Silver and Gold

Anyone who was a Girl Scout will remember the song,

"Make new friends, but keep the old,
  One is silver and the other gold."

This weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to finally meet in real life a friend who I met online. I had met her on a pen-pal exchange bulletin board right after I returned from Japan the last time I was there.  We've corresponded almost every day since -- almost 8 years!  She lives in Hiroshima and came to Nagoya for Friday and Saturday.  So, even though we are old friends, we finally met in person for the first time.  This was one of the best opportunities of this trip.

We visited a few places and stayed overnight at a lovely Japanese ryokan (a traditional inn), which seems to be foreigner-friendly as well.

The first place we visited was Nagoya Castle. It's not the original castle, but a reconstruction.   I have been to Aichi Prefecture four times, but never visited Nagoya Castle.  Time to fix that!

Historically, it's important as the largest castle in the former Owari Prefecture (Western Aichi Prefecture -- where Nagoya is).  A castle had been built previously in Nagoya, but later abandoned. Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the rebuilding of Nagoya Castle in 1609.  The Tokugawa family ruled as shogun from 1603 until 1867, and the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan lived at Nagoya Castle.

Nagoya Castle stood until May 14, 1945, when it was tragically destroyed in firebombing in WWII. To me, it seems especially bad timing since the war ended later in 1945.  There are a few original castles remaining in Japan, and it would be amazing had Nagoya managed to be one of them.  The current reconstruction is ferro-concrete, which is not earthquake resistant.  The city of Nagoya intends to tear down this reconstruction and rebuild using the original wooden design.  I can't wait to see that!

So...onward to the pictures!

 Here is the carriage entrance, where guests of the lord would enter.  It's relatively newly constructed, and the wood is beautiful!

Inside are gorgeous painted screens, intended to impress upon guests the power and wealth of the lord of the castle

Here is the outside of the castle.  You can tell it's much larger than Okazaki Castle.

Here is a shachi, which is variously translated into English as "dolphin" or "carp".  It's a mythical creature, and they are put on castles to ward off fires.  As the clan's fortunes waned at times, these were melted down and recast in alloys containing less and less gold.

Here is part of a stone wall.  When I saw the display showing how these huge stones were moved, I immediately thought of "The Ten Commandments"!  The curved slope would make it difficult for invaders to climb the walls.

Here is some roof detail:

I don't know about you, but I think that Nagoya Castle can hold it's own against any European castle for grace and beauty.

From the top, we had a good view of Nagoya.

Even the nearby subway entrance was designed to fit in.

Here's looking up at the castle from up close.  You can see how visitors would be impressed -- as intended.

Stay tuned for more posts about my trip to Nagoya!