For once it was easy to find and after abandoning Hennie for a couple of hours, I went through the gates and paid my fee - nicely recognised as a senior and got a free ticket included to the Castle. As usual, I just really loved wandering around a typical Japanese garden. Pretty paths lined by trimmed shrubs, bamboo fences and tinkling creeks. There were wonderful flowering shrubs and plantings of iris and all sorts of other wonderful things. I sat on a deck over a large pond watching the turtles and the Yellow-spotted duck, which looks just like a Black Duck, but with a bright yellow spot on its bill. There was a little hill in the middle with a shrine on the top, which offered a small view over the garden. There was a large statue too - of course - but I wasn't sure who or what it was commemorating.
By the time I had looped all the way around the garden (spotting a woodpecker of some variety -another highlight) I was now ready for lunch. There's a cafe within the grounds, so up the stairs I went and ordered a vegetable tempura noodle bowl. Am getting the knack for slurping up the noodles too!
Once lunch was over, I went off to find Hennie, who was now hidden amongst a biggest mob of other bikes. After rescuing her, we pedalled across the road to the Castle precinct. Well, the main castle is no longer, but the buildings there still made it feel like a Castle. After removing my shoes I scuffed off through the building - maybe its called the Gate House. There was an extensive museum of its usual samurai history, but also had a good display on the reconstruction of the precinct.
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting lost in shopping centres on the hunt for a usb cable for my camera, which saw me eventually following directions to a tiny camera shop where the old owner sorted through all sorts of box, finding every variety of cable except the one I needed. but I found an ice-cream shop and snacked on a strawberry waffle and headed back to the hostel.
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