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Published: October 3rd 2013
Looking Up
At Kumamoto CastleI was up early on Thursday morning to catch the train for the long trip to Kumamoto. The downside to it being so early (besides it being so early!) was that it was the middle of peak hour, with lots of people going to work. Luckily I had my seats reserved so there were no issues.
I first had to catch a train back to Okayama on Honshu, before changing to a shinkansen that was heading to Kyushu. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the train trip I was hoping for because there are quite a lot of tunnels along this part of the journey, so there wasn’t as much to see as I had hoped. Because of this, I had a bit of a snooze along the way.
I arrived in Kumamoto before lunchtime and jumped on a tram after grabbing an English map from the tourist information centre. The castle is quite a way from the shinkansen station, and I only had 4 ½ hours so I had to skip the walk this time.
The castle itself is a reconstruction, because the original burnt down in 1877, during the civil war after
the Meiji restoration. However, the stone walls are original, and some of the turret buildings survived the fire and are original as well. Like many of the other castles, it is situated on a hill, surrounded by lovely gardens. However, the grounds are significantly larger than other castles I have visited and that’s what really made Kumamoto impressive.
As I walked around the grounds in the typically indirect fashion of Japanese castles, I soon encountered groups of school kids drawing and painting the castle. There were a lot of them around, obviously on a school trip, and I got many hellos here as well. As I got closer to the keep there were a lot of other school groups too, besides the artists. It must have been a day for excursions.
Heading up into the keep was quite interesting. It was modern inside, being a reconstruction, so the stairs were at a reasonable angle. The displays inside were different from previous ones because they concentrated on the role of the castle and its lords in the Satsuma rebellion after the Meiji restoration. Although not all of the text was translated, I’m glad that most
of it was so I could follow the majority of the exhibition. Once again, the view from the top of both of the towers was fantastic. It was only from there that I could truly appreciate how big the grounds are.
After a drink and some souvenir shopping, I headed out the back of the grounds (well, the back compared to where I came in) towards the second part of the combined ticket I had purchased – the Kyu-Hosokaway Gyobutei. It was a lord’s mansion, built when the Meiji Imperial government made the castle a military installation and insisted everybody had to live elsewhere. It was quite a nice house, with lots of little bits and pieces that showed how the feudal lords lived at the end of the feudal era. I had to rush through because I was running out of time, but I don’t think I missed much because there was little English that I could see.
Being on the wrong side of the castle for the tram and running short on time, I decided to take a taxi back to the station to ensure I didn’t miss my train. I’m glad
to say I didn’t, and I had a very nice trip back to Takamatsu.
I thought I would conclude this blog entry with some details about what makes Japan’s trains so good, besides the running on time thing. For starters, it’s the staff. Apparently working for the railways is held in high esteem in Japan so you don’t get any of the surliness we get back home in Sydney. It’s the little things that make the service so nice though. One of my favourites is that every member of staff bows to the carriage as they enter or leave. Whether it’s the food trolley, or the ticket checker, they all do it without fail.
And the staff are all well dressed, and meticulous about their job. You can see them pointing at things like closing doors, and some of them seem to be reciting lists to themselves as they do their job. On the way to Kochi, I had the opportunity to watch the driver at work, and he pointed at various signals along the way even though nobody (normally) is watching.
On the shinkansen, in the green section anyway, I
Looking Down
At Kumamoto Castle have been given at least one moist paper towelette on every trip. And on some trips I have also been given a small lolly. On the way back from Kochi, the ticket checker gave only me one, so I suspect it’s something she does for tourists.
As I said, it’s the little things that make travelling on the trains here so special. If you ever come to Japan, make sure you buy a rail pass and explore the country by rail. I also spent the extra money to get a green pass so I can go into the green sections on trains, and it’s been worth every cent.
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