Trip to Inuyama Castle

I learned that one of the oldest castles in Japan is close to us in a town called Inuyama (which literally means Dog Mountain). This town is very close to Nagoya and was only about 45 minutes away by train. So why not go right? Jessica, Corey, Spring, Robert, and I all went.

It was raining that day but that did not stop me from taking nature shots. Here are pictures of the path to the castle.




As you can see from the mountains in the back, this city is farther away from the ocean than Nagoya.

First we came upon a nice shinto shrine! We love our shrines here and they are everywhere. This one was fun for various reasons which I will say later.



I don't know why this bridge was built considering you could literally jump over the little stream of water that passes through...but I like it. Maybe my yard will have one of these.


The annoying thing about living in the mountains is that every morning you think to yourself "Wow, gravity is really strong today". Its not everyday that people are "aware" of gravity. See how many stairs?

We finally found a nice little path that would lead us to the castle. We had a little trouble finding it because there were not many signs. But then we saw this very tiny rock.
The first Kanji (The Chinese symbols also used by the Japanese) is "Inu". "Inu" means dog in Japanese. The second Kanji is "yama", and of course yama means mountain (but a ditch in Russian). The last Kanji is "Jo", which means castle. However it is Jo only after a name. Alone it is "Shiro". Enough with the language lesson, here is a shot of the group walking to the castle.


Now here is the first shot of the Castle. Remember this is the one of the oldest castles in Japan, so its no surprise that it is nowhere near as large as Nagoya Castle. The price to go see this castle is very cheap. We paid about $5 each to get in.

Before going in the castle we found a little secret spot where we can see the mountains better.

For those who love us, here is a picture for your computer desktop background :-)
The mountains are not too tall. However they are very elegant, serene, and clumpy.

Another picture of Jessica and I.
Before going in the castle we had to take off our shoes, put them in a plastic bag, and wear green slippers which they provided. Now I am a big fan of slippers after getting some nice fur Ugg slippers from Jessica last Christmas. However, these green slippers would not stay on my feet. They were not too big or too small, but were shaped in a unidirectional way...if that makes any sense. Any slipper can go on any foot. This obviously made them less than form fitting. Having slippers constantly slipping would not be a problem (by definition of slipper), but I HAD TO CLIMB ABNORMALLY STEEP STAIRS!


You can see from the picture above that my right slipper is falling off. That picture was an action shot, meaning it was in the processes of falling off. After the picture was taken, it fell off.
Now it was worth it however to see this armor! Makes me want to be a samurai!


Now it may look very big in the picture but this armor was surprisingly small. I suppose Japanese people were really really really small back then. Most people think of the Japanese as being short and that is what I saw when I first came here. However as soon as school started, I suddenly found myself around a mob of very tall skinny Japanese people. The older generations are small just as I expected them to be, but the younger generation dwarfs the same generation in America. Apparently because the diet back in the old days was not so good, the height of the average Japanese person was fairly short. The diet in modern times here in Japan is very good. There are plenty of health foods and the diet is fairly balanced with many vegetables, fish, meat, fruit, etc. So to my surprise the Japanese were small not because of genetics, but because of the food they ate. I noticed here that many old women have terrible bone problems such that they have backs permanently bent at almost a ninety degree angle. But now there is more calcium in the diet of the Japanese so the younger generation should not have this problem.



Here is another picture of me clumsily going up the stairs trying not to lose my slippers.

The very top had a very nice terrace where you can see everything!



Now, the castle was basically empty except for the armor you saw above. So we were able to explore all the little areas of the old castle. Here is a beautiful picture of a window.
A picture of Jessica being illuminated by warm white earth light.

This one is for my parents. Because I think the ladies had enough.

You have to love pictures of people in front of mountains...especially dog mountains. I know I do.

This one is particularly dedicated to my friend Tyler...who was disappointed that I did not post enough pictures of mountains.

Another beautiful picture of Jessica.

After seeing the best view of mountains I had seen so far, we went down. Here is a picture of that temple I talked about earlier. Inside it had this incredible golden shrine.


The best secret of the temple were these holy chickens. They were very humble chickens which enjoyed my company. I was even able to grab one myself.

Jessica and I later had a fight that day under the watch of the shinto gods.

I hope you enjoyed pictures of one of the oldest castles in Japan. I have plenty, literally thousands, of pictures to sort through so I can post more. This is why I am so backed up on posting. Keep watch for more. I love you all. Bye Bye!


(A classic picture taken when events end)