OSAKA CASTLE AND TEMPLES DAY OUT 

On this day we spent the day exploring Osaka Castle,parks and Temples Osaka Castle was founded as Osaka Hongan-ji Temple (Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple) during the Sengoku period, and has always had a deep connection with Japanese history, from the Ishiyama Battle against Oda Nobunaga, to its construction by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, its fall during the Siege of Osaka, its reconstruction by the Tokugawa Shogunate, its destruction during the upheaval of the Meiji Restoration, its coming under the control of the army after the Restoration, and its postwar development into a park. All of the ancient structures that can be seen today, such as the stone walls and moats, the Otemon Gate, Tamon Turret, and Sengan Turret, date from after the Tokugawa period, and the entire area has been designated a special national historic site, and most of the old structures are designated Important Cultural Properties.