We take a walk to the Tsuruga Castle in Aizu Wakamatsu, a city where the influences of samurai remain strong even today. The five storied impregnable fortress and castle tower that stands today is a replica reconstructed in 1965, based on photographs and historical documents of the preceding Kurokawa Castle, built in 1384.
We took a bus all the way from Naha to Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The aquarium goes up to four floors, with tanks containing deep sea creatures, coral and tropical fish. The main Kuroshio Sea Tank holds an enormous 7,500 cubic metres of water, stretching from the first floor all the way to the second floor of the aquarium.
Shuri Castle served as the center of politics, foreign affairs and culture of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the 14th century, until Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture in 1879. The World Heritage Site with its brilliant colors and stylish Ryukyu architecture is strikingly different from any castle I have witnessed in all of Japan.
I walked down to Kofukuji today in the evening to catch the huge Pagoda with the moon rising behind it. The five-story structure(Gojunoto) is the second tallest Pagoda in all of Japan. Built in 725 AD by the Empress Komyoh and last rebuilt in 1426, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage listed site.
The Adachi gardens feels like part of a painting. Too bad visitors cannot touch or walk among the heavenly garden. The garden is the brain-child of Adachi Zenko who created it in 1980 as a way of combining his passions for Japanese art and garden design.
Today we take a walk down to Yasaka-dori in Kyoto to the stunning Yasaka-no-tō Pagoda. Built in 592, the Pagoda is the only standing structure of the Hokan-ji Temple. The rest of the structures have either been destroyed by fires or earthquakes over the years.
Loading more posts...