[Japan Travel]: Inuyama and Gifu
Finally it's time for the next travel entry!! 
Sorry for the long wait (~_~)
Because of the Mt. Fuji dilemma we had to change our plans completely as you might remeber. We wanted to go to Inuyama the day before this, but as it was raining cats and dogs we had to stay in Nagoya.
Instead we did Inuyama and Gifu in ONE DAY! Nothing I'd recommend, but I wanted to visit both cities and we didn't have any more days left over, so no choice!
Luckily the weather was great and so I took my DSLR with me again :D (=> better quality)
It was a busy day, so expect tons of photos.
Here we go~
Inuyama and Gifu (August 13th, 2010):
We started out in Inuyama (犬山) which literally means "dog mountain".
Inuyama is probably most famous for its castle (which you also can see in this first photo).
"The only privately owned castle in Japan and one of the nicest original examples of feudal Japanese fortifications. Originally built in 1537 by Oda Nobuyasu, grandfather of Oda Nobunaga, the warlord who helped end the long civil war that preceded the Tokugawa Shogunate, Inuyama is one of a handful of castles designated a Japanese national treasure." (WikiTravel)
There's also an open-air museum called "Meiji Mura Museum". It's huge and you'd spend at least two hours there. I sooo wanted to go but as we also had to go to Gifu, there was just not enough time! :(
Whichever station you choose, you'll have to walk for quite a while (20-30 min.) until you actually reach the castle. The landscape especially alongside the river was very beautiful (as you can see).
I just couldn't resist. The toilet sign is just too cute! XD
Before reaching the castle you'll get to a nice shrine :)
We came there early in the morning because of our busy schedule so there were not so many people yet (^-^)v
The stone says "National treasure: Inuyama Castle".
No, this is not Kyoto ;P
Just another Inari Shrine ;)
There was more than one shrine btw.
I was surprised to see GERMAN there!!! (*___*)
Outer castle walls.
And finally, the castle itself. Small and nice.
At first sight, nothing special. What it makes so special is that it's one of the few castles that are still in their original state! No reproduction!!!
Thus, it's quite horrible to move around inside, the stairs are small, the ceiling low etc. ;P (nothing for tall gaijin! XD)
Inside (like often) lots of photos of other Japanese castles. I tried to count to how many castles I've already been to! XD
The view from the highest floor was breathtaking!! The only thing that was horrible for me, no safety at all up there!! Usually there's some kind of guard railing, but not so there! And I'm a bit afraid of heights ;o; ....
But I wanted to take beautiful photos, so I got my courage together and walked around the 360° to get the best shots :D
Btw. in that river they're performing comorant fishing. Inuyama (and Gifu as well) are famous for that :D I wanted to see it or even take part in it, but ... not enough time! ;o;
As it was extremely hot, they had this huge iceblock outside. Nice (*_*)v
People kept touching it to cool down a bit, me too! XD
That was funny, too :D
That dog is the mascot of Inuyama - makes sense, huh? Again, photo because of GERMAN! XD
On the way back from the castle I spotted these cute Tanuki in a garden and couldn't resist.
Right next to our station we could see a huge temple that looked quite interesting. My brother wanted to go there no matter what and as it was right next to the station we could afford going there .. timewise ;P
Somehow .. we had a hard time finding our way up there XD We just saw it from within the train and there was just a huge hill and we had no idea how to get up to the actual temple, but in the end we made it, of course XD
As you can see we didn't get bored on our way up there ;) There were enough other interesting things :)
We finally arrived at the temple: Narita Temple
It was a loooooong stairwalk up to the main building (x___X) ... and it was sooo hot, too ;o; ...
But eventually we made it up there :D
Super nice view!
On the way back down it suddenly got a little bit cloudy.
We left Inuyama and stopped somewhere before going to Gifu. There was another castle really close: Ogaki Castle
But we were not lucky at all!!! :( :( Under construction!!!
Nobody told us about it. We went to 2 different tourist information centers before going there and nobody mentioned that you can't actually see the castle.
We wasted a lot of time and money to get there for nothing and that on such a busy day! :( :( :(
That's how the castle should look ... when not under construction *sigh*
I'll still count it and check it as visited. I won't get another chance to go there anyways..
The outer castle walls. At least they were not under construction.
Taking some random photos while going back to the station XD
Finally in Gifu we went straight to "Gifu Park" - where also the castle is located :)
But before actually going to the castle (which is on the top of a hill and you have to take a ropeway) we checked out all the other things that were there to do and to see :D
Like this huge Daibutsu statue :)
There were a lot of smaller temples and shrines around the park.
And then, I spotted another cute Tanuki :3
Back in the park. Gotten quite cloudy, but still nice weather :)
Huge pagoda :)
Cute pictures drawn by kids were all over the park (*_*)v
That's the ropeway up to the castle. We waited until it was about to get dark as the only thing up there was the castle and the night view was supposed to be the best ;)
There was also an insect museum, but we didn't have enough time to go there :(
Well, we already saw enough insects in Nagoya castle, I guess ;P
Taking the ropeway I got a good close-up of the pagoda which is in the middle of a forest :D
And here it is, Gifu Castle!!
The castle was historically significant as Oda Nobunaga used it as a headquarters when unifying Japan, however the castle was destroyed in 1601, after the Battle of Sekigahara, so this is just a reproduction.
The view from up there was already really nice, just a bit ... foggy. I was hoping that it wouldn't start to rain!
Then, we had to wait until it got dark and we just walked around a bit. Nothing much to see there.
But we met a lot of new friends ... uhm ... I mean insects (x__X)/
Finally it was getting dark and we went into the castle:
They had some nice things in there and luckily photos were allowed, too :D
View from the top floor. Nice! But not yet dark enough ;)
Getting more and more cloudy ;o;
It was REALLY windy and cold out and up there, so I went back inside and waited there until it got completely dark.
Meanwhile more and more and more and more people came O__O; .... I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough space for me anymore XD
I went outside again and took tons of photos. It was really difficult. You can't shake the least bit or the photo will be unsharp. But I didn't have a tripod (wouldn't have been allowed up there anyways) and because there were so many people there was always somebody to jostle you (x____X)
It was slowly getting darker and darker :)
Once it was completey dark, the view was REALLY awesome!
Luckily I got some decent photos out of the 2345234234 I took XD
I even tried to get a "light line" from the cars which was VERY difficult in that kind of situation.
Back down in the park which was all lit up! I wanted to take tons of photos, but then it started to rain like woah and I had to pack my camera away. Then, we decided to go back home.
The reason for that? It has been a long day .... we were tired and had to get up early because we planned to use our ABSOLUTELY LAST CHANCE and climb Mt. Fuji the next day!!!
Camera used:
Pentax K-x
That's all.
Next up: Our trip to Mt. Fuji. Soon you'll know if we were able to climb it, got to the top and could see the sunrise or not. Stay tuned!~
Sorry for the long wait (~_~)
Because of the Mt. Fuji dilemma we had to change our plans completely as you might remeber. We wanted to go to Inuyama the day before this, but as it was raining cats and dogs we had to stay in Nagoya.
Instead we did Inuyama and Gifu in ONE DAY! Nothing I'd recommend, but I wanted to visit both cities and we didn't have any more days left over, so no choice!
Luckily the weather was great and so I took my DSLR with me again :D (=> better quality)
It was a busy day, so expect tons of photos.
Here we go~
Inuyama and Gifu (August 13th, 2010):
We started out in Inuyama (犬山) which literally means "dog mountain".
Inuyama is probably most famous for its castle (which you also can see in this first photo).
"The only privately owned castle in Japan and one of the nicest original examples of feudal Japanese fortifications. Originally built in 1537 by Oda Nobuyasu, grandfather of Oda Nobunaga, the warlord who helped end the long civil war that preceded the Tokugawa Shogunate, Inuyama is one of a handful of castles designated a Japanese national treasure." (WikiTravel)
There's also an open-air museum called "Meiji Mura Museum". It's huge and you'd spend at least two hours there. I sooo wanted to go but as we also had to go to Gifu, there was just not enough time! :(
Whichever station you choose, you'll have to walk for quite a while (20-30 min.) until you actually reach the castle. The landscape especially alongside the river was very beautiful (as you can see).
I just couldn't resist. The toilet sign is just too cute! XD
Before reaching the castle you'll get to a nice shrine :)
We came there early in the morning because of our busy schedule so there were not so many people yet (^-^)v
The stone says "National treasure: Inuyama Castle".
No, this is not Kyoto ;P
Just another Inari Shrine ;)
There was more than one shrine btw.
I was surprised to see GERMAN there!!! (*___*)
Outer castle walls.
And finally, the castle itself. Small and nice.
At first sight, nothing special. What it makes so special is that it's one of the few castles that are still in their original state! No reproduction!!!
Thus, it's quite horrible to move around inside, the stairs are small, the ceiling low etc. ;P (nothing for tall gaijin! XD)
Inside (like often) lots of photos of other Japanese castles. I tried to count to how many castles I've already been to! XD
The view from the highest floor was breathtaking!! The only thing that was horrible for me, no safety at all up there!! Usually there's some kind of guard railing, but not so there! And I'm a bit afraid of heights ;o; ....
But I wanted to take beautiful photos, so I got my courage together and walked around the 360° to get the best shots :D
Btw. in that river they're performing comorant fishing. Inuyama (and Gifu as well) are famous for that :D I wanted to see it or even take part in it, but ... not enough time! ;o;
As it was extremely hot, they had this huge iceblock outside. Nice (*_*)v
People kept touching it to cool down a bit, me too! XD
That was funny, too :D
That dog is the mascot of Inuyama - makes sense, huh? Again, photo because of GERMAN! XD
On the way back from the castle I spotted these cute Tanuki in a garden and couldn't resist.
Right next to our station we could see a huge temple that looked quite interesting. My brother wanted to go there no matter what and as it was right next to the station we could afford going there .. timewise ;P
Somehow .. we had a hard time finding our way up there XD We just saw it from within the train and there was just a huge hill and we had no idea how to get up to the actual temple, but in the end we made it, of course XD
As you can see we didn't get bored on our way up there ;) There were enough other interesting things :)
We finally arrived at the temple: Narita Temple
It was a loooooong stairwalk up to the main building (x___X) ... and it was sooo hot, too ;o; ...
But eventually we made it up there :D
Super nice view!
On the way back down it suddenly got a little bit cloudy.
We left Inuyama and stopped somewhere before going to Gifu. There was another castle really close: Ogaki Castle
But we were not lucky at all!!! :( :( Under construction!!!
Nobody told us about it. We went to 2 different tourist information centers before going there and nobody mentioned that you can't actually see the castle.
We wasted a lot of time and money to get there for nothing and that on such a busy day! :( :( :(
That's how the castle should look ... when not under construction *sigh*
I'll still count it and check it as visited. I won't get another chance to go there anyways..
The outer castle walls. At least they were not under construction.
Taking some random photos while going back to the station XD
Finally in Gifu we went straight to "Gifu Park" - where also the castle is located :)
But before actually going to the castle (which is on the top of a hill and you have to take a ropeway) we checked out all the other things that were there to do and to see :D
Like this huge Daibutsu statue :)
There were a lot of smaller temples and shrines around the park.
And then, I spotted another cute Tanuki :3
Back in the park. Gotten quite cloudy, but still nice weather :)
Huge pagoda :)
Cute pictures drawn by kids were all over the park (*_*)v
That's the ropeway up to the castle. We waited until it was about to get dark as the only thing up there was the castle and the night view was supposed to be the best ;)
There was also an insect museum, but we didn't have enough time to go there :(
Well, we already saw enough insects in Nagoya castle, I guess ;P
Taking the ropeway I got a good close-up of the pagoda which is in the middle of a forest :D
And here it is, Gifu Castle!!
The castle was historically significant as Oda Nobunaga used it as a headquarters when unifying Japan, however the castle was destroyed in 1601, after the Battle of Sekigahara, so this is just a reproduction.
The view from up there was already really nice, just a bit ... foggy. I was hoping that it wouldn't start to rain!
Then, we had to wait until it got dark and we just walked around a bit. Nothing much to see there.
But we met a lot of new friends ... uhm ... I mean insects (x__X)/
Finally it was getting dark and we went into the castle:
They had some nice things in there and luckily photos were allowed, too :D
View from the top floor. Nice! But not yet dark enough ;)
Getting more and more cloudy ;o;
It was REALLY windy and cold out and up there, so I went back inside and waited there until it got completely dark.
Meanwhile more and more and more and more people came O__O; .... I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough space for me anymore XD
I went outside again and took tons of photos. It was really difficult. You can't shake the least bit or the photo will be unsharp. But I didn't have a tripod (wouldn't have been allowed up there anyways) and because there were so many people there was always somebody to jostle you (x____X)
It was slowly getting darker and darker :)
Once it was completey dark, the view was REALLY awesome!
Luckily I got some decent photos out of the 2345234234 I took XD
I even tried to get a "light line" from the cars which was VERY difficult in that kind of situation.
Back down in the park which was all lit up! I wanted to take tons of photos, but then it started to rain like woah and I had to pack my camera away. Then, we decided to go back home.
The reason for that? It has been a long day .... we were tired and had to get up early because we planned to use our ABSOLUTELY LAST CHANCE and climb Mt. Fuji the next day!!!
Camera used:
Pentax K-x
That's all.
Next up: Our trip to Mt. Fuji. Soon you'll know if we were able to climb it, got to the top and could see the sunrise or not. Stay tuned!~