Wakayama Castle

This past weekend, I decided to get out and see some local sights. So Zack and I headed to Wakayama city to visit the castle. My co-worker and new tomadachi, Tsuneko agreed to give us a ride and show us around. Tsuneko also brought along her very adorable 86 year old grandmother. Boy that woman is strong. She treked up and down over 5 flights of stairs and easily about 5 miles of walking. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, pictured above is a bottom up view of the castle. The castle was built in 1585. Many lords occupied the castle and it was a base and main compound for Wakayama City for hundreds of years. In 1945, the castle suffered severe fire damage due to WWII. The city rebuilt the castle based upon the original construction plans in 1958. They also decided to use ferroconcrete in order to avoid future damages to the castle. When you tour the castle, you do see more modern flooring, lighting, etc. The castle now houses many artifacts and serves as a museum.

Tsuneko and myself doing the traditional Japanese photo pose. We are at the top of the castle. You can get a 360 degree view of the city. Wakayama City is much bigger than I originally suspected. You can even see the ocean in this photo and in some of the photos in the album.

Zack, Tsuneko, and Tsuneko's grandmother posing for a photo. This is one of the many long stair paths around the grounds and the garden of the castle. Check out the photos here. Be prepared for more views of the castle grounds and a few photos of a really cool Chinese restaurant that we went to. They actually had a DJ spinning records and handing out CDs as we left. Pretty fun and really cool decor.