Return to Japan

Words and Pictures

Having finished my first year teaching in Korea, I had to pop over to Japan to get a new visa. Japan is a place that has always fascinated me. One of the great cultures of the world, it has emerged as the second world economy while still managing not to sell its cultural soul to the west. My first trip the previous year had left me with a contact in Nara named Natsumi, who I had been mailing sporadically since. We arranged to meet up and go see a baseball game.

Ai, Mako and Natsumi enjoy their team's performance at the Osaka Dome stadium. They didn't have to pay to enter, as on that day anyone from Nara got a free ticket.

After an extremely smooth flight over, I met up with Natsumi and her two friends, Ai and Mako, and we jumped on a train to Osaka Dome stadium. I was concerned about the fact that it was raining pretty heavily, but I should have known that the stadium would be covered. Despite this, it was pretty chilly inside due to air conditioning outlets behind all the seats.

Enthusiastic teenagers and intoxicated salarymen wave plastic noisemakers during a baseball game in Osaka. Baseball is the most popular spectator sport in Japan.

Having just got off a flight, I grabbed a meal at the food stand. Considering this was my first meal in Japan, I found it somewhat amusing that I settled on a pork curry. Japanese food, like Japanese religions, has roots all over the world. The match finished relatively late, and we headed out before finding out the final score, but our team had it in the bag with a 5 run lead.

Anyone for beer? A heavy backpack adorns a beer vendor who supplies 'on tap' beer to spectators at a baseball game.

I spent my first night in Nara, then got up the next morning and headed into Osaka, where I sorted out my visa. I had arranged to meet Mako, who was going to show me around. We had two objectives on our itinerary. Osaka castle, the most visited site in Osaka, and the waterfront area. It took us about half an hour to reach the castle by train.

Osaka castle moat and walls, once a defense against the enemies of the feudal lord, now keeps the skyscrapers of the business area at bay.

The walls of the castle, over five meters thick in places, made me wonder what they were to defend against. I have a feeling they were more a symbol of power than anything else. There are five huge stones in the wall, each weighing over 100 tons, which seems pretty symbolic to me. The outer area of the castle is now a large park containing a baseball field and event hall, but the inner bailey contains a beautiful reconstruction of the original building. The castle building contains a great observation platform on the top and four floors of museum. I enjoyed seeing Japanese armour and swords.

The main building of Osaka Castle (left) is a 1930s replica of the original building. A 400 year old suit of armour (right) sits guard in the museum of Japanese military history housed within.

Following our visit to the castle, we headed to the waterfront area, where we ate traditional Japanese food. Called Okonomi Yaki, it was a of fried mixture of meat, cheese, flour, egg and other ingredients. Smothered with sauce and sprinkled with dried fish shavings, I have to confess that it was the one meal in Japan that I didn't enjoy.