A Rude Question

I joined a meeting held by a volunteer tour guide group yesterday.  An American young guy gave us a lecture about foreign tourists. He was a 23-year-old New Yorker. 

After his presentation, he allowed us some questions. The questions should be related tourism or so. But some member asked a weird question. He asked, "before World War 2, we have lots of reminded original castles here in Japan. During the war time, the U.S troops were bombing many Japanese city and destroyed historical landmarks including castles. Now, we have only 12 of them. What do you think of that?"

The atmosphere there was frozen. Obviously, he shouldn't ask that kind of question at the time. If he really wanted to ask that, he should ask him after they made a trust relationship and in private. 

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                        にほんブログ村

Shachihoko

Like many other old Japanese castles, Matsue Castle has a pair of Shachihoko. 

A shachihoko is an imaginary sea animal with the body of a fish and the head of a tiger. Ancient people believed that the animal would save the building from fire. 

The imaginary animals on Matsue Castle are made of wood covered with bronze. They are 2.08m tall and that means they are the largest wooden Shachihoko in Japan. 

The picture below shows old Shachihokos which replaced at Matsue Castle several decades ago. 

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12 Castles with Original Donjons

You can see lots of Donjons, Tenshu, in Japan. A donjon is a main tower of a castle. Himeji Castle Donjon would be the most famous one. Like the castle, only 12 donjons have still remained in original conditions in this country. Others are once destroyed in some reasons and rebuild in modern era. 

The 12 castles are Hirosaki, Matsumoto, Maruoka, Inuyama, Hikone, Himeji, Matsue, Bicchu Matsuyama, Marugame, Matsuyama, Kochi and Uwahima. These 12 cities with the original donjons are planning to make an alliance called "Existing 12-Castle Donjon Alliance ". 

They want to attract more foreign tourists with an eye to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games. 

I think the concept is good, but that kind of project lead by politicians often wouldn't go well in the end. Using the web efficiently would be the key to success. I believe that inviting many YouTubers and bloggers is a good for boosting popularity of tourists. 

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Matsue Castle to be a National Treasure

Matsue Castle will become a National Treasure again. It used to be a National Treasure, but the title was once removed from the castle. 

As I belong to a volunteer guide group to the castle, I'm really glad to hear the news. I want many people to know the value of the castle. Only 12 castles still remain in the original construction. Matsue Castle is one of them. The others are not original buildings. 

In Meiji era, the castle was about to sell by Japanese government at the price of 180 yen, but some wealthy citizens bought it back to our city. I really thank to the people otherwise we don't have such a great treasure in my city for now. 

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Short Trip to Okayama

I made a short trip to Takahashi and Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture with my family. 

In Takahashi, we went to Bittyu Matsuyama Castle. The castle is one of the remaining original castles in Japan. The trip to the castle was like a mountain climbing. I was exhausted. 

After visiting the castle, we drove to Kurashiki. The city center was crowded with cars and tourists. We had a hard time to find a parking lot. One hour was needed to park our car. 

We had a lunch there and strolled around the town. We also had afternoon coffee break with cake at a nice cafe. We really enjoyed the short trip today. 

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