It was my first, a visit to Osaka Castle in Autumn proved to be a resplendent experience. Yellow, orange and red colors painted the castle grounds as trees were in autumn foliage. It was beautiful to look at. So much beautiful than seeing it in photos or videos. The colors were alive, the wind is cool and I was there under the trees, awestruck at what I was seeing. This was a much better experience when I was touring the Aichi region two weeks earlier, having visited the Korankei Valley and those interesting cherry blossoms when autumn just started.
I extended my stay in Osaka after the one day invite from Universal Studios. With nothing really specific to do, I just wandered most of the time. Before going out of the inn that I stayed in, I checked the map and some tourist brochures and saw the photo of Osaka Castle. Why not?
The colors of Autumn
From the train station, I just walked in the direction as shown in the map. Way past some buildings to a road lined with trees, crossed the bridge with great views and finally entered the castle grounds. Although seen from afar, Osaka Castle in Autumn is just beautiful. But before proceeding, I was just awestruck at the vibrant colors of autumn as trees were showing off. The road was lined with trees in yellow. At the patch green beside the moat were trees in orange and red while the ground was so colorful. I sat on the bench and just stared and watched the view: people walking by under these trees, looking up to see more colorful foliage. Looking at the moat where a group of ducks were swimming and across where trees on the walls were colored red. Stunning. I was just speechless!
At the castle grounds
It was almost an hour when I started to ascend, walking up where the castle is. Osaka Castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, starting in 1583 and finished in 1597. It is five levels tall and strategically located at a hill overlooking the city. In 1660, the castle was afire due to lightning. Several restorations were done in 1843, 1928 and 1995 with the last one made it into a museum, like other Japanese castles.
I just explored, walking around the castle grounds, admiring the view of the structure and the interesting details but I didn’t enter. Having visited some Japanese castles before, they actually look the same with almost similar museum displays. I watched two people performing for the crowd, I was eating ice cream in one of the shops. And I was just sitting at one of the benches. Although there were many visitors, I found my own space there and just admired the scenery of Osaka Castle in autumn and happy that I was there.
