Okayama

Day 4 - 11.24.08

Well, the event is over. It was really interesting seeing the differences in a Magic Grand Prix in Japan as opposed to one in America. I had a great time. Everyone was so polite and excited to be there. I hope everyone had a good time.

This was our first day to go sightseeing, and of course it was raining. We decided to visit the Okayama Castle, also known as Crow Castle due to its black color. We took a trolley part of the way, and then walked the rest. I ended up putting a 500 yen coin in the trolley coin slot (the actual price was 100 yen, but I only had a 500 in my pocket), which didn't take it because we were all putting our money in the wrong place. Yay for a 600 yen trolley ride!

Unfortunately the castle was destroyed in World War II, but was rebuilt in 1966. These stones were part of the original foundation.

Walking up to the castle. 

Some original materials used in the castle.

They put these on top of the castle to ward off evil spirits. 

Samurai armor, with authentic battle damage!!!

A picture of one of the rooms that was believed to be haunted.

More armor, woo!

Part of the original wall that survived the bombing.

This is the outer wall that was rebuilt using the same materials and techniques as the original. If you notice, they did not use mortar in the construction of their walls. These huge blocks of stone are held together by gravity. The small spaces between the stones are stuffed with smaller stones. You can see the huge key stones on the corner of the wall.

One of the gates. Most of the time these huge gates remained closed. Smaller doors to either side were used instead. 

MMMmmm, teppanyaki place.

This was the best example of Japlish that I could find. This was on the front of an arcade. Cat and Brian were taking pictures of this in the rain and people that walked by kept trying to figure out what was so cool about this ad. If they only knew its true awesomeness.

The end of another awesome day in Japan. Tomorrow we leave for America, it will be a sad day indeed.