Shiga Trip - pt 5 - Azuchi Castle Ruins

The last few days have been crazy busy! between the olympic torch and our upcoming anniversary festivities,  I have not had a free second for much of anything.  But I'm staying up EXTRA late to get you more of my japan blogs (now TWO weekends ago...) 二週前滋賀県に居る時、彦根城行った後、近くの小さ町安 土へ行った。あそこもお城が在る、実ビルがない、古城址だけが在る。僕の写真を見てください！

After visiting Hikone Castle, my friend Sa-chan and I took the train to the nearby small town of Azuchi( 安土町):

Of course my objective was another castle... to be more accurate, another set of castle ruins!  Azuchi Castle was built in the 1570s on the top of a hill near the southern shore of Lake Biwa, along the main road to Kyoto. 

This castle was destroyed only about 10 years after it was built in an attack.  All that's left are the foundations and stone walls.

Its about a 30-40 minute walk from the station to the base of the castle ruin's hill.  A bit too far to walk... which leaves two choices -   take a taxi or rent a bike.   We decided to go for the bikes.  I was happy to get the exercise and a chance to see a bit of the countryside by bike:

城址は小山上です、駅から近くないから、レンタル自転車で行った。景色と天気良かった：

We had to pass through some nice fields next to the train tracks.   Great stuff! The weather was great too,  nice a cool, a bit of a breeze...  except a bit too sunny. I really regretted not bringing a hat! :-(

Its harder than you think to take a self portrait while biking...  　日焼けをもらった。。。

Once you get to the hill, ditch the bikes and get your wallet ready - all these places cost a few dollars admission.  Its worth it to help preserve it... 

Oh did I say hill? I should have said STEEP MOUNTAIN...

The bottom of a very long, very irregular stair case... すごい登りにくい！

It just keeps going and going...

along the way up you can see the foundation of some of the former fortifications....

For those who can't read kanji , that says 'Stone Buddha' (石佛).  these things were scattered amongst the stones used all over the stair case...

I spotted this guy on the way up the stairs too...

some nice walls up here in the inner  defenses.

Here's the foundation for the castle's tower.  Apparently it used to be 7 stories high...

昔時天守フォウンデシュンの所。。。

The view from up here was nice... some blooming cherry blossom trees and you can see the lake! 琵琶湖も見える。

That was about it... just a leisurely walk back down all those stairs...

Yes, i was pretty sweaty at this point... I didn't want to leave my laptop with the bicycle rental guy, so i had to lug it all the way up. :P

These hilltop castle ruins don't necessarily have a lot worth taking photos of,  but its a nice hike and some good views.   I wish I had more time, there's another castle ruins a mile or two away on another hill...    next time! :-P

ps - there's a pretty extensive history of the castle on wikipedia!