Mishima Inari Shrine.

3,000 gates. Oldest one 200 or 300 years old. Youngest one could be made yesterday.

The biggest and oldest Inari shrine in Japan is this one. Inari shrines are all over Japan, with around 8,000 of them. It’s a harvest-based thing, so the farmers support them by bringing a share of the harvest each year.

These shrines always have huge barrels of sake. Back in the day, before we knew about alcohol and its effects on the human mind, they used to believe that sake opened up the worlds of the humans and the gods to each other. If you drink too much, you can talk to your ancestors, right?

Just to prove that I’m actually here. Both sites that we saw today are places that I’ve seen pictures of, but never actually visualised myself going to.

This is the main gate. There are statues of foxes on either side. Foxes are everywhere here. They are the messengers to predict how the harvest is going to be each year.

We got here first thing in the morning, so although there were a fair few people, it wasn’t too bad. My friends Matt and Andrew, who are Blogless Sandy’s son and husband, are a week ahead of me on this trip and we’ve been messaging about what we’ve seen. They got here later in the day and were inundated with people.

Wanda has been sticking close to me on this trip, but I think she found her spiritual home.

I decided to walk as quickly as I could to reach the lake. This temple is on a hill, so it was a bit of a workout.

The lake was a disappointment. Murky and dull. I chalked it up to experience and Lyn and I made our way back to the bus.

I was so pleased to have seen this place. Then it was off the see the White Heron Castle.

But not before I located a Baku for my blogging friend Spo.

I saw this outside a shop at the temple and immediately thought of Spo. Here’s your Baku, my friend!

HomeKit Castle is over 500 years old. Although it was a target in the war, thankfully it escaped a direct hit.
This castle was a target for bombers during the war, but it was lucky and it survived.

This castle was one of many that was built in a time of great unrest in the 14th and 15th centuries. The family of Shoguns who were ruling were the 2nd Shogunate – the guy who built the Golden Pavilion was the founder- but over the intervening couple of hundred years, the family had gotten weak.
Lords all over Japan started building castles, with an eye toward possibly being Shogun in the future.

The Monkey Shogun owned this place. He was originally a farmer, but somehow managed to become a samurai and the right hand man to the Shogun. When the shogun was assassinated, he moved into the top spot and stopped all of the fighting.

He didn’t sire a son until he was 50, which was getting on a bit in those days. When he was dying at 60, he asked the 5 top men to be regents and look after his son.

”No worries, “ said the men. Tokugawa was one of them.

But instead, he invaded Osaka , killed the boy, his mother and 40 other kids and concubines.

Tokogawa was the one who established the longest Shogunate in history. He’s the one in ‘ Shogun’, both the Clavell novel and the Netflix series. He’s portrayed as a hero, but clearly, he got his hands dirty to get hold of the power.

I had no idea about this place until we were driving towards it. I was sitting at the front of the bus and I had the perfect view. “Ohhhh, it’s THIS castle!” I’ve seen pictures, but again, never put myself in there.

Because it’s authentic, a lot of period movies and dramas were made here… until they shot the second James Bond movie here. They needed an explosion, but they misjudged and blew up part of the wall. That’s why the stones are different colours.

It’s possible to climb to the top of the castle. It’s 8 stories, with no lifts. I looked at it and thought there was no way I was going to climb it.

But we started climbing. We passed through this doorway. It’s designed so that if the Shogun’s troops are chased through here, they’ll shut the gate and fill in the space with all of those rocks at the sides, thus blocking the way.

We kept getting higher, right up to the point where Ben said, “ If you go any further you have to take your shoes off.”

Can you believe there were men in our group saying, “I don’t want to take my shoes off. I tied double knots this morning.”

Like, real dude? Are you three years old???

So I took my shoes off and started climbing.

The stairs were insanely steep, but it honestly wasn’t so bad.

The views at the top were worth it.

These windows have no glass, so there was quite a breeze blowing in. I walked from window to window feeling proud of myself. It would be too easy to turn back, but now, every time I see a picture of this castle, I know that I’ve been there at the top.

These upside down fish are all over the rooftop.

I stood at the bottom and looked at where I’d just been. It’s designed so was very satisfying.

After a group of us had lunch together, we drove to a town two hours away from Hiroshima. That’s where we’ll be tomorrow…

Dad Joke of the Day: