All Mod Cons

The weather here is still swelteringly hot. Normally it would have abated weeks ago, but the temperature is still hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (and that's nearly 90 degrees in old money) and we're almost in October. Last year the switch from sub-tropical to temperate was almost digital - a 5-degree drop almost overnight and bang! We were in autumn.

In vain we trawl internet weather forecasts in search of some respite. The Daily Yomiuri offers no encouragement, but Weatherbug reckons it might be a more palatable 24 degrees by the weekend, so we'll choose to believe that one then (although it's based in Maryland, so there's no reason why we should).

In Year Two we've set our sights on visiting places further afield than Kobe. Osaka is further afield than Kobe (although as it's actually conjoined in the great conurbation that is Kansai, only just), and we thought we'd take a look around Osaka Castle. Not only is it one of the most picturesque of Japan's fortresses, but it's got air conditioning and an elevator.

Unlike Himeji, which never actually saw battle, Osaka jo (castle) was in the thick of it practically from the start. Built by local-farmer's-lad-done-good (he rose to become the most powerful daimyo in all Japan), Hideyoshi Toyotomi, in 1583, it only lasted 31 years before the second-most powerful daimyo, and Tokyo-based chancer, Ieyasu Tokugawa, laid siege to it in 1614. The Siege of Osaka was a pivotal point in Japanese history - the Toyotomi clan lost and Tokugawa's Edo dynasty was to remain in power for over 250 years.

The Tokugawas went about redecorating their new pad, only to have it struck by lightning three times in the next 39 years. On the face of it, that sounds like bad luck, but if you build a castle in a place called 'Large Hill ' (O-saka), pre-Franklin, then maybe you've got it coming. Although improvements were made to the castle grounds in general over the years, it wasn't until 1931 that the main tower was renovated. But then World War II and a few typhoons clobbered it again and, finally, in 1997, it was restored to its four-hundred-year-old glory.

So, I've done the maths, and it would appear that we just visited a 10-year-old castle, with maybe another 90 years on the clock. But it was a small price to pay for the air conditioning and the elevator.