My Trip to Japan (Part 2)

After a comfortable night's sleep, I was greeted by a stunning blue sky the moment I woke up. The sky was a clear, dust-free blue, as painted it with a thin pigment, making it feel both close at hand and infinitely deep. Before coming to Japan, I had often heard people say that the sky there was exceptionally blue. The scene before me proved that it was no exaggeration at all.

After breakfast, we set out for Osaka Castle, home to its famous tenshukaku. The whole tenshukaku was surrounded by a moat, which reflected the sky, creating a shimmering effect. We walked onto the bridge, crossed the moat, and finally arrived at the entrance to the tenshukaku.

The tenshukaku stood gracefully against the blue sky. Just as I was immersed in this beautiful scenery, a man with bowl cut came to me, asking if I could take a picture for them. I nodded and took the phone. The phone's language was Korean, which made the moment rather interesting—a Chinese person taking a photo for a Korean tourist at Japanese landmark. For a brief momenet, the citizens of three countries—bound by a complex history of love, hatred and compromise—stood in a quiet harmony.

When I arrived at the gate beneath the tenshukaku, I found a long queue in front of the ticket machine. Although I could have bought an e-ticket, I decided to wait in line to see whether my newly obtained Visa debit card would work properly.

Around half an hour later, I finally reached the front of the ticket machine. I selected the ticket on the screen and inserted my card, waiting for the payment to go through. To my surprise—but perhaps not entirely unexpectedly—the transaction failed. After all, it was a Visa card issued in Mainland China. It was only about six months later, after I obtained another card—a Mastercard that worked without any problem—that I finally understood what had happened. By then, after enabling a few settings on my phone, the same Visa card that had once failed started working normally. In a small way, it made the world feel a little closer and more connected to me.

Finally, I entered the tenshukaku and made my way to the top floor.

The entire city of Osaka spread out before me. My gaze stretched into the distance, meeting the mountains that encircled the city. Skyscrapers and low-rise apartments intertwined, composing a harmonious skyline with a distinctly Japanese character.

I visited the Osaka Museum of History shortly after lunch. Most of the exhibit descriptions were in Japanese and English—neither my native language—so reading all of them in detail would have been overwhelming. I ended up skimming most of them. However, one gallery stood out to me. Along one side, a glass wall streched, offering a direct view of Osaka Castle. As I read about the castle's history, I could simply lift my eyes up and see the castle itself, standing there as a silent witness to the past. It was easy to imagine what it might have looked like in the past. In that moment, the past and the present seemed to meet.