.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

Inuyama Castle and Monkey Park

I had another day to go exploring and this time, I went to Inuyama with Gon-chan and Mai-chan. First, we met up at Nagoya station and bought bento boxes for lunch. Then we got on the Meitetsu train and away we went. Just a comment, I don't think the Meitetsu is foreigner friendly either, all schedules and train routes are in Japanese so thank goodness I had company!
Anyways, we got to Inuyama and headed straight for the castle which is the oldest standing castle in Japan and is one of the National Treasures. A lot of the structures have been destoyed but the main castle is still standing. This castle seems small for a castle even though it's 6 levels high. Still, I was excited to be in a real castle from 400 years ago. There is not much inside the castle but there were pictures of all the other castles in Japan. I wish I could visit all of them but that will be for another time in life. On the castle grounds we had a picnic lunch under cherry blossoms which were just starting to bloom.

Afterwards, we went to Monkey Park since the day was still young. To get there, we had to take a monorail. I got confused and thought that the monorail itself was $19 (1900 yen) but the price actually includes the park admission. Attractions in Japan are not cheap! Anyways, I saw a lot of monkeys and a lot of baby monkeys too. Sooo cute. Some of them weren't even in cages. It seems a shallow pond of water helps keep them on their little islands. That doesn't explain the monkey's that wander freely above your head on a suspension bridge though. Oh, and we got to feed the monkeys in monkey valley. There were a couple that would clap their hands at you to get you to throw food at them. Questionnable practice? Well, I had fun.

posted by ~diana~ @ 11:41 PM