lost or what?

Here is the train I rode on from Okayama to Bitchu-Takahashi station in Takahashi. It takes just over an hour on the local train and costs about 800 yen ($8) in each direction, IC card accepted. Takahashi is popular with tourists, there is a Starbucks, and limited express trains stop at the station, but cost more than double to save 20 minutes.

The town is actually nice, this is not necessarily its best angle.

There are a lot of historic buildings in and around town, generally labelled as Samurai houses. I do not think Samurai lived here though.

On the way up to the hiking trail I wandered into a shrine, but prayers were going on so I took this photo from the gate and left.

Nice streets, the gloomy weather adds to the vibe. Yeah, vibe. A word who's meaning is changing lately.

A couple of things about getting to the castle. There are buses and mini bus van things in town. There is a shuttle bus that takes you near the castle. Google reviews are very critical that the shuttle bus does not always run, and even when it does the 'hike' from the car park is excruciating and ruined their entire trip etc.
Alternatively, you can hike all the way up, which is not very far at all to the castle. People complain they can't find the trailhead, well here it is. I had no issues.

The lower bits of the hike before the car park and shuttle bus stop are a proper hike. Very lonely.

I think this is where the shuttle bus drops you off, as it is all paved with stairs after this point, for 500m max.

Approaching the destroyed lower castle.

I presume there used to be a structure here.

The views down to Takahashi are not that great, and basically non existent from the castle itself.

The walls are substantial, and probably old.

Here is the most autumn I have seen so far on this trip. I do notice that the peak autumn stuff is near castles and shrines, so I suspect they are deliberately planted.

Admission to this area is $5 (500 yen), credit card NOT accepted, but they take Alipay and Paypay.

As I was buying my ticket I was looking over my shoulder at the famous cat, Sanjuro, who was sitting here on his throne, when his guard picked him up and took him away! Now what. I wanted to see (photograph) the cat!

There is what may be the castle but may not be the old bit, with more cat furniture in the foreground.

The bit you are allowed inside of (after removing your shoes) does not appear to be that old. I am confused by all of this, the wikipedia article which I read twice does not properly explain how old which bits of it are, possibly 1331, but somehow it qualifies as one of the twelve remaining original castles.

It is only 2 levels high, but it is the highest castle in Japan, despite not being that high. That sounds confusing, what I mean is, I am surprised there is no castle on any proper mountain.

This is the best view you can get of the city below from the castle itself, and it is not a clear view, I had to feed my camera through wooden louvres, and it got a better view than I did.

I will now continue around that ridge to get a view of the castle, but not what is often a sea of clouds below. Another thing this castle is famous for is floating on a sea of clouds.

OK, so behind the bit you can go inside, is this. You cannot go inside this part. I am wondering if this is actually the old castle. It is however very small and from the outside at least, looks the same as the bit you can go inside of.

I found the cat! His guard takes him to several spots throughout the day to be adored by his fans. There are people either side of me taking photos too. He is definitely under constant guard, I am not making that up, someone is employed to look after the cat.

Close up. I think he is quite old, and not really interested in much of anything.

I hunted around a while for a view.

Now I will head around the back of the castle and rejoin a hiking trail to go beyond the shuttle bus tourism zone.

There is that possibly old bit of castle again from the back. I have zoomed in, the wood looks older. I am still confused though.

Up the hill a bit, there are some rocks where more castle used to be.

As you go down the hill for a while, you get to the old castle swimming pool. Is that what this is? What else could it be?

Then you get to a suspension bridge. It is substantial, you cannot bounce up and down on it.

The view from the bridge is quite nice though.

Then you get to a car park. But you are not allowed to use it. The road is blocked before this point as you head back towards town, thus forcing people onto the shuttle bus that possibly is not running (the castle website actually talks about it not running some of the time).

A few hundred metres down the road and you get to the castle observation deck, where you can view the castle floating in the clouds when the conditions are right (not today). I believe you can drive to this point as there were a couple of cars parked nearby.

Behold the view of the city and the castle (on the right). I turned around and retraced my steps at this point.

There were some nice bits of hiking trail between castle and castle lookout and car parks and roads and forest access roads.

Back at the castle, and it was time for a bit more autumn leaf colour.

I arrived back at the station 30 minutes early for the train, so I had time to wander the city. This is what they call a Shotengei here, they covered an actual road, with full speed traffic coming along it. I suspect it was once closed off to traffic, but has now reverted to being a regular road.

I even had time to admire the local river / drain. Not bad.

Unfortunately the view in the other direction was blocked by the road. They built 2 bridges alongside one another, one for bikes and pedestrians that I am on, and one for cars only.

The local taxi company uses Lord Sanjuro as there official mascot. That is enough photos for today.