May 19, 2023
We had a late start this stay to accommodate a visit to one of Japan’s “must see” attractions, the Kumamoto Castle. The castle was not far away and while not on our cycling route, we were told it was worth the visit. That may be a matter of opinion.
Google Maps does not like to show a cycling route here in Japan so if you are using it you need to select the pedestrian or vehicle option for it to give you guided directions. There are pitfalls with either option. Walking routes may involve stairs and driving routes may take you on very busy roads or roads where bicycles are not allowed. After a nice trip in circles, I abandoned the walking route and switched to vehicle routing. While still not intuitive, and at times busy with traffic, it got me to the castle. Once there I was directed to a very roundabout parking area where I was allowed to leave my bike and walk back to the entrance. Arigato, very much.
After paying the 8,000 Yen fee to get in, I was treated to a long walk up stairs to a beautiful view of the reconstructed castle. What I saw was a faithfully recreated facade of the castle exterior over a concrete superstructure created in 1960 and rebuilt a few times since then.
The original castle was begun as a series of fortifications in 1467 by Ideta Hiedenobu, a local warlord. In 1588 and more important regional warlord, Kato Kiyomasa took up residence and between 1601 and 1607 went on a building spree to create the castle of which we see a reasonable facsimile of today. In 1877 it was subjected to a 50 day siege where a garrison of 3,500 held off an attacking army of 13,000 during the Satsuma Rebellion. Earthquakes have knocked the castle down a number of times and what the did not wreck, World War Two bombed into dust. All of this history was really great to learn but unfortunately, not at the castle. While there are signs at the entrance and ticket booth in English, there is almost zero English once you get in. Everything is in Japanese and if there is a translation available other than using Google Translate for each and every exhibit, it was a guarded secret. Basically you view of the outside of the castle is what you get for your 8,000 Yen if you do not speak Japanese. Inside there are few artifacts and absolutely nothing remaining of the ancient castle. Basically it is a modern concrete museum with ancient looking lipstick outside. A coffee and donuts would have been a better use of my Yen.
From the castle it was a ride out of town and into the countryside where we climbed to the top of Mount Aso, an extremely large and still active volcano. Had it not been foggy and raining the views would have been worth the 550 meter (1800 foot) uphill climb. We ate lunch in a driving wind and rain overlooking one of the largest caldears in the world. It is 17 kilometers across. This evening we slept in a hotel built in that caldear.
