Final stop - Taketa castle

On the final day of our trip we stopped off at the castle ruins in Taketa. It was my second visit to the city and I have mixed memories of my first visit there. I can't remember if I've told this story on this blog before, so if I have just skip to the next entry! My first visit there was 15 years ago when I first arrived in Japan. The city had a programme you could join where you could do a homestay with a local Japanese family and take part in the moon viewing festival at night at the castle ruins. My host was a lovely lady and she took me all around the town and to a hotspring to soak before the festival. It was my second time in Japanese hotsprings and I wasn't so sure about all the customs yet so I just followed the "watch and copy" rule and copied everything my host did. Unfortunately she was obviously a regular at the hotsprings and basically just sat and sat and sat in the same spot. Eventually I felt my limit had been reached and decided to be brave and get out and get changed before she did..... only sitting in one place in very hot water for a long time is not always a sensible thing to do. I got dried, my pants and t-shirt on (thank goodness!) and....... woke up a few minutes later sprawled on the floor on the way to the toilet with my host mother looking rather worried! Nothing like fainting in front of a room full of naked ladies! It was probably a good lesson for both of us, but I really hope it didn't put her off hosting people in the future.
This time was far less eventful, although I did think I had lost my daughter for a while there. She was in a bit of a grumpy mood (all my fault of course) and decided to take a different route which unfortunately didn't actually meet up with the same route we were on. A few trips back and forth and she eventually returned to within sight and finally within touching distance at the icecream shop at the bottom.
Although there is actually no castle left at the site, the view from the top is great and I personally love Japanese rock walls - I can never work out how they could make them with no machinery. I think that is basically the end of our three day trip away. Now I just need to catch up on the other things we did with Mum when she was here.....



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