On Friday we decided to visit Kyoto's famous Shogun's castle. Those of you who may have seen the BBC2 TV programme about the first Shogun a couple of weeks ago, will know all about the first Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. As well as being the first Shogun, and building the castle, Ieyasu is famous for firing on the very army he wanted to support him at a big battle. his rather novel tatics did the trick though and he won the battle.
The entrance to Nijo Castle
Panorama of the castleWe were not able to take pictures inside the castle, in fact there was a sign which warned us to not sketch anything we saw within the castle its self! The castle was very popular particularly with school parties. The children particularly enjoyed making the "nightingale" floors squeak. The wooden floors are specially designed to creek when anyone walks on them, as an early warning system for intruders. I am not sure if the squeaking floorboards could be described as sounding like nightingales, they sounded more like a cage full of canaries.
Nijo Castle gardens
More cherry blossom, the castle held a special cherry blossom tea party on Wednesday
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