Marugame Castle


There is a city near us in Kanonji called Marugame. It is about a 40 minute drive on a good day, despite being relatively close. The roads on the island of Shikoku are a lot like Highway 99 at home, congested with businesses and traffic light after traffic light. It also doesn't help that the maximum speed limit is 50 km/hr. That's equivalent to about 35 mph. Anyway, Marugame is a great city, a lot larger than ours with everything you could possibly need. One of the cool features of the city is castle built up on a hill. It was started in 1587 and evolved over time. It has been preserved and is now a museum of sorts. Being one of only 12 wooden castles left standing is Japan, it is a big tourist draw. The castle sits high on a hill with stone walls protecting the hill. Inside the castle are little holes that guardians of the castle could open, slide out a gun, and shoot any intruders. The kids thought that was pretty cool.



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