For our first trip of the New Year, we went to Nagoya. This mid-sized city (Matt refers to it as the Philadelphia of Japan) is about a half-hour train ride away from Gifu, making it a perfect day-trip destination. Besides the allure of proximity, the city has a wide array of sights to see and shopping to do, so it's also interesting!
There were also, even in January, flower beds with geraniums in bloom. Below is a side-section of a tiered bed built around a walkway on a hill. Three sections of flowers are planted so that they wind around the hill in patterns of purple/red, blue, and yellow. It looks like the gardens really explode with color in the spring, so we plan to return sometime in April and check the theory.
We walked around a small, picturesque body of water, and discovered a large pan of water and all the elements necessary for a home (as Matt said, "this person has more things than we do"). Continuing down the path we ran into a woman sitting on a park bench with... many cats. Seeing dogs out and about with their owners is normal, but seeing cats gathered around someone feeding them like geese is a bit strange.
A bit farther and we started noticing just how many cats there were in the park, and it's too many to count. One of the resident homeless people came out with a pan of food and many cats came for lunch. A little black cat approached Matt with a little squeak and became the first to receive pets from us (little squeaker is in the photo with me above). Apparently all we needed was one cat to give us street cred as nice people, because then they just swarmed out for pets. The upper right picture is the tabby that required lots of love from Matt. Its particular marker of a state of bliss is its tongue that sticks out when happy. While some of the cats most definitely have strange cat diseases, they all looked content, cuddly, and very well-fed. We found a sign that proclaimed it a crime to steal the cats or to abuse them, so we concluded that they must live a rather happy and peaceful life in the park, visited by people with food and pets on a daily basis. What could be better? We washed our hands very well and continued to the castle (where there were still cats on the grounds, because, well, cats can get anywhere).
Nagoya Castle is a strong, inspiring structure first finished in 1612 by Tokugawa Ieyasu. This warlord recognized the importance of having a secure castle in the middle of the country to secure his position as leader of the newly unified nation. The Tokugawa Shogunate ruled, and the family flourished, until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The castle has been destroyed many times, most recently in the last months of World War II. The main castle, referred to as Donjon, was rebuilt in 1959, along with a smaller lookout tower connected by abutment bridge, and the main castle gate. Parts of the grounds are still in the process of restoration, like Honmaru Palace, that housed offices and living quarters for Lords involved with the castle. However, three corner lookout towers, the small gate to the castle grounds, and some incredible decorations of the Honmaru palace all survived the original castle. It's amazing to look upon the buildings and artifacts that survived.
Nagoya Castle is best known for the golden dolphins on its roof. There are two, and they are huge and heavy. Apparently one is male and one is female, though I can't tell by looking. They come in around 2.6m in height and 1,250kg in weight. They are truly gold-plated, and the weight in gold is about 44kg on each of them. No surprise, they have also been re-crafted countless times. They are called Kinshachi, literally meaning gold dolphin, and look rather like a fish with a lion head. They used to symbolize the feudal lord's authority and power, now they serve as a mythical carp, protector of well-being.
Nagoya castle was first built in a manner much like other early structures: brute force and hard labor. Men hauled rocks on wheels or just rolled them, hoisting them up higher and higher as the castle grew. Kato Kiyomasa was the person said to be in charge of building the great stone base of the castle. His technique to make the workers go faster was to stand on top of the stones and call to them. He basically chanted and sang at them, goading them on, making them sing and work to the chants. Knowing this, it's easy to see where the cheering and chanting I see at Sports Day Festivals comes from. To the left is a picture of the statue of this man, on a rock. The fan acted like a cheering pom-pom while he encouraged his workers. The clothes seem a bit fancy, as the models of the workers inside the museum show them wearing only loincloths, but what do I know?
There were many inspiring sights inside the castle-museum, like this suit of samurai armor to the right. According to Matt, who knows about these things, this suit belonged to someone higher-up in the ranking. No one got such high double horns unless they were someone. I particularly enjoy the masks they would wear, many with fake hair laid in mustaches on top (because hair is always scary!). The suits are also very small - I'm not sure most of them would fit me - the ancient samurai were obviously hobbit-people. Below is my favorite picture of the day: Matt stands under an incredible tree and perfect sky. The many rocks are likely old meditation spots. It is an area of beauty and tranquility, even within such a military-oriented site.
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