Hirado Castle!!!

Thank the Lord above I have a friend here. Without her and her family I would end up being a depressed Navy wife, getting fat, eating chocolate all day and watching Japanese soap operas.

I'm still eating chocolate all day but so far I'm not fat and I'm out experiencing Japan when I can!

Alright, so this whole day began without knowing what we were doing, had no idea where exactly we were going, and hoping that Carson, the 3 month old who just hhhaaadddd to tag along, (I'm totally kidding, he's awesome and I love kids!) would not go through all his diapers in the time it would take us to complete this adventure.

The night before I was told of a castle in Hirado. Hirado is north of Sasebo about 45 minutes and is its own island. When we were touring the area, feeling like we were getting hopelessly lost, Sy and I fell in love with the area. It is very very rural. When you think Japan, your mind makes a beeline to show you images of Tokyo. To show you a city more grand than New York with crazy fashion, a kajillion buildings, sky scrapers, race cars, kimonos, etc. Not here in southern Japan. It is very rural, very country, and very very relaxed.

Hirado itself, when we got to the top of the castle for the views, reminded me of Washington state. To be specific, it was similar to Deception pass but just bigger in a way. When I show you pictures you'll kind of see what I mean. It might actually not look like Deception at all; I could just miss it. haha.

I'm going to try and give you some history about Hirado and the castle we toured. I had to research this online because everything at the castle was in Japanese. Go figure, right?! It was weird though, every tenth object had an English description. Why not all of it?

Ok, on to a history lesson kids!

 So this is the mini "Golden Gate Bridge" we crossed to get to Hirado Island.

Hirado City was a major port for overseas trading with China and Korea. It has been the source of prosperity for this city for over 1000 years! In the 1550s, when they made a boat load of money....

Get it? Boat load? I made a pun. :) Not funny? Ok...

Well back in that time period they were very successful because of trading with Europe. You can find things around the town....and really around a lot of places here in Japan, with a big European influence.

Now throughout all this olden day stuff, there were rulers of certain parts of the country, known as lords who had clans.

Alright, that's your history lesson for today. Wanna see pictures?!

Hirado Castle!!! I'm sure you are stunned that it isn't made with stones, have cylindrical towers and a moat. It's also known as a pagoda. Anyways, it's cool!

Here is some armor that someone from one of these clans would probably wear in battle...or you know, to just lounge around in. They look so comfortable! (NOT!)

Every presentation of armor comes with a mustache...I think that's weird. Apparently it was a necessary part of the ensemble.

The only disappointing thing about this little castle, was that the inside was completely remodeled. And what made it worse, and funnier, was that it was clearly remodeled in the 70s. Haha. Oh well!

Let's go to the top for some panoramic views!

Welp! That was our day trip! It was a really nice drive, really great views, and Carson didn't need his clothes changed!!! He was actually a fantastic trooper. I think he likes exploring too!

Oh but we had sushi afterwards...and I tried this little gem...

  Squid...it was squid...I love calamari so why not try this? It was pretty good though!

However, Carson wasn't to crazy about sushi...

Alright, that is all for the day! Tomorrow we will be hitting up Nagasaki for a little bit so I'll have another blog up for you guys!!! It's going to be a hot one though, maybe we'll find a beach out there!

Sayanora!!!