Kumamoto Castle

I had a couple of free hours on yesterday Sunday morning to check out the first of two sights I’m interested in before meeting the college staff. Unfortunately, while Saturday – my day of arrival to Kumamoto City – was all bright and sunny, Sunday itself was cloudy with a fierce overcast, and a mild fog in the distance. The pictures all turned out greyish and quite devoid of vibrant colors – sigh.

The castle itself sits on a small hill, with several of the key establishment and business hotels situated around it. My hotel – KKR Hotel Kumamoto – I think is one of the closest hotels to the castle and is practically at its door step. It takes just about a 5 minute walk to get to the attraction’s main entrance. The adult entrance fee was 500円 (SGD7.80).

This castle was originally completed in 1607. The castle here itself is a reconstruction from 1960, but several of the ancillary buildings – according to Wikipedia – are from the original olden times.

There are two towers (above) in the main castle itself: one that’s six floors, and the other comprises eight floors. Both towers are interconnected through common levels at the basement and also level two. Several floors of each tower hold a number of exhibits explaining the castle’s history from the 1600s. I especially liked this one, which is a model replica of Kumamoto City from olden times, with the castle itself at the heart of the old city from hundreds of years ago:

Climbing the many levels of stair cases eventually leads one to each tower’s top floor and viewing gallery, offering a great view of the city from up high from either two spots. Again, it was a pity the day was no good for photography:

Left picture below: There was a full-dressed warrior in full battle armor and mask around the castle grounds. And one of my favorite comic pictures on the right, below:

The ninja warrior had traded his blades for a compact digicam.:)

I’m sorely tempted to return here on my very last day, time permitting, for a revisit if the weather’s better than what I experienced today. Though if not, I took about several hundred pictures, half of which are panoramic and HDR pictures which when I’ve finished processing will post it up here.:)