November 2, 2013

• Inuyama Castle

  

  This is a view of Nagoya Castle from our KKR Hotel room. We are going to check out and meet SIL and Dotter in Inuyama.

  
  

  

  We have arrived at Inuyama. SIL and Dotter are coming on the train, and we take a picture of Inuyama Castle while we are waiting for them.

  

  This is a local manhole cover with a depiction of cormerant fishing.

  

  Inuyama Station

  

  Let's get going down to road to the Castle. There are some interesting stops along the way.

  

  Every year there is a festival with floats. The floats all have puppet shows on the top stage of the floats, and some of them are housed in this building.

  

  Here are a couple of the floats. The puppet show takes place at the top, and the puppeteers operate them from the chamber below. The bottom floor holds a hayashi band.

  

  This is a kimono that a boy in the hayashi band would wear. It is quite costly!

  

  Here are some of the puppets. These can climb stairs!

  
  

  

  Oops! We forgot to take a picture of this snack before we ate it.

  

  Here is an old building with a rounded roof.

  

  Time for lunch!

  

  Looks good! Let's dig in!!

  

  Next year is the year of the horse. These decorations were tempting, but I really have enough horse moogles.

  

  It is 7-5-3 season, and here is a little girl all decked out in her kimono.

  

  Let's continue on down the road to the castle.

  

  Kitty wants some of this kid's snack.

  

  This is a small museum that has a display of Inuyama Castle.

  

  This is a model of the castle and the surrounding area

  

  Snack time again!

  

  Here is another small museum that has the festival puppets and dolls on display.

  

  These dolls carry teacups. They operate with baleen strips as springs, so they cannot leave the country as they cannot be transported across borders because of animal conservation laws.

  

  Here are some tea carrying dolls in full costume.

  

  Here is a doll without a costume on display so we can see how he works.

  

  More dolls

  

  This undersea princess give Taro a box and tells him not to open it, but he does and instantly turns his true old age.

  
  

  

  This fellow is from the story Urashima Taro, which is kind of like Rip Van Winkle.

  

  More dolls

  

  This is a doll replica/repair studio run by a local expert. We have seen this fellow before at a museum in Tokyo.

  

  On to the castle!

  

  This is an ema board with a picture of Inuyama Castle and the festival floats.

  

  Here is Inuyama Castle. Let's head inside.

  

  Let's have a picture taken first. This is a pretty nice one!

  

  Here is a view from the top of the castle. There are five sets of steep stairs on the way up.

  

  Looking down over where we had our picture taken just now.

  

  This is looking out over the city.

  

  Dotter on the top floor.

  

  Selfie?

  

  Next we will visit a tea ceremonial garden and have a cup of tea.

  

  The path into the garden.

  

  Here is the inside of one of the tea rooms. It is a national treasure, so it is probably no longer in actual use.

  

  This stone with the rope tied around it means "keep out."

  

  DH enjoys a snack before the tea is served.

  

  SIL and Dotter wait for their tea.

  

  Another treasured tea room

  

  A view from inside the garden

  

  OK, let's head back to the station. Many thanks to SIL for coming even though he had two hours sleep the night before. We really appreciated it.

  • 09:15
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