This is one of the palaces, but it was not open for visitors.
The following is the main palace. In the main palace, the boards are made of a certain kind of wood. So, when you walk on it, the boards actually have nightingale sound emitting from it. It was a defense mechanism, created so that ninjas sent to assasinate the lord would not succeed in his plans. There were too many people, and too many people talking at the same time, plus the recording of a woman explaining the exhibits. So, the sound was muffled by all that. Basically, nothing was particularly interesting in the castle, except for the paintings and the carvings [which we couldn't take pictures of]. And the nightingale sounds :) Which I liked very very much. While Daryn and Britney were looking at the exhibitions, I was walking around, testing the boards. Haha.
Outside though, it was just plain beautiful. Very green, very well preserved.
Around the moat, there were loads of Koi.
They were HUGE. The picture doesn't do justice to their enormous size. They were probably the length of half of my arm or something. Very very very big.
I cannot help but wonder if Ninjas were trained to climb walls like this. Looks pretty easy for ninjas to climb leh... For them to attack.
Another of those super steep flights of steps. Two super steep flights of steps.
Another of those palaces.
There were two routes. We took the route that took us down the bush clover path. The entire castle has sections of seasonal plants. In Spring, you can see Sakura if you walk down one part of the castle. In Autumn, you get to see Maple trees if you walk down another path. I took this picture because there were just so many of those little seed thingies. I overheard another tourist commenting that that's gingko seeds but I'm not sure. They are pretty and pink too :)
And then I got "cheated".
There was a sign [i should have taken a picture of it] that said, Tea Ceremony 70yen. And so, we went, merrily thinking that it'd only cost us 70yen. Trust us, Tea Ceremonies are never that cheap. Daryn kept asking me, "Are you sure it says 70yen?" And fool that I was I said, "yeah! I saw 70yen!"
When we got to the counter, it was, *sighs*, "700yen". I don't know where the extra 0 disappeared to, but it was SUCH a disappointment. Nevertheless, we walked into the tea ceremony area. It's got such a beautiful view for a tea ceremony :)
[just in front of the area where they were performing the tea ceremony]
I like the contrast between the red, the green and the light green. It's autumn!!! :)
Doesn't this picture make you wish you had a bento and were sitting by the side of the river eating your bento and enjoying the peaceful river? Except the tourists would occasionally disrupt your peaceful lunch.
There are other pictures, and I was going to upload them to Facebook but Facebook decided not to cooperate with me and everytime I tried to upload, they'd tell me, "Upload failed". So, I'm keeping these pictures maybe till later.
What touristy place would be complete without tourist traps!? Haha, these tentages consist of merchants trying to sell "Nijojo" wares. And dango. Loads of dango everywhere.
And warabimochi [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warabimochi]. I love warabimochi. Once, Otoosan offered me warabimochi. I fell in love with it 100%. So, while Daryn and Britney shopped for omiyage [souvenirs], I sat at a chair just outside the shop selling warabimochi and stared at people buying them. It was very very expensive, for a very small piece. I'm sure if I asked Otoosan where he got his warabimochi, he'd tell me some place cheaper than at Nijojo. Haha. But it was really pathetic, that day. Daryn and Britney found me hugging my bag and staring forlornly at the warabimochi. It was so funny. "Why don't you get it?" Daryn asked. "Cos it's not worth it." I replied, all the time staring at the warabimochi. Haha. She gives up on me when it comes to food... Another reason why I didn't get it was because if I got it, it'd just whet my appetite for more. I'd want more and more and more warabimochi. So, to get only one piece would never have been enough for me.
Afterwards, we went to the Manga Museum. Like I said, I don't understand Japanese, so the Manga Museum was really boring for me. It was a good experience for Daryn though, cos she enjoyed the puppet show. Haha, which I also could not understand a single word of. Ah well, I'm at a disadvantage. Of course, the point is that I can appreciate the culture, even without knowing the language, but then, I cannot appreciate the subtleties of the jokes and all that. So, it's sort of... A left-out feeling lah.
I simply remember that that day was a very very very bad day for me. Bad cough, bad flu, bad headache. Just a bad day. Excepting the beauty of the Nijojo, I have nothing really positive to say about that day...
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