Cougar Football ‘Sunday’

I have wrested control of both computers. On Chrissy’s computer I have Yahoo sports with two games going and on my computer I am putting together this blog. Chrissy is sleeping in. We had a hike yesterday. If I want to get my football fix, I have to get up early in the morning on Sunday and keep the woman in bed.

On Chrissy’s PC, I have a game track of the WSU/San Diego State game. WSU just scored. We are up 24 to 10! There is no audio for the game, so I am listening to the Texas/TCU game. It is scoreless. Both games are in the 2nd quarter with about 10:00 minutes left. Yahoo broadcasts about 30 games a week. WSU is not an option to listen to the broadcast. The WSU game is simply a ticker. Every 30 seconds or so they post a phrase like, “Brink to Bumpus, pass for 9 yards on the left.” There isn’t a lot of detail. If the games are played late in the evening Saturday, stateside, and if I get up early enough Sunday, I can participate live even if I just get to read the game.

Yesterday, we took a jaunt to Osaka-jo, Osaka Castle. It is huge and another must see. Osaka-jo was originally built in the 16th century, taking 15 years to build, but was burned down within 20 years of being built during a siege. It was completely rebuilt in the 17th century and more recently renovated/re-built in 1931. I don’t know how extensively the castle was rebuilt in 1931, but the castle is well worth the visit. The grounds are enormous. When I compare it in size to the castles we visited in Europe years ago, Osaka-jo is by far larger than the Tower of London and is on par with the castle & grounds of Chambord in France. Castles in Japan, however, are very different than the European castles that have seen. The walls and the motes of Osaka-jo are by far larger. Many of the buildings on the outer wall are original to the 17th century.

The walk around the grounds on the roads around the park would probably be 4 miles or so in circumference. There are two motes, inner and outer. The outer mote is probably 100 yards wide and 3 miles around the outside edge. The rock walls around the entire outer mote are huge. The exterior wall is about 50 feet above the water. The interior wall is about 80 feet above the water. The wall around the inner mote is nearly as large. The walk around the exterior of the inner mote is close to two miles. The walk around the inner wall is probably just under a mile. The tops of the walls are covered with trees and buildings. The outer wall is 100 to 200 yards thick. It is really difficult to describe.

There are five or six concentric rings of stonewalls around the castle. The stones in the wall are as small as garbage can. Most stones are about the size of a refrigerator. (Interesting SD just intercepted Brink, and TCU just intercepted Colt) The largest stones are about the size of a school bus. The length of time it took to build the first castle was about 20 years. The 17th century rebuild took another 20 years. It is tough for me to imagine how many people it took to shape the stones and to build the walls the way they are built. This map was taken from a really interesting website about Osaka-jo if you want to check it out: http://www.osakacastle.net/castle_en/mainmenu.htm

The guidebook recommends Himeji-jo. It says Osaka-jo is worth the visit, but it recommends Himeji-jo. After visiting Osaka-jo, I wonder what the castle in Himeji will look like. We did pick up a disposable camera, but it will take a couple of days to get the pictures onto the computer.

We didn’t have enough time to go into the castle. We had about 45 minutes before they closed. So we ate our picnic lunch on top of the wall in the shadow of the castle. There was a lot of activity on the grounds in front of the castle. A guy and girl sat near us sketching the castle, businessmen walked around taking picture of each other in front of the castle; there was even a man with a variety of tops. He had one top spinning on the edge of a samurai sword. From the top of the wall, trees stretch out over the grounds. Osaka-jo is a very nice park inside both motes and beyond. There was even a concert hall near the entrance to the castle where a Japanese boy band was performing. I say ‘boy band’ based on the crowd-all girls. Chrissy also saw a picture of the three boys who make up the band W-inds. Chrissy said that the grounds around the castle reminded her of Seattle Center, even had a big fountain people were gathered around. From the top of the castle wall in the distance in the castle park, we could hear music from a small festival where numerous dance teams were performing. We planned to return to the area, but by the time we had walked around the inner wall of the castle and most of the outer mote, we headed in a new direction.

We went back to Namba, for shopping and a later dinner. Namba and the area around it are overwhelming. I believe the street Shinshibashi is one of the longest shopping streets in the world. It is as wide as a two-lane street and it was packed with people shoulder to shoulder for as far as I could see. It was difficult to walk down. We ended up walking a different direction. We found a Thai restaurant and stopped in to eat. The waitress took our question, “Does the Pad Thai have any meat?” as an order. She spoke English well enough to understand we were vegetarian, but not well enough to know we didn’t order the Pad Thai. The Pad Thai was delicious. We wanted to leave a nice tip, but Japan does not have a tradition of tipping.

When we left, the man that ran the cash register followed us out onto the street. He tapped me on the elbow and handed me an ornament of some sort. When he tapped me on the elbow, I barely had time to look back and recognize him, receive the little package and see him disappear back into the crowd. It took another minute or so to open the package up to see what it was, it was so dark and crowded. Very nice people. We plan to return especially now that the waitress knows our order. It was 10pm and Chrissy and I were tired so we negotiated our way back to the subway and home.