First thing I did today was get up at 7am. This might seem strange, but I was so exhausted after yesterday that I slept at 8pm...and thus got more sleep than average, not less. By the way, the pictures I promised from yesterday can be viewed here.
Then, I hopped the Osaka Loop line to the Osakajokoen station and I toured the Osakajo (Osaka castle). This castle was the main residence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the man who unified Japan. Inside the castle was a museum that included a number of neat-o artifacts. Toyotomi's stool, for example, was among them. Also there was a letter written by him, his personal fan, and my personal favorite, the actual armor of Sanada Yukimura, who is one of the most famous samurai and one of my heroes. So that was fun. Also, Osaka Castle has an interactive exhibit near the ground floor. For only 300 yen (a bowl of ramen at a ramen shop typically goes for 500 yen or more) you can wear a replica helmet, tunic and sword and have your picture taken. I really debated whether it was worth it to spend almost $4 on something that many would find childish. But I decided that in the long run I would regret not taking the picture more than i would regret taking it.
And thus was this created
After this, I went to the Peace Osaka WWII museum, although I stopped along the way to have the best ice cream I've had in my life (from a street vendor no less). At Peace Osaka, they have a large exhibit on the firebombing of Osaka in WWII. I think this is something the US Government never owned up to. Although they claim they were targeting military targets, firebombs target wooden structures. Military structures are concrete and steel. Wooden structures, then, are civilian. So, the US Air Force was targeting civilians. There is never an excuse for targeting civilians. Due to the bombings, Osaka lost half its population.
I had a great opportunity while I was there. A middle-aged man named Oka-san stopped to ask me where I was from. We discussed each others views on the firebombings and he spoke enough english to help translate a video that was only in Japanese. His kindness and our enlightening talk weren't the surprising parts. In fact, he had been to the museum ten times and was somewhat of a history buff. What I was suprised about was that the woman with him was his 80 year old mother, who lived through the Osaka firebombings. I felt like I was talking to a holocaust survivor. It was her first time coming to the museum and reliving the terror she must have felt during the bombings. Even though Oka-san understood my english, he had me reiterate my opinions in Japanese, I can only imagine so that she could hear what I had to say. It was a very weighty experience for me.
When I finished at Peace Osaka, I checked out the Osaka History Museum, which was attached to the offices of NHK Broadcasting. The museum itself was in a large building but was fairly small. It did, however, have a large collection of artifacts. It was the least impressive of my three visits today.
Then I had one more fun experience before returning here: my bike disappeared. Now, if you know me from Japanese class, you know that when I get nervous my language ability drops off dramatically. Let me tell you, when I panic, I pretty much can't speak Japanese at all. So, I ended up going to the Police Station to file a stolen bike report with the nice English Speaking officer they had there. His name was Teppei Otsuka. I thought it wasn't stolen but rather moved (as I had unwittingly parked it in the wrong place), but he said that because it was a Sunday, it was unlikely that a civilian organization had taken it and the Police knew nothing about it. I got to ride in the back of a police car and see how the Police were organized here without breaking the law, which was nice, but the downside was that if the bike was gone I owed my landlord 6000 yen, around $75.
So, I resolved to search extra hard before I gave up, and sure enough I found the bike, not stolen, moved far down the street away from the zoned parking area that required a permit. It was a relief, but then I had to ride back to the police department to tell them I found it. This whole time they were in contact with Kazu-san so when I got back to my room he already knew that I lost and then found the bike. Although it was fun to ride around in a Japanese police car, the most memorable experience for me was when I told Teppei that I had found the bike and he turned around to the other officers in the department and yelled "Jitensha o mitsuketa!" (he found the bike!) and they all laughed, even the grumpy-looking chief. I was glad that nothing negative came from that and I learned what the one sign meant: don't park bikes here without a special permit.
So I'm back to my room with time to spare and you get to check out the epic pictures from Osaka-jo and the surrounding museums. Enjoy!
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