Japan - Part Four: Castle in the Sky

Our fourth day in Japan, but first morning in the countryside, took us to the small town of Takeda.  We rode three different trains to get there from our Airbnb in Shimotaki.  The last train was only one car long, painted beautifully on the side, with a picture of our destination for the day: the Castle in the Sky.

On the map below, Takeda is marked with the orange spot just south of Asago. Our Airbnb in Shimotaki is the purple spot with the bed icon. 

Now, to actually see the Castle looking like it does in the first picture, seeming to float in the clouds, one has to climb the opposite hill at sunrise in Autumn, to look across the river valley over to the hill upon which it sits.  Since we were neither there in Autumn nor at sunrise, it looked more like the second picture when we climbed to its summit.  And we did not climb the opposite hill, but rather the hill where the Castle actually sits, in order to walk around its ruins.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself in the story.
When we arrived in Takeda, the kids said they had not eaten enough breakfast to have the energy to climb to the top of the hill straightaway.  They would need more than a couple of day-old cinnamon buns from 7-Eleven if we expected them to hike.  So, we walked round Takeda looking for a place that was open and serving food the kids would actually eat.  Takeda is the cutest little mountain town I ever laid eyes on.  It was strung up with pink flowers to celebrate the cherry blossom season. I was enamored with the little canal that ran in front of each home with koi fish in it.  We wandered all over trying to find a place open on a Tuesday morning at 10am.  This was actually harder to do than we expected.   

We walked past a building with a large sliding glass door and a man in a wheelchair sitting inside watching us walk past.  He came out and followed us in his motorized wheelchair and eventually flagged us down, trying to introduce himself.  We were relieved to find someone who spoke English and was friendly and willing to help us.  He introduced himself as Hitoshi.  He appeared to be mostly paralyzed with only limited use of his hands.  His wheelchair had stickers from the Japanese military and we assumed he was injured in the war.  He showed us how to get to a little coffee shop we had found on Google Maps, but when we arrived it was closed.  He said goodbye and took his leave.  We were heading back the way we came when Willow declared her need for a bathroom.  The town had small signs indicating public-use restrooms, so we followed the signs to the nearest one, which happened to be at the back of a community center where our friend Hitoshi coincidentally had also ended up. 
The community center was called あったかプラザ.  It served food, thankfully, and was open.  The center employs people with disabilities to work as waiters, and ours was a very friendly man with Downs Syndrome.  Hitoshi helped us translate the menu and order Udon soup.  Willow got pancakes.  The room was filled with small Japanese treasures, some handmade crafts, and little figurines.

Hitoshi was so sweet and asked us to come outside so he could take a picture of the family with the Takeda Castle ruins on the hill behind us.  He had a camera mounted on a tripod that was strapped to his motorized wheelchair.  He had just enough mobility in his arms to take pictures.  I asked him if I could have a picture of me and him.  

After eating our fill of Udon soup, which was delicious, we decided we could now tackle the hike up the hill.  Behind the train station, but before the hiking trail begins, our path led us past 4 temples in a row that had been transplanted there.  Zensho-ji, Jokoh-ji, Shoken-ji, and Houju-ji.

Our ascent up was steep!  It was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other and just keep moving until we reached the top.  I was wishing I had my inhaler, but of course I had forgotten to pack it.  We stopped to rest at the ticket booth at the top of the hill.  

As we walked around the ruins, we speculated how hard it would have been to haul the large rocks up the hill and build the walls that created the foundation for the castle grounds.  We also noted that once built, it would have been a very hard castle to attack, given its high vantage point and very steep climb to even reach it. The views from the top were spectacular.

Looking NE at the Maruyama River and the town of Wadayama

Looking NW at the Yasui River

Looking East at the town of Takeda

Looking South

Looking North

We took a different path back down the hillside.  This one was steeper, but had stairs.... lots of stairs.

This path ended at Hyomai Shrine.  This shrine was cooler than most because it had an ancient sumo coliseum!  We enjoyed imagining the sumo wrestling matches that must have taken place here.

Back on flat ground we were ready for lunch already.  We walked to a pizza place we had spotted earlier in our meanderings, but it had been closed then.  Pizza looks a little different in Japan though.  They serve it with egg on top.  We made Eric eat those two slices since the rest of us are not fans of runny eggs.

From Takeda we took the train back towards Shimotaki, but stopped in Fukuchiyama for a little more adventuring (the blue spot on the map at the top).  Fukuchiyama has its own castle, not in ruins, that I thought would be fun to see.  It was closed for touring on Tuesdays (don't ask me why), but I thought we could see it from the street level.  Unfortunately, as we walked towards it, it started to rain.  Really rain.  We had 3 rain jackets and one umbrella between the five of us.  The rest of our rain gear was back in our suitcases.  The rain was derailing my plans of a walking tour of Fukuchiyama.  We did get a shot of the castle, as we scurried past it.  We huddled under eaves while the rain passed over.  

We thought there was a break in the rain, so we continued along the riverfront to see the bridge over the Yura river.  

Then we walked to Goryo Park and Gorei Shrine.  The kids played on the wet playground equipment while Eric and I walked around the shrine.

It was starting to rain a little more as we tried to head to a restaurant I had picked out for dinner.
Eventually we had to stop in a parking garage and let the worst of it blow over.

After 10 minutes of hiding out, we stepped out into the light drizzle that was left and quickly made our way to the restaurant.  福知庵 was the name of the place.  It had great reviews on Google Maps, which is the only way I knew what to order, since no one in the place spoke English and the menu was cartoon drawings of food.  We ordered Karaage (fried chicken), fried dumplings, and Fukuchian Ramen.  The fried dumplings tasted like egg rolls, and Maya swore the fried chicken tasted like pork.  The Fukuchian Ramen had a floating hard boiled egg in it, which we fished out and left on the plate.  The broth was light brown, with green onions, sprouts, smoked pork belly, and of course ramen noodles in it.  Quite delicious.

After dinner we took the train back to Shimotaki for our last night's sleep in Japan.