I just wanted to get that out of the way right up front because though I've never been to a castle before I'm pretty sure most of them don't come with elephants. It also had Macaque monkeys but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Finding our way to Odawara castle was easy, all we had to do was follow the tile brick road.
We crossed the street and passed under a bridge to reach the castle park. At the top of the hill we could see a bit of white through the trees. A woman was standing on a step ladder, taking a picture of a just-opening cherry blossom.
The road curved to the left at the top of the hill exposing a small outbuilding directly ahead and, to the right, the castle.
Don't get too excited. The castle at Odawara is just a reconstruction. The original structure was built some 800 years ago. When Emperor Meiji overthrew the Shogunate in 1868 all feudal castles were destroyed in an effort to take power away from the hereditary warrior class.
Ninety years later they built this - a true to original exact replica of the castle destroyed in 1870. At least the outside is exact. The inside has been turned into a museum. The roof affords an unbeatable view of the countryside.
The courtyard has been turned into a sort of miniature carnival. There's a restaurant, a gift shop, and a place to rent samurai costumes and Edo period kimono. My favorite was the girl wearing a kimono, a wide straw hat and a pair of strappy silver high heels.
The elephant had her own little compound, as did the monkeys.
There were even some kiddy rides around the back. Also, the moat had been turned into a garden at some point, so instead of walking over a trench of dirty water you crossed out of the courtyard over little green vegetable plants.
Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing was what we saw in the little shrine behind the castle. The shrine itself wasn't much, just a couple of buildings with a koi pond and a souvenir stand. But the adjoining garden was hosting a wedding party. I could see the bride dressed up in a traditional red kimono and white headdress. I had never seen a Japanese bride in real life before. I tried to be inconspicuous with my staring but I'm not sure it worked.
One more thing happened on our adventure this weekend, but I think it deserves its own post. So don't touch that dial, we'll be back with more tomorrow, same time same station. This is your faithful tour guide signing out.
I leave you today with a quote from Monty Python,“Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one... stayed up!"
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