Japanese castles

It's cool how they're built atop waterfalls.

Takeshi's

Himeji

Definitely the royal palace in central Tokyo.

Be aware that if you’re visiting the Osaka Castle, while impressive, it was mostly rebuilt in the late 1990s.

Nijo jo and Himeji.

r2 Right you are Ken!

[quote]Definitely the royal palace in central Tokyo.

Yes, this, along with Himeji as R3 suggests, and Nijo-jo in Kyoto. While you're in Kyoto may as well do Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Temple as its close by, and the Higashiyama Jisho-ji or Silver Temple which is just across town. Kyoto is stuffed with cultural treasures and isnt all that big, pretty walkable, I'd suggest a few days there

[quote]Be aware that if you’re visiting the Osaka Castle, while impressive, it was mostly rebuilt in the late 1990s.

Actually rebuilt in 1931 in reinforced ferroconcrete, but then rebuilt again in the 90's again in concrete, but with a lift. Only worth seeing if you are staying nearby and have some time to kill

Himeji and Ni-jojo are the right answers. But Nagoya, though rebuilt, has a great reproduction not only of the actual castle, but the palace. Also, Matsumoto is really lovely, if small.

I second Matsumoto. It is quite beautiful as is the train ride up into the mountains. It's in a fairly small town. It can be a day trip from Tokyo if you use the high speed train.

I agree with r7. I'm a historian of Japan and really everything you'd want to see as a tourist is in Kyoto. If you want rustic beauty, go to Shikoku. Osaka somehow got very trendy, but I don't think it's very accessible. It's mainly interesting if you care about the underclass and crime.

Can you visit the imperial compound so you can annoy the emperor emeritus and the empress emerita? I'd like to do that.

I love that there is a historian of Japan on DL!

The photos provided are just lovely.

RUDE!!!

Duhatsukatoroshimato on Toshikotanarito Island.

HIMEJI

Howl's

R10 is correct. Kyoto is a must, even just for the Zen gardens.

My trip to Japan was the greatest trip of my life, and I have been to many places. There is nothing like it on earth.

I’d skip theirs and go directly to Neuschwanstein.

Probably because Neuschwanstein reminds you of Disney, doesn't it, R18

[quote] Osaka somehow got very trendy, but I don't think it's very accessible.

What do you mean, Osaka is not accessible?

I'd rather go to the temples in Kyoto (vs. castles), specifically Kiyomizu-dera. If you could only go to 1 temple in Kyoto, that would be the one.

I've been to Kinkakuji (golden temple) and Ginkakuji (silver temple) and if you had to choose 1 of the 2, I'd say Ginkakuji.

In Kamakura (closer to Tokyo), there's a temple called Hasedera that's worth going to.

It took me longer to find my way out of the Osaka train station than it did to get there from Tokyo. I found it huge and very complicated, sort of unusual given that everything in Japan seems very well organized. I was headed to a gay sauna. It is a fun city. The Japanese are incredibly polite and helpful, but you will always be non-Japanese to them and, therefore, kept at a distance.

[quote]It took me longer to find my way out of the Osaka train station than it did to get there from Tokyo

R22 that isnt surprising, we had the same issue trying to get out of Shinjuku station in Tokyo. Some of those stations are immense mazes the size of a medium sized town in themselves. We went to a gay sauna in Tokyo, it was fantastic, and yes the Japanese are polite and helpful - and lovely when you actually do get to know one

Osaka is accessible in that it's easy to get to, but the things that are cool about it are not very interesting unless you know a lot of Japanese. Osaka is the capital of Japanese comedy and entertainment, and you can go see the Takurakuza all female theater in the western suburbs. There are big Korean and Okinawan communities with interesting restaurants (at least interesting for Japan) and untouchable (burakumin) neighborhoods. There are entire streets controlled by the yakuza if you know where to look south of Namba. Also, there's a public bath run by yakuza in Higashi Osaka, which is a lot nicer than most sento and allows Japanese customers to come in who have tattoos. You can see yakuza and burakumin areas in Kyoto, kind of south of Gojorakuen, but it's not the same level of scuzzy as Osaka.

This might have all changed a lot. I haven't been back in a while.