of the castle

View from the top of the castle

Diorama of an ancient battle

Ice cream and beer break! Woo!

This bring me to a point about beer in Japan. It's available the way soda is in the US, and it's fine to just have one wherever you buy one. It seems very normal and civilized.

Japanese wedding! Gorgeous!

Back of wedding dress/ outfits

Kevin being interviewed by school children

We walked around outside the castle for a little while. There was more to explore but it was Friday already and my feet were just one big blister. We were both excited to head to the baseball game. Kevin because he loves baseball- and me because I was excited to sit for hours!

Toyokuni Shrine

Outer moat!

Fountain in "Citizen's Forest"

Walk Through Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 2016

Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine and Kiyomizu-dera Temple were the main sites on our agenda for the day, but the Kodai-ji Zen Temple (高台寺) was nearby in Higashiyama-ku. It is a temple of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism and the largest subtemple of the Kennin-ji branch.

Zen garden! I just want to run out there with a rake! 

You can see the Ryōzen Kannon sticking out of the trees.

Kevin walking around the garden

Me in front of a scenic pond and Kodai-ji Zen Temple

Gardens

From certain points of the Kodai-ji Zen Temple you can see the Ryōzen Kannon (霊山観音) War Memorial commemorating those who died in the Pacific War located in Eastern Kyoto. The statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon was made out steel and concrete by Hirosuke Ishikawa in 1955. The statue is 80 ft high.  The site also has a memorial hall in honor of the unknown soldier killed in World War II.

Side view of the Ryōzen Kannon from the Kodai-ji Zen Temple

Ryōzen Kannon and War Memorial building

Ryōzen Kannon  close-up

Through the gate

From there we headed back through Maruyama Park, which was gorgeous. The park has a weeping cherry tree, musical entertainment, and what appeared to be a heron trained to pose for pictures.

Maruyama Park

Trained heron

Music captured in a video I haven't uploaded yet

Park and Weeping Cherry Tree

To get to Gion, we passed through the Yasaka Shrine. Seriously, you can't get from point A to Point B in Kyoto without accidentally walking through a beautiful shrine or temple.

Yasaka Shrine

In Gion we walked around some more, did some shopping, and finally headed to the train station for our hotel reservation in Osaka that evening.

River in Gion

Streets in Gion

Gion

Fushimi Inari-taisha, Kyoto 2016

The Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) shinto shrine in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto is awesome. It is the head shrine of Inari, the kami (spirit/god) of foxes, of fertility, rice, tea and Sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of the Shinto faith. There are thousands of Inari shrines in Japan, and actually we went to a smaller one in Tokyo.

Thursday morning- Us in front of the Two-storied Gate

You start at the base of the Inari mountain with the two-storied gate followed by the main shrine. As you follow the trail up the mountain you go through Torii gates and visit the other smaller shrines until you reach the top of the mountain which is 233 meters (764 feet) above sea level. We were told it would take us about 2 hours to walk up and took almost exactly that amount of time (counting the time it took me to snap hundreds of photos).

Main shrine

Map shows main gate, main shrine, torii, and other shrines

Monks visiting the main shrine

We visited a lot of shrines and temples on our visit to Japan but what was really special about this site were the Torii gates and the way they interacted with the natural beauty of the mountain. Torii gates were the inspiration for The Gates art installation in Central Park in 2005 by the Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude. I've been disappointed I missed that exhibit while it was in New York, but now I've seen the original and it's amazing.

I love the Torii Gates

Senbon Torii (1000 Gates)- The place where the gates are side by side.

Cool from the this angle 

And from this one

Look up!

The gates were different heights and there were varying amount of spaces between them and the natural setting changed from area to area. All of this contributed to a different feeling as you went through each area.

The were higher and more spaced

A shrine area along the way

View of Kyoto

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View of Kyoto behind me. We're about 75% of the way up now.

Another shrine-type area

I was feeling pretty proud of myself. The hike felt challenging to me and I hadn't complained at all about the millions of steps we had been going up. Then I saw an old Japanese lady chugging along in front of me at about an equal or faster pace and I no longer felt proud. I felt like a whiney American.

San no mine (near fox cloud on map)- with my new old lady inspiration

Ichi no mine- near the top of the mountain

The top of the mountain itself was not that well marked or that exciting- but we were happy to see the entire site.

Top of the mountain selfie!

My fox imitation- also how I feel after hiking a mountain

On the way back down now

On the way back down

Gozendani worship place

Tied up fortunes