Adventures in Japan

And on the Seventh day, He Samba'd: Matsue

It sure is nice getting off the beaten path. We have seen more green in the past week than in the last three years in Osaka. I like green. It is, according to some, the colour.

There was a fair bit of green to be seen in Matsue. There was also a castle. A very nice castle. With some nice castle grounds to go with it. We were told that this castle is one of the top three castles in Japan. Who are we to argue?


Before I go on and on about the castle, I forgot to mention that we also wanted to go to some art museum in town but there just wasn't enough time in the day. No big loss, our day was plenty fine.


Right, the castle grounds - they did not seem all that large, nor did the castle, but it is apparently the third biggest castle in Japan. Huh. It also has a big pigeon population. Slightly less big now. As I was shooting some video of the castle, Carla was just waiting around in a big open area. An area filled with pigeons. Suddenly, there was one less pigeon and two more cats. Right in front of Carla, two cats took out a pigeon. And I didn't get any footage. Dang.


But I did get plenty of footage of the castle. Maybe not quite as much as I would have liked, 40 gigs of memory just flies by when you shoot in HD. The castle has been touched up a few times, but it has been standing since it was first built. I forget when that was, but it has been around for along time.


I am always amazed at the skills of the castle makers from way back when. I have trouble with stuff from IKEA and they were constructing these multi level beasts out of nothing but rocks and wood without the benefit of The Learning Channel.


There were a lot of historical artifacts on display within the castle. Lots of helmets and suits of armor and swords and such. Really quite intricate stuff. And the view from the top was excellent. From there we could see the lake. The lake, they say, is a great place to take in the sunset.


So we did.


And it was.


Great.


Great day.