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After spending a couple of wonderful days in Kanazawa, I continued on my history themed trip and went to Inuyama to the famous Inuyama Castle.
Inuyama Castle is a UNESCO world heritage site because it is the oldest wooden castle in all of Japan. When I went to Sapporo for the Yuki Matsui last year, I saw a reproduction of the castle in snow and when I was flipping through my pictures recently, it made me remember that I really wanted to see it before I left Japan for good. So after I had some problems finding a place to stay in Shirakawa-go, I decided to put Inuyama in my trip and I found a decent minshuku, or bed and breakfast really.
I got in around 1:30, found my minshuku, which was ever so conveniently located across the street from the station, dropped off my stuff and set out for the castle. The place was actually pretty quiet. I was expecting a lot of people there because it was Golden Week, but I only saw a handful of tourists walking around the town and the castle site itself.
The castle is set up on a hill that over
looks the river and it's easily seen from the station and the surrounding area. It's a little hike uphill to get there, but it was amazing to be walking in a castle that had been there for over 400 years. The wood was dark and aged, there were very steep staircases all over the place. More like ladders than actual stairs, really. They were kinda scary to go up and down though. All of the older people going down the stairs were almost chanting how scary they thought it was.
The scariest part for me, however, was actually walking around at the top of the castle. There were signs all over it telling you not to lean on the railing because it wasn't safe and I felt like I was going to walk off the edge the whole time I was there. The boards were squeaky and my imagination got the better of me, so I stayed along the outer wall and tried to stay our of people's way. The view: spectacular. The atmosphere: perfect.
After the castle, I headed to the local garden. It's at the base of the castle and it's very lovely. There are tea
houses that have been moved to the site, one of them is the small lean tea house that Oda Nobunaga's uncle used when he was a prominent tea master. Matcha tea and sweet are served at one house; which is highly recommended by me, and a wonderful walk in a small bamboo forest. Something that I always love.
I explored the town a little bit, and discovered that if you go across the bridge, you are in an entirely different prefecture. I checked out the JR station and bought tickets for my next trip before I moved on and started looking for a post office ATM to take out some money from home. It turns out, that my US ATM card expired in December and I didn't even notice! So I walked back to my minshuku, had a bath and waited for dinner. I was the only guest there. I had dinner and breakfast the next day all to myself. It was slightly strange since I'm still pretty sure that I had the hotel in Kanazawa all to myself as well. Only downside to my minshuku was that it was, literally, across the street from the station. I could
head the trains coming and going until midnight and got the early morning wake up calls at 6am. Not the best nights sleep I have ever had.
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