Nagoya Castle is just beautiful. The elders invited us there on our first Saturday in Japan, and we were so touched that these 20-year-old boys would want to spend half their day with a couple of oldies. But we were thrilled. Nagoya Castle was built in the 1612 by a feudal lord (his slaves). It was bombed and burned in WWII. It has been rebuilt and they are currently re-building a mansion right next to it.
Look carefully at the two top points on the castle. There is a golden fish-like statue on each point. We got brave, climbed all the way to the top, and they let us sit on the Kinshachi to have our photos taken. They only do this with LDS missionaries.
See the lovely blue sky and clouds behind us. It was a little frightening, but we decided to smile anyway.
And here are our four elder tour guides. Oops. Maybe we weren't on the top of the building.
Here are a couple of samples of the wonderful screen paintings from the period. Love the tigers!
The grounds are breathtaking, even in winter.
I can't wait to see this arbor all covered
in blossoms.
We are excited to go back in a couple of months during sakura (cherry blossom) time. We hear it is just beautiful.
Nagoya Castle was built when they had Samurai Warriors. We watched a demonstration of their fighting, language (including lots of scary-sounding grunts and screams, and even a dance (that reminded me just a little of Michael Jackson.)
Hooray!! A photo of the wonderful photgrapher! He's the one without a mustache. Notice, too, the rock walls behind him. The castle has a mote around it. I hadn't realized Japanese castles had motes, but tis true.
How would you like to carry this armor around as you fought a battle....in 110 degree weather, no less.
I'm sure glad my husband doesn't resemble this guy.
Here's the castle and mote before it was bombed in WWII.
And here's how they got the rock into place around the castle. Looks fun, huh!This is what remains of on old well. Very old.
You get to hang out with all kinds of characters in this job. (That's what the guy on the right is thinking.)
And we stopped these two young women for a photo as we were leaving. We didn't know why they were dressed like that, or what they were doing, but they were very happy to have their picture taken. (Because we were with four good-looking young men!) The girl on the right had hair down to her knees. It was beautiful.
This is the top room of the castle. (This time I'm telling the truth.) I lost count of how many floors there were in the castle, but it was at least six. We had a view of the city from all four sides. We could see several snow-covered mountains in the distance, including the Japanese Alps. I hadn't known they existed before now.
We have hundreds more photos, and I just might do one more blog about Nagoya Castle. Fun, fun, fun!
