12 November 2015
Monkeys castles and fighter jets
Day trip to Inuyama to the monkey park and castle
Today I went to Inuyama, which is near Gifu, north of Nagoya.
Inuyama is a town famous for its castle, which is a real castle, built around 1500, and still as it was then, no escalators or reconstruction.
It is one of only 5 remaining pre Meiji period castles and a national treasure, whatever that means. It seemed pretty important to the town.
However before I go to the castle, its monkey time.
Based on the popularity of the castle, and the need for breeding of monkeys for research, a monorail was constructed to an area a few km east of the castle, where theres a monkey only zoo and laboratory and a monkey adventure theme park over the road from one another.
Some time ago, the theme park and laboratory / zoo decided to build a bridge over the road, and offer joint tickets for the two neighbouring attractions.
The bridge was completed, but the respective owners couldnt agree on splitting the money, so it was never used.
Soon after the monorail broke down and they couldnt afford to fix it.
The theme park had absolutey zero people from what I could see, and the monkey laboratory park was all school kids, and me.
Now, I have said its a lab a few times, and apparently it is. It originally existed to breed monkeys for medical experiments, and they had all kinds of monkeys so decided to expand into being a zoo also.
They are closed for a few months of the year and every Tuesday and Wednesday which are 'testing' days.
After seeing enough monkeys, it was quite a confusing hike over a hill back to town through a graveyard to find the castle.
This was clearly the best castle I have ever seen in Japan, very steep dangerous ladders to climb up, the entire thing was made of wood and its amazing it hasnt burnt down.
All the while fighter jets buzzed low overhead, as theres a nearby airbase, I think they follow the river in case they need to crash land.
I took about a million photos, and much like the monkeys themselves, culled them down to whats left below.
I highly recommend going to Inuyama.
I wasnt sure if I had got off at the right place, its a tiny station.
My walk to the monkey park was with this cat. My loyal feline friend followed me the entire journey. I never saw a person!
I saw lots of solar cells like these though.
One of the only other adults in the monkey park, this guys is recording monkey noises. It was really very noisy in here, and when a fighter jet went over they all went crazy.
Thats when our friend with the microphone got really excited.
The enclosures werent too bad by Japanese standards.
I was on high alert.
The park had a lot of elevated walkways like this, and they seem to move the monkeys around the park to different enclosures using them.
This was absolutely fascinating to the amassed children below. Every school group had a different colored hat. I dont know if they all agree, or if they distribute them to kids at the gate. I did not get offered a hat.
I did get yelled at a lot 'HELLO!' the best answer is, 'Ni Hao Ma?'.
Some monkeys have a great view.
But they mainly prefer the ground.
Two will enter, one will leave. Also, high school kids wear dental assistant uniforms.
You can go onto islands filled with smaller monkeys such as this Bolivian squirrel monkey. They are super fast.
I could have been killed.
The common Japanese monkey gets a really poor enclosure, these ones are getting injected with aids next week.
The view was pretty good though.
I was alone at this point and couldnt see any monkeys, they were above my head all along.
OK, thats probably enough monkey photos.
My walk through the forest was good, I could see various roller coasters and this huge ferris wheel, but none were operating. The distorted music piped through the forest made it somewhat surreal.
Not only was it a theme park, but also a graveyard. Possibly from the monorail. Maybe thats why it stopped running.
Every time a jet went over, I tried for a photo. This is the best I could do.
I have no idea whats going on here.
The other side of the river is another town. I thought about walking to Gifu but it was too far (20km).
I had to time my run across the bridge because trains came quite regularly.
I spotted the castle.
Kyoto does this better.
Behold, a real castle. It may be small, but its not constructed from pre fabricated concrete.
You had to remove your shoes to go inside so as not to damage the wooden boards.
The view from the top was rewarding. I took a nice panorama shot too which I might upload later.
I think those huts on the bridge are used by fishermen, I recall seeing a sign in the town about it.
Last photo of view.
Oh the shame. I could feel the gaze of disapproving Japanese grandmas. Every sock I own has holes in it about 30 minutes after I put them on.
At first this shot might be superfluous, but I was surprised at all the blossoms on trees. I am here for leaf season not blossom season. Must be El Nino.
The walk back to the station, along the official tourist route, all looked like this. I avoided it on the way to the castle due to my excursion to the monkey park.