Nagoya Castle

So, as I eluded to in my last post, we did have a fun evening out last Sunday. We went to the Summer Lantern Festival at Nagoya Castle.

Entrance to Shiyakusho Station near Nagoya Castle

Women in kimono's waiting in line to enter the festival

For only 800 yen a piece we were able to tour all 5 floors and an observation deck of the castle and attend a festival that was being held on the grounds. We did enjoy seeing the history of Nagoya Castle, the original structure dating back to 1612, although most of it was rebuilt after what they politely refer to as the "air raids" destroyed all but the gate towers in 1945 during WWII.

 

Nagoya Castle

We also saw a 'Bon Odori' or Bon dance, which is a dance to welcome the spirits of the dead during Obon, which is this week. Japanese travel back to their hometowns to visit family and remember their ancestors. Most wormen wore kimonos and performed the dance in unison. It was similar to line dancing and I had an urge to get up and give it try, but I didn't know if it would be appropriate for a gaijiin or not. In turn I could have taught them all 'the cotton-eyed Joe'. : )

Bon Odori



As we were about to leave through the gate, we saw a man holding a sign that said 18:40 with a big red arrow pointing up a hill to the left and a bunch of Japanese characters we couldn't read (as usual). It was 18:39, so we decided to see what was going on. About 8 Samurai, bearing flags of their clans, were up on platforms and in position to fire old Japanese style matchlock guns. They proceeded to shoot and reload 6 times. I've included some live action footage for your enjoyment!