Kumamoto Castle

Monkey slowly made her way towards the Castle. It was already a long climb to come up here...and there's so many more levels to go upwards inside this castle.

Kumamoto Castle is the main attraction in the city of Kumamoto. Designated as one of the top three Great Castles of Japan. The other 2 are Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle.


The outer wall with a post at the corner facing West. The walls are really high. Each stone bricks were nicely laid accordingly to create this sharp precise edge.

There are roughly 800 Cherry Blossom trees here, so u can imagine how beautiful this place is in Spring? 

The sky was cloudless, so beautiful :))))
The main castle was peeking out among the cherry blossom trees. The castle was originally built in 1467 but was burnt down in 1877 after withstanding a 2 months long siege. How could one castle withstand such a long long attack...2 months is really long u know?

in 2 months time, I would have accept twice the salary or prollie travelled round Japan. Two months is really a very long time for war.

Today Kumamoto Castle is a reconstruction of wat it used to be on the original site. They tried to use back the very same material with the same design. This reconstruction was done in 1960.

We were so amazed by the bricked wall. So neatly laid at certain angles. U can't find much gap innit. 

The Castle looked like it's gonna topple over this...hahahaha

One of the outlook post, where the army could see far and high from around Kumamoto. 

Finally we scaled up to the top of the castle and this was way we saw. 360 degrees of Kumamoto City. 

Then on the other side, we saw the mountain range of Mount Aso including the smoke emitted on ur far left.....that's the volcano mountain.



The beautiful extravagant Honmaru Goten Palace....the sliding doors were so exquisite. 

More original parts were restored and exhibited at a special room

Monkey deep in thoughts......dunno wat was she thinking or sulking about. Her mood swings faster than the Nikkei Index that JS had trouble keeping up

So JS decided to entertain her with this :))))
"Hey look!! I'm the most feared Shogun!!!!"
Monkey -_-"

"But I dunno wat's inside Monkey's mind.....will she start smiling again?"
-_-"
JS pls dun make a fool of urself in public...but u do sure looked cute. I love you :)))

Finally we sat down and watched sunset together :))))
another beautiful day....aahahhhh....

Then it's time to go home coz they were closing the palace grounds. 
Nearby within walking distance there's Hosokawa Gyobu Tei, a beautiful residence left by the head of Hosokawa Clan during the Edo Period. We visited it the next morning. Will find time to blog about it. Too many pics to process *that's JS's job, and too many posting to do* I m kinda lost now.

So if u do make ur way to Kumamoto, this castle should be in your list. The most impregnable castle every built in Japan :)))))