Day #11, April 11th: Kumamoto Castle

It was going to be another early travel day so we were up at 5:30.  We noticed that the walls of the bathroom had cracks in them and wondered if they'd had earthquakes.

We had another incredible ryokan breakfast at 7:00.  There was rice, tofu, ham, eggs, miso soup, tsukemono (pickled vegetables), tea, coffee, etc.

Our ryokan host kindly offered to take us to the bus station since it was drizzling, but we  declined his offer.  The bus station was not all that far and we felt we'd be OK.

We saw middle school students walking to school.

We got to the bus terminal just fine.  And then came the torrential rains.  It was a three hour or so bus ride and it rained the entire way.

There was one bathroom stop in Takamori where Art and I had to run in rain to make use of it.

We arrived around lunchtime at Kumamoto Station and walked to our nearby Toyoko Inn Hotel.  We dropped off our suitcases and backpacks and went hunting for a place to eat lunch.  The rain was now a drizzle.  Mom is wearing a mask because she was coughing so much from a cold that returned from before our trip.

We always said we wanted to try a Mossburger and this was our chance.

Art and I had a kahlbi Mossburger.  I was surprised to find that the "bun" was just rice paddies that were pressed and grilled into bun shapes.

It was ... interesting.

And then the sun came out!

So we decided to go to Kumamoto Castle after all.  We caught a tram and got there quite easily.

The weather was comfortable and we saw that the cherry blossoms were beginning to lose their petals.  We were treated to another hana fubuki (flower blizzard).  It's glorious to stand amidst a shower of blossom petals.

We walked along the moat to the entrance gate...

and came up to the incredible Kumamoto Castle.

Here's what I got from Wikipedia about Kumamoto Castle:

Kumamoto Castle's history dates to 1467, when fortifications were established by Ideta Hidenobu. In 1496, these fortifications were expanded by Kanokogi Chikakazu. In 1588, Katō Kiyomasa was transferred to the early incarnation of Kumamoto Castle. From 1601 to 1607, Kiyomasa greatly expanded the castle, transforming it into a castle complex with 49 turrets, 18 turret gates, and 29 smaller gates.

  We had a lot of fun taking photos of ourselves with young people dressed as samurai.

Mom waited downstairs while the rest of us took a climb to the top of the castle tower and saw exhibits along the way.

This is what the castle town looked like long ago.

This diagram shows the inside of the castle.

From the top of the castle, we could get a bird's eye view of the surrounding area.

One of the friendly "samurai" laughed and dropped his character in order to help wheel mom down the ramp.

Yae!  Another colorful manhole cover.  This time it's a tsubaki or camellia.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist!  This is me as Kiyomasa Kato.  A brilliant castle making genius and military man he was, but I discovered that he did have a rather mixed past.

We did make an attempt to go to the Suizenji Garden, but the clouds came in and we headed home... which was a good thing.

We needed to rest...

and get organized.

Our two suitcases had arrived so we added some souvenirs we bought and traded clothes.  We then repacked and sent them on to Matsuyama.

We had dinner boxes in the room and Art and Dennis did more laundry.

We thought this Engrish sign was cute on the washing machines and couldn't resist taking a photo of it.

Tomorrow... on to Hakata (also known as Fukuoka)!