Page 3 of 10
Inuyama, Japan
Here we come to a turning of the season, witness to the arc towards the sun
Inuyama is more than just a home to a semi resurrected Frank Lloyd Wright building. Downtown, not all that far from the non JR rail station, past the blocks of residential houses, past the shops, past the festival where two old guys dressed up like Shoguns looked ready to rumble, across the street and up the hill is Inuyama Castle, a 500 year old landmark that looks over the river and city and countryside just as it has year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
If you have never been to a Japanese Feudal Castle, you're missing a lot, even though parts of the actual process of visiting the castle have their own unique drawbacks. First off you need to take off your shoes, not a bad thing in and of itself and overall a very civilized custom. In exchange for your shoes, you find yourself in socks (again not awful), but soon you find that socks don't have all that much traction on the insanely well worn 500 year old wood floorboards. Add in a few quite steep and slippery ladder stairs with exceptionally low clearances and heavy crowds and you find yourself happy to be there but far happier to be back out of the castle and back on the ground.
Adjacent to the 500 year old castle is an even older river. This is the view across the Kisu towards Unuma which (if you don't know where it is) is across the river from Inuyama.
Work began on Inuyama Castle in 1440 (I looked that up), making it (probably) the oldest castle in Japan (take that, Himeji). Built on the top of a hill with great views overlooking the river and city, it also has an obviously great view of its very own courtyard and provides a great reference point (and reference counterpoint) for anyone looking for one. This view is the exact opposite of the one you just saw like three pictures ago. In that slide, this picture was taken from the top level (of the castle where all of the people are) and alternately in this slide you can see where the Slide 3 picture was taken, off to the left of the sidewalk, kind of suspiciously where that one guy with the camera is standing (cue ominous music).
I do not speak or read Japanese, and the four years of German and one year of Latin that I took way (way) back in high school are useless everywhere and obviously extra useless in Inuyama. Still after a week or so anywhere, you start to pick things up. Symbols start to mean words, words start to have meaning.
That said, I have no idea whatsoever what this says. It could be explaining the history of Meiji-Mura, or telling me its rules of conduct, or asking me to refinance a loan, or warning me about some sort of life threatening danger that I need to take extremely, extremely serious. To me all it is is a bunch of cool looking white symbols on a really nice piece of wood. And in the end, what more can you really ask for?
A preview (of sorts) of the next page of pictures starts at the spectacular and (barely) still Shinkansen free JR rail station in Kanazawa. Designed by Tameo Kobori (I looked that up), it features massive open areas, a killer wood gate and the best digital clock ever.
