Good morning all again,
Now that I know how to blog, you're all going to be sorry......mwhahahahaha! One thing that you will see in Kumamoto, and rarely anywhere else, is an old style Japanese castle.  Kumamoto-jo (jo means castle) is right in the centre of the city, and it's awesome. 

The castle is located on top of slanted stone walls between 60 and 80ft tall, making it one of the most well protected in feudal Japan.  Most of the castle burnt in the 1960s and was rebuilt to look exactly the same.  Really cool spot. 



This is what the poor little samurai (who were barely 5ft tall) had to climb to get to the castle, all while people were shooting at them with arrows, guns and pouring boiling water on their poor little heads......yikes!

Lots of turrets around the outer walls were very heavily fortified, and steep.  The area the castle covered at it's greatest was 3.5 sq km and was founded in 1467!

The only defense the castle needs now is defense against mice apparently, since the castle cat was spotted lounging by the moat........more pictures to come!  Thanks!