Osaka Castle Park, Osaka-Shi

LIKED: Well kept, organized. Plenty of historic material and well documented events. DISLIKED: Place does not handle crowds well. Gift shop items very limited.

i enjoyed visiting this castle. be prepared to spend a few hours to read the plaques surrounding the artifacts. this place has beautiful flower gardens and you can meet visitors from all over the world here.

The experience was so fun.I will recommend this place to my friend and come back to visit it in the distant future.I really love it!

The gardens are beautiful and there are a lot of things to do for free there. Just the walk up to the castle is worth the JR ticket price, and the veiw from the top of the castle is worth the few hundred yen that will cost ya.

We visited Osaka castle for the first time in 1984, when the city celebrated the castle�s 300 year anniversary, and then yesterday (July 2006). In 1984 we saw the castle as it was rebuilt in 1931 in an attempt to reproduce Hideyoshi`s castle, which was destroyed by Ieasu in 1615. Of course we could not see either of the real castles that stood there (Hidayoshi`s and the Iemitsu�ｓ (grandson of Ieasu)) we did get a sense of what it was like. This year we saw the castle after it was converted into an air-conditioned museum. The strongest impression was the sense of fakeness. The collection of the museum is indeed impressive, but I would have preferred to see it in the previous museum (an army building of the 1800`s) next to the castle. Also, I found that the museum was not well planned, with multiple exhibits speaking at you loudly, at the same time. Visit the castle only if　you are very interested in the History of Japan, if you have a lot of patience, and can speak Japanese. And if you do want to see a real castle, take an hour train to Himeji, and see one of the most beautiful castles the world has ever seen.

This is a spectacular looking castle from the outside. Looks authentic and orginal, but inside it's pretty much just a museum of artifacts from the orginal Osaka Castle. The castle's been re-done inside; including a elavator and gift shop on the bottom floor. Still worth visiting, but I'd recommend Himeji Castle which is about 1 hour away on the JR railway line.

After entering the huge Osaka Castel PARK for a few minutes you completely forget you are in the middle of an enormous, busy, noisy, polluted city (although not that bad in Oct.). You can easily walk for an hour or more and not even 'see' the castle. The Park is tree covered, mostly types of pines, and extremely fragrant. It is quiet. Just a wonderful place to regroup and relax during the hustle and bustle of using the transportation system to rush from site to site. I last saw and toured the Castle in 1975. Alas, much has changed. Almost all of the castle is closed off except for modern stairs surrounded by a few scenes of castle history. It was probably too much to maintain such a structure with so many visitors. The moat and castle wall defences are well worth seeing. The guy who designed this castle was single-minded in his desire make it impregnable - which it was for a few hundred years. However, the view from the top of the castle, we took the elevator to the 5th floor and walked the final three floors, is worth the walk. This place of peace and quiet is surrounded as far as the eye can see 360 degrees by huge skyscrapers and so forth. As you walk back through the Park (seeing and hearing nothing of the city) you really appreciate the miracle of this place.

I liked Osaka Castle. I thought it was beautiful. It was extremely time consuming and there is only one elevator. It's actually faster to use the stairs, but that's very tiring. It's well worth it though. The view of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's life is a little romanticized, but overall, it's pretty good. Pay the extra money to dress up in the costumes!