I started my golden week holiday time early Saturday morning in Kumamoto. Early SATURDAY morning, you may ask. How is that possible? Well, because I took a night bus Friday after work. So, I got on the bus around 23:00 and arrived in Kumamoto at about 8:20. Yep, it was a long time to sit on the bus....But it was a beautiful day, and I was ready to go and explore!
After arriving there, I took a bit of a walk along the river on the way to my hotel, stopped to eat some breakfast, and then dropped off my bag at the hotel before heading out to explore.
The first place that I tried to go to was Kumamoto castle, because it had been recommended to me by a couple of people, although they warned me it might be a little bit rundown due to the big earthquake that happened last year around this time. Well. In fact, all of the entrances into the castle grounds were barricaded off and there were signs posted saying that you couldn't enter due to damage from the earthquake. That was unfortunate. Actually, a lot of the sight-seeing points around Kumamoto were like that. Either you couldn't go in at all, or there were only small portions that were accessible to the public. However, that being said, it was interesting to the geography side of my personality. And they had pictures all over about how it looked right after the earthquake, and you could compare it to what you saw in the present. Kind of interesting actually. So, you win some, you lose some.
It was supposed to be a bridge originally
Super rare!! There was GRASS!!
Some of the statues I saw were on the other side of the road from the castle, but they were everywhere!
Some of those photos I was talking about...
This goes with the photos above..
Earthquakes can be pretty amazing!
Just a butterfly I found...
After visiting the castle grounds (well walking around the outside), I went into a small garden next to it. Nothing too fancy there.
After that I went to Suizenji Koen which is a really big park/Japanese style garden in Kumamoto. When I was there, a couple asked me to take their picture for them, and it turned out that they were Korean, and so we talked for a little bit, although none of us was really sure if we should talk in English, Japanese, or Korean. So it was an interesting mix of all three.
"Mt Fuji" of this park
Modelled after Fushimi Inari (in Kyoto)
Baby Koi!
After that, I wanted to go to another botanical/zoological garden, but when I got there, the signs indicated that less than half of the space was accessible to the public, so I decided to find something else to do instead.
I ended up finding a lake park (most of it was barricaded off though), and walked through there, and it eventually led to this really nice river which was very relaxing to walk beside.
Do not enter!
Next, I went up to Hanaoka Mountain, which was supposed to have a nice view of the city.
The road up the mountain...
At the top of the mountain, there was this Buddhist temple
View of Kumamoto
After that, I went back down, wandered through the shopping area, and got some dinner before heading back to the hotel to call it a day. It was a good day for walking!
