Climbing up the slippery hills to get to Gifu castle
Weather update: Misty fog but still really warm.
Health update: Mildly snotty but maybe already getting better?
Today I got to use the plethora of roofs that hover above every street in Gifu.
They took me all the way to the Gifu city garden, which has a surprisingly long challenging series of paths to get to the castle that overlooks the city, if you choose to not use the ropeway.
Of course, I did not use the ropeway. But I was actually expecting a concrete staircase to the top, because this place is really popular, I couldnt be more wrong.
It was surely the most challenging 'climb' of my trip so far. Sure, it was short, but at times I needed my gloves and to think about the way up.
The castle at the top was built in 1950, after being destroyed in world war 2. It is made of concrete. Whilst there are great views from the castle, as you will see below, its really hard to take a photo of a great view including the castle.
It also has a small entry fee and the usual array of swords and samurai outfits inside.
I think this might be the only actual castle I visit on this trip, and its a fake one to boot.
The path down was called the meditation path, supposed to be easier, and it was, but given the moist conditions, I really had to be very careful!
I made it to the bottom unscathed, and dry. What looks like rain is really just fog.
Now I am enjoying a fruit salad that includes tomatoes and very strangely, marshmallows. Not mochi, actual marshmallows. From now on all fruit salad should include marshmallows.
The road through the city to the park where you start your ascent to storm the castle was very nice, even in the grey.
I took a wrong turn and found myself at this temple complex, with some really nice autumn color, well it would have been on a sunny day.
This woman will be here until march sweeping leaves.
The temple itself.
They have decided to try and compete with Kyoto with the red gate tunnel. Weak effort, try a different color, be unique.
I have no idea what this place was, but it was really nice and quite a large compound of many buildings.
Now I am at the city park, and if you squint through the fog, you can see the castle on top of the hill. There is an art gallery here with a Michaelangelo exhibition going on. Quite a few buses of domestic tourists.
Also, like all of Japan at this time of year, the flower show. This one has a mini pagoda and bridge as part of the display.
A bit more flower show, there was heaps and heaps of flower show. If you like flower show you would like this park a lot.
The garden was large and colorful. I did not explore it all.
I did however explore the little pond with lit up neon plastic Japanese historical figures. Note the fish in the water.
This was a bonus pagoda. Apparently made from wood from a bridge that collapsed in an earthquake in the 1890's. Although it doesnt say when the pagoda was made, it looks new and they are still finishing the landscaping around it.
It is often very very hard to take a photo without power wires. It annoys me!
I selected my path, apparently a path an exiled brother used to sneak up on the castle and murder his entire family and reclaim the throne. Quite common in Japan to this day.
The so called path was a rock face! I was genuinely surprised, but excited to climb up jagged wet rocks.
A bit more rock face, it went on and on. My hands are a bit sore now as a result. Needless to say, I saw no one else at all attempting the rock face.
And now a view of the fog.
As far as I can tell, this is only one of two spots to take a photo of the castle. You will see the other later.
Inside you have your usual array of weaponary.
And of course a few suits of samurai armour. Terrible reflecions from the horrendous fluoro lighthing. Buying a few normal lamps would make this place look 100x better.
Now we do the view, of the fog! And also those damn wires.
More fog, and the cities famous river. I know its famous, the station has an information board telling me the city is famous for the river and the castle.
Last view pic. Nice phone tower poking up from the trees. I think the foliage would have looked spectacular on a clear day.
Lets do the stance!
This is the other castle view, you have to stand in the entry of the ladies toilets. Nice power wires again.....
There is also another museum building included in the price of admission, and a squirrel park. Squirrel park had no squirrels although I did see some on my descent.
Bonus museum building had some more armour.
What the bonus museum really had, was the complete history of the castle, as told in manga. Apparently theres a big budget Japanese movie about this castle and the various mass killings of everyone.
Time to make my descent down the meditation path. I meditated on not slipping the hell over.
It remained foggy my whole descent, which I enjoyed.
The lower parts were less slippery, but dark and spooky. Todays small walk turned into a technical hike, which was a nice surprise.
The view from the Gifu observation tower
I am confident I have now seen all there is to see in Gifu. Time to move on to Yokohama tomorrow.
To assist in ensuring everyone can see all of Gifu, the government has built the largest building in the city, and made the top floor observation deck free.
I went up there, and I was the only person up there. Strangely they have installed what appears to be frosted glass, which impacts the photo quality as you will see below.
From the observation tower, I saw a mall, so I guess it was time to head to the mall. I shouldnt have bothered. It had nowhere to eat except mcdonalds, and exactly 4 shops! Book-off, Uniqlo, Tsutaya and a supermarket, and enough car parking for 10,000 cars.
The top floors of the former shopping mall were now all English language learning schools and dentists.
Not to worry, I headed back to the station area and found a vegetarian buffet! Not as good as the FANTASTIC Taiwanese ones, but still good.
Paying for it was quite an ordeal, just like in Taiwan you pay by weight, but this place was a self check out machine that weighed it and made you put cash in. Sounds easy enough, but then it was asking me questions about rice, soup, green tea etc and I had to pick various options.
Eventually the cleaning grandma came and helped me, I think it made her day.
Then finally, I decided my dinner was virtually calorie free so celebrated with a green tea and red bean ice cream. Which was way more ice than cream. I have regrets!
The view from the 43rd floor. My building at home has more floors and seems small compared to many around it.
Here in Japan, 43 seems really high. Thats the train station below.
Some more view. That other big building is also owned by the city government.
Last of the view pics. It was really hard to take decent photos through the glass.
Next up, we head to the crappy mall. There was a highway overpass to take a photo from. Its not really up to the standard of the Tennnoji one from the other day in Osaka.
There was nothing else to see in the mall other than perusing the fantastic selection of second hand goods in book-off. They sell lots of second hand clothes also, its hard to tell many are second hand.
I had no idea what this place is, but they rolled out the red carpet for me.
And here is the building I was taking photos from the top of earlier. It was now starting to get foggy again.
My vegetarian buffet dinner. It was a fun activity.
I bought my ice cream from a gigantic up market supermarket. This is their curry powder / paste / spice block aisle. I couldnt fit it all in the shot. Do Japanese people eat curry every night?
And the rain started to fall just as I got back to the roofed streets once more. This might be the last ever photo you see of Gifu in your life. Remember it for its many roofs!