John and I visited Osaka Castle on our first full day in Japan. Deven had warned us that when his family visited, he had done his best as a tour guide and this had led to a lot of walking, so we already knew we'd have a busy first day. The castle grounds cover about 15 acres, right in the middle of an otherwise very dense city. We took a train to the Morinomiya stop, and from there spend a couple hours, walking through most of the grounds. Since the castle sits up on two raised platforms, to reach the castle proper, this meant there were plenty of stairs along the way. Still even though it was a workout, there were beautiful sites to see, and signs describing historical and culturally significant areas that we would linger at along the way.
Osaka Castle's construction started in 1583, and has a long history of being built up at different times in history, due to damages from war or transfer of ownership from one clan to another. It was more recently more damaged, like many Japanese historical sites, in WWII, and in 1997 a restoration project of the Castle was completed, allowing it to now operate as a museum and historical site. If you want to read more details about the history of the site, this page allows you to purchase tickets to go inside the museum (something we didn't do) and see a timeline of some of the major events in its history.
