Nakatsu Castle

It took a little over one hour for me to reach Nakatsu Castle from Tagawa. I went there by car with my host whom I have been in contact for over a year. The castle looks great even from outside~

Captured from the car park

There is no fee for the car park. 

Walking up the stairs and passing the torii, you will see a shrine next to the castle~ And next to the shrine, you will see an antique omikuji booth. scroll to the bottom of this post~

I was capturing photos when my host was already at the entrance of the castle.

The entrance of the castle costs 400 yen if I'm not wrong. The castle has three or four floors, each displaying items and some replicas used in war. For example armors, weapons, messenger letters, etc.

On the top floor of the castle, you can enjoy a magnificent view of the town~

On your right as you passed the torii, there is a souvenir shop. The items sold include postcards, key chains, charms, cookies, packed green tea, some books, and of course green tea served in cups. I did not get anything from this shop~ Instead, I got a bottle of green tea from a vending machine next to the shop.

Whereas, on your left, you will see more small shrines. I cleaned myself as a sign of paying homage to the gods, and saw an old couple praying~

There was a smaller shrine which has been closed at the end of the pavement. I peeped inside and saw this thing which I find a bit terrifying lol

There view behind this smaller shrine is beautiful too. It looks so peaceful.

Another small shrine~

I don't remember what these are called, but people will buy a wooden block from the souvenir shop and write their wish on it. Then, they will hang it on a rack like in the picture below.

If you haven't already subscribed to my YouTube, please do so to get quicker updates from me~ This is the omikuji booth I mentioned earlier in this post. I didn't want to get any reading but my host told me that this is an antique booth. It is not operated by machine or battery and is more than a hundred years old. Seeing this special feature, I decided to put my coin in it just to record this.

How cool~

People usually tie their readings on strings provided near the omikuji booth. However, I wonder.. We paid 100 yen to get a reading just to leave it on a string two minutes later. Is it really worth the money? But, as the saying goes "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". In this case, of course Japan. So, why not? After all, it's nice to get experience like this~

There are many nice shrines in Oita prefecture which are worth visiting. I only managed to visit two. The lady at the information counter of the castle said that there are many more places where tourists love to go, but they are only enjoyable if you can read Japanese. Kind of a bummer~

All photos are unedited except for the one with old couple. Please credit my photos if you use them.

-vivian-