Hideyoshi Toyotomi began construction of Osaka Castle in 1583. Construction was completed just prior to his death. His family (the Toyotomi clan) held the area until Tokugawa took over in 1615 and the Edo Period began. The Hokoku Shrine was built in his honor on the Osaka Castle grounds late in the 19th Century.
The best skies are those at dawn, dusk, or during changing weather. Today’s photo, from the Umeda Sky Building, featured two of those three.
Today’s photo is my random, desktop image of the day. I started looking at it in more detail and came to a strange discovery.
The three bridges on the right are obviously train bridges, the Hankyu Kobe (阪急神戸本線) and Hankyu Kyoto Lines (阪急京都本線) to be exact. In between is an automobile bridge, part of National Route 176 (国道176号). But the bridge on the left was a mystery. Nothing is on it. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be a road at all. Upon closer inspection I could see that it merely connects the two buildings on either side of the river. I dug deeper and discovered that the building on the other side of the river is an NTT building (NTT西日本淀川ビル). So I’m guessing that inside this bridge are a bunch of cables for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.
Today’s photo was taken just after a big storm. In fact, the observation deck in the Umeda Sky Building was closed due to lighting strikes in the area just before reopening in time for me to grab this image.