King of the Castle
July 29th, 2008 | 
Author: An even earlier start today, this time at 4.30am, after only getting to sleep at 2.30am! We again made our way out to Zenkoji Temple, but again unfortunately we didn’t get to see the monks and their morning again, but we did see them drinking tea… Yosh. Totally worth it, ha! We were there before sunrise so figured they mustn’t be doing it for some reason. Oh well, are sleeping patterns are in such disarray after Fuji Rock, it hasn’t really mattered.
Back to bed for sleep before getting up and venturing out to Matsumoto to meet up with Belinda’s friend Ross, and then to visit Matsumoto Castle. This is one of the last original castles in Japan and has been standing for over 400 years! It is surrounded by beautiful grounds and a river around half of it. The castle stands 5 stories and 1 hidden story tall and is full of items used hundreds of years ago. It was so cool walking through the castle and reading about the samurai that would run through the castle when it was under attack, and looking through the holes in the walls that were used to shoot guns and arrows out of at enemies. I got some amazing photos which will be posted up for the world to see soon enough, along with all the others.
Below is a photo of my first view of the castle:
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