Tuesday we were in the area which is built around two large lakes. The lakes are quite large and the whole area was very scenic. We started out at 7.30 and drove to the Adachi Museum of Art in Yasugi. As well as a great art collection, the museum has the #1 Japanese Modern garden. The gardens are designed to be viewed as ‘living art’, not to be strolled through. They even bought the mountains nearby as they form part of the picture created when you look at the garden, so they don’t want them to be developed.
Then we drove to what has probably been the highlight so far -Matsue Castle, built 1607 – 1611. This castle is the 2nd largest, 3rd tallest and 6th oldest castle in original condition left in Japan. It is a fort castle, designed for warfare and is five stories high. The top story is a lookout and the view from up there was incredible – complete 360 deg view out to the mountains and the ocean which would let you see any enemy approaching from a long distance. The castle itself is not big, as it’s designed to be a fort, but the land it occupies was surrounded by a moat approx. 3.6 kms around and about five meters across.
We took a boat ride around the moat in small boats with a roof that lowers so the boat can fit under the 16 low bridges and through a very narrow tunnel. Our boatlady was very sweet and though she did not speak English she chatted away to us in Japanese and sang for us as we went through the canals. This really was a wonderful visit. The photos don’t do it justice and really can’t capture the sheer size of the outer walls and the grounds of the castle. going through the tunnel with the roof lowered Lunch today was the best so far – Yakiniku – a Japanese bbq that we cooked ourselves at our table. Delicious! After lunch we visited the Heian shrine, did a bit of shopping and then visited the Lafcardo Hearn museum. Then it was back to the ship at 4pm where local school children performed to farewell us from the port.
(it’s taken me 15 minutes just to get one photo uploaded – have heaps of great pics but internet here is so bad! – will try and post more later) – also don’t worry if you hear about a typhoon here – apart from getting soaked with rain from the typhoon yesterday in Korea – we are fine here, sea is just a bit rougher so the boat is rocking more which is quite enjoyable 🙂 we also could have a bit more difficulty with internet with the typhoon weather but all is all good.