Trip to Nagoya Castle

Now on a nice Saturday Jessica, Corey, Spring, Robert, and I decided to go to see the wonderful Nagoya Castle. Nagoya Castle is in downtown Nagoya somewhere. By somewhere I mean we did not know and we went on an adventure to find it. We took the train to the Nagoya station where we went on our search. During our search we found this nice temple right smack dab in the middle of many steel monsters. Nice Yah?



So we walked around thinking that Nagoya castle is a half an hour walk from the station. Non the less we got lost.

Walking around some more we found this interesting place under a bridge. There is a barbed wire fence between the road and the sidewalk. We decided it was a holding place for rabid bums.
On our little walk we found a crowd of 'round eyes' (A term for white people we like to use). So of course I had to take a picture of them. This photograph in America would be boring. However, seeing that we are in a land where more than 95% of the population is Japanese...It strikes me as a great shot.


A picture of a pointy thing...

When asked people on the street where Nagoya Castle is, they looked at us puzzled and said "You are going on foot?". So eventually we learned that we had to go back to the station and hitch a ride on the train. The Nagoya train station is one big shopping mall with a large hotel on top and another large sky scraper.

Here is Jessica trying out some pimpin' glasses. I think it works!

We finally got on the correct train and found ourselves a small walk away from Nagoya Castle. Here is a picture of a fountain right outside the train station.
Now, Nagoya city in the good old times needed moats to keep the black knights at bay. Here is a striking picture of the moat. It is easy to see that this would be hard to climb. There are several layers of these moats. One level outside the old city. Another to protect the castle area, and another to protect the castle.



Here is what looks to me a watch tower.





Finally after walking a bit we find our beloved Nagoya Castle. It is very large having around seven stories above the ground.





Here is me trying to storm the castle. I am so good at this the water bottle does not get in my way.

In front of the castle is this wonderful engrish friendly sign.
Its good I am not blind and do not need a "guige" dog! The following picture is the entrance to the castle.

Now atop the castle are large golden dolphins. This is one of the dolphins displayed on the first floor. Apparently the original ones were made using gold coins. Workers would point gold coins together to create the outer golden layer. Although...dolphins really don't have scales.

The following pictures are of the amazing view of Nagoya from the very top observation floor! Wow, my breathe got lost somewhere here.




Jessica and I decided to pose on this fake gold scaly dolphin. The inside of the castle is modernized because the castle was rebuilt after the fire.

We decided to explore the outside of the castle and look at its gardens and large heavy rocks. Inside the castle they demonstrated how these rocks were moved. Lets just say Jessica and her small self would not be able to move the following rock!



It took me a while to storm the castle but I finally did...losing my water bottle on the way.

It was very difficult.



The grounds around the castle fixed my poor soul. Coming here should be a law. Below is me and Jessica sitting under a gorgeous tree. Cute no?



We found a nice little tea house hidden away. The great care they have for the shrubbery is still amazing to this day.
I had for the first time some REAL green tea. See how green?


A picture from inside the tea house.
This one should go on a wall. My hair has never been spikyer than this day.

Most of the beautiful shots on this trip were by Jessica. She is a really good photographer. Can you tell?

I was tired of walking by this point and had to find a walking stick. All sticks in Japan are very large....just for future reference.

This one is for the ladies. Enjoy it because it hurt my butt!

Here is a group shot of our travel buddies. And Jessica of course.

After a fun day of getting lost, seeing the castle, and having our souls slapped into life by the beautiful nature around us, we found ourselves back to the lively steel city.
We walked around to find a place to eat and happened upon some random festival. How nice.
Here is a picture just to give you an idea of the amount of bikes people use. People here do not lock their bikes up. They just don't, what's the point right? I guess it is safety in numbers.



We finally found a nice noodle house with loud waiters.

Our friend Robert had a spicy dish. This kind of food really gets the heart going.

And to my surprise and happiness, I found the apple store!!! I tried to find a cheap web camera so that I can see my family and friends and they can see me, but unfortunately the only one they sold was the iSight. The iSight is about $150 here. I need a web camera but not this badly. So I am very sad at the prospect of never finding a Mac compatible camera. I hear there is a store called Bic Camera around here that will surely have one.

That was my trip to Nagoya Castle. I hope you like the pictures. They do not give justice to the beauty that can be found here. Please post a comment up. I would love to hear from my friends and family. Next time I will be posting pictures up about my Zoo trip! Everyone loves animals...unless they do not have a soul. Enjoy.