Today I went to Osaka Castle, a medieval fortress built pre-1600 and served as a base for the Shogun.
The castle sits on top of 20m or about 60 feet of compacted soil, raising the grounds to be higher than the surrounding area, for better defense. The fact they did this over 400 years ago, manually, is very impressive.
The area is surrounded by a wide moat and high stone walls. Although this seems to me not very difficult to climb, as there are large gaps between the stones that you could place a hand or foot. This is likely not how it was originally, being more tight fit, but I have no way of knowing.
The interior of the castle has undergone much change, turning it into a museum. There are 2 central stairways, one up, one down, leading to each of the eight (yes, eight) floors to reach the top balcony area. The balcony would have been a safe place to be in an attack, you could easily stand there firing your arrows at the enemy on the other side of the moat, while being out of reach of theirs.
It was much smaller than expected. The balcony area was only 20-25 feet square, most being interior space. One could feel claustrophobic even standing outside.
For some reason, they don’t allow photos on certain floors. Perhaps the documents can be damaged by flashes, but then why not allow for passive cameras. It was not difficult to wait for the guy to come around and tut-tut at someone taking pictures, then wait for him to pass by and get a photo anyway.
The grounds have lost their smaller buildings, now just a courtyard for tourists, but have many trees for much needed shade. They are quite picturesque, and I enjoyed sitting and just looking at the scenery. (Of course, this could be that I am too tired to do anything but sit.)
There is also another museum on the grounds, being for miniatures. Items range from small cars and trains to cartoon and anime characters. I could not find out if these were actually used in any TV or movies.
A token was include with entry to use on one of their many toy dispensers (which are ubiquitous across Japan). They dispense a ball about 4 inches across, with some trinket inside, but you don’t even get to keep the ball, there is a basket to “recycle” them. I saw nothing I was interested in more than keeping the coin, so I did.
