Kumamoto Castle

Yello Everybody,

Sorry it's taken me so long to post these pictures, i've been busy with my last week of teaching and with doing all the final arrangements to leave Kumamoto and for my holiday in Japan afterwards.

Anyway earlier this week I went to Kumamoto castle for the 1st time(1st time actually paying and going inside the grounds anyway), and yes I've been in Kumamoto almost a year and yes it's quite a famous castle, but it's just one of those things where you don't tend to do the tourist things in the area you actually live in.

Kumamoto castle was originally constructed exactly 400 years ago(Kumamoto has been celebrating the 400 year anniversary this year) by the Kato clan. It is most famous for being the site of Japan's last civil war where a group of samurai fought against the Meiji Government, known as the Satsuma Rebellion(the Tom Cruise movie "The Last Samurai" was roughly based on this story). It was sacked and destroyed in 1877. The long surrounding stone walls and some of the outlying wooden structures are still original, however the main castle itself was reconstructed starting in 1960 and this year they are rebuilding the inner palace of the castle(it should be finished in the first half of next year). Anyway the original and reconstructed elements are very impressive, the grounds are huge, inside the castle there is a museum with various historical displays(and on the grounds there was some sort of flower show thing(temporary show)). All in all it's a very good castle(rated one of the top 3 in Japan apparently) and well worth a visit.

The pictures are just some random shots of me, some exibits, the castle and the castle grounds.