Naniwa-no-Miya-Ato Park (Naniwanomiya Palace Site Park)

This guide to Naniwa-no-Miya-Ato Park in Osaka follows the decades-long hunt for Japan's lost seventh-century capital, first suspected after a lotus-carved roof tile turned up in 1913 with no one able to place it. It follows historian Tokutaro Yamane, who organized a dig that in 1958 uncovered scorched pillar holes proving a great wooden hall once burned here. Under a camellia hedge nearby, red tiles trace an even older layer of palace, burned in that same fire. Look for the raised stone platform underfoot, and the hedge a short walk away.