Kakegawa Castle

The next day was a light day, only two destinations really but both were a little further out. We started the day by heading out to Kakegawa castle, which is about 30 kms or so from my home. To get out there we had to travel through Morimachi - yes that's right Forest town. The ladies had mentioned wanting to buy some tea and maybe even a tour of a tea farm. Well it wasn't quite season yet (very close) so I remembered seeing a nice tea store in Mori town and we stopped off there on the way. The store was great, there was one lady that could speak a little bit of English so tried her hardest to help us out (apologizing for her poor English- though I thought it wasn't bad). They sat us down and gave us a sample of the tea and of a nice tea jelly. The free tasters are a nice touch, but I did feel like I had to buy something now that we had tasted. Anyway, she gave us a bunch more samples and answered our questions and we all left with a little bit of tea in our hands.
Finally we found ourselves at Kakegawa castle. The castle looks quite large and is strategically located on the top of a hill, offering a great viewpoint for the surrounding area. The literature there said that Kakegawa castle is the largest all wood reconstruction of a castle in Japan. It is quite beautiful and has a nice courtyard.The castle was also quite easy to defend as you can see in the picture my mother defending the castle against marauding samurai.
There is also a nice little park located next to the castle that made it quite a peaceful setting and in my opinion a little bigger and nicer than Hamamatsu castle.

Ni jo no-no

My mother and Aunt actually arrived here a little earlier than I saw them. They had about 6 days worth of tours between Tokyo and Kyoto through JTB tour. I chatted with them on the first day and then unsuccessfully tried to call them at their hotels for the last 4 days of their tour. On the day before meeting with them, I was getting worried when I tried to call the hotel in Kyoto at 8 pm and they hadn't checked in yet. I needed to talk to them as I was meeting them in Kyoto in order to guide them back to Hamamatsu on the regular train ( I had a discount ticket the seishun juuhachi kippu that gave me 5 day passes for 8000 yen- this year was a special price!). Well I did some detective work after a while and found that their tour that day would have them arriving late in Kyoto. My wife left a message for them at check in and we finally got in contact.
At the last minute I decided that it might be a good idea for me to track down a hotel to stay in and I found the mitsui garden hotel shijo. The hotel was a little more than I wanted to pay, but comfortable and conveniently located. I arrived a bit early after stopping off in Nagoya and visiting my pals in the Nagoya office for the company I work for, Time/Life Zenken- so I tried to go site seeing nearby and picked Nijo-jo to visit.
To my chagrin after taking the two or three pictures I could from across the way, I found out the castle closed at 4 o'clock! I had just checked in at 4- oh well, a future visit I suppose. Instead I wondered the popular shopping district around Karasuma/Shijo and was impressed with how many shops there were.
Finally it was about 6 o'clock and I found my way to the Nikko Princess hotel where Cathy and Liz were staying.
The ladies both were a bit tired after a hectic schedule of touring, but after a quick freshen up were ready to find some dinner.
My mom-
Aunt Liz...
We headed back to Shijo and found a restaurant/izakaya called Kyoto dining (or something like that)- and had a surprisingly delicious dinner- but no, we didn't eat tofu there!
The first day was brief but a good and interesting start to the ladies visit with us!

Hamamatsu Castle

One of the great historical sites around Hamamatsu is the Castle- Hamamatsu-jo. It stands about a 15- 20 minute walk from the Main train station and offers a slight glimpse of the area's history. The sad fact about pretty much all of the castles around Japan is that they were at one point destroyed either through natural fire or as a result of the bombings in the World Wars- so this,like many of the castles, is a reconstruction that took place in 1958.

The castle has a few other names over the years Shusse-jo meaning success castle is a reference to the fact that many lords that have lived there have gone on to enjoy more success in later years. Another old name is Hikuma Castle that was changed when the great Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu claimed the castle as his own. Apparently he fought several of his more famous battles here in his 17 year stay in the region.


To be honest, I thought that I had taken more pictures around the castle but these two recent ones are the only ones I can find. This website has some nice pictures and information though.I do have this old video that some people have already seen. It isn't my best work- but there are some nice visuals in it...

The video

Here is the link for the video, if you are on a slow connection, you can easily skip it, but I thought there was some nice pictures in there that I wanted to share so just click on the link below!

My Video on Youtube.

Looking back part 1: First Trip{b}

Continuing my first adventure into Japan....

We didn't end up taking a picture with the bride and groom at the wedding, so here is a picture of Ritsy looking great, me with a white tie, and a number of Ritsy's Nurse friends...

Later that night, we went to a nijikai party (or second party) and I can't remember what we won in bingo. We capped that night with my first foray into karaoke- I vaguely remember singing Guns and Roses with another guy (Taka I think?)

The next day we spent at Ritsy's family's house that have always been very kind and accepting to me! Next day, we hit the road to Kumamoto to visit some of Ritsy's friends down there. Yes, we did eat raw horse there- and it wasn't bad! Well one of the most interesting things to me was Kumamoto castle.


That's me and Ritsy's friend Moto. The day after that we hopped in the car and went to Aso- a volcano very close to Kumamoto. I never saw any lava, but the area was quite beautiful.


I remembered my friend Phillipa who had spent time in Osaka talking about seeing wild monkeys in Japan. So I was obsessed with seeing monkeys- but to an avail, the best we could do was to catch a monkey show near Aso.


Later we headed back to Hama-town and then we went to USJ Osaka with Ritsy's sisters. Ritsy was almost eaten by a dinosaur there...


All in all it was a great trip and I still remember all the people and places from that adventure fondly. I will link to the video with the other pictures before tomorrow's blog!