Growing Love for My Hometown in 'Part 2: Osaka Edition'

With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, travelogues are on hold for the time being.
However, now that we are staying home, it has become a good opportunity to look back on the past activities of the Rekijo Circle.

It was two months ago in July that we published 'Part 1' to commemorate our 10th anniversary.
From the origins of how the 'Rekijo Circle' was launched,
to our goal of following the travel spirit of 'Matsuo Basho',
we touched upon those fundamental aspects, as well as the wealthy merchants and great figures of Osaka, who could be called the source of the power of the commercial city of 'Osaka'.

In Part 2, we dug even deeper into Osaka.
I think it was a good opportunity to go back to basics, look at my local Osaka with fresh eyes, notice things I hadn't seen before, and think about them.

LOVE Osaka

Continuing from last time, this is another travelogue about Osaka.
I was surprised to realize once again that I had actually visited my local area quite a bit.

The foundation of this is love for my hometown itself; to be precise, as I researched Osaka from various angles for this writing, I felt that I had come to love it even more.

And, there was surprisingly a lot to write about.
Or perhaps I should say that I let my imagination run wild and the story expanded on its own.

Even just regarding Osaka Castle, there are various historical facts that transcend time, and I ended up writing quite a lot.
But honestly speaking, I still feel it is not enough.

Although this is a land where I have lived as if it were natural since I was born, I find myself wondering why I haven't looked at it properly until now.

Once I realized that, a spirit of inquiry welled up, and I wanted to know even more deeply, wondering if there was something more.

I would also definitely like to visit the suburbs of Osaka.
I think it is also a good idea to go searching for history that should be lying around in familiar places that I can go to in a day, or even half a day.

Thinking that there might be discoveries even within cycling distance makes me feel restless.

History is wonderful!

↓↓↓ A little spoiler, but I wrote a travelogue with these headings.

History is truly wonderful!

Anyway, wherever humans live, there must be some kind of drama.

Only after knowing that can we say we have 'visited', can't we?
I felt that if you only look at the surface, you won't notice anything, and as long as you don't notice, it's equivalent to 'not having visited'.

This time, by editing local content, I felt a sense of accomplishment in seeing things that had previously been invisible to me.
I have written these thoughts down as they came to me, and I can only hope that this humble book might serve as a guide for someone else's exploration of local history.