Saturday, December 6, 2008

Nakagusuku Castle


Sunday was beautiful and sunny when we went to the Nakagusuku Castle ruins. This is one of the best preserved, in its original state, castle ruins in Okinawa. It is located 160 meters above sea level with steep stone cliffs that offer a natural landscape for a castle site. From the castle ruins you can see panoramic views of both the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea which were amazing.



The castle was built in the late 1300's and was completed in 1440, at which time the lord of Zakini-jo, Gosamaru, moved his residence to this castle. The walls are built of hand carved limestone.



There was a Japanese ceremony being performed with dancers and drummers while we were there. It was very cool to be able to walk through the ruins while listening to their traditional music.



The views from the ruins are amazing. You can see several islands off in the distance along with some very traditional Japanese temples along the hillsides.

We've still been exploring several parks on the island. They have large "roller-slide" parks that Grant loves. Mom and Dad went down this one a few times with Grant, but couldn't keep up with his pace and decided to watch him go down from the top and bottom. You can see Grant climbing the hill instead of using the stairs like the other kids.

You can see Grant's head peeking over the edge of the blue slide if you click on this picture and enlarge it.

1 comment:

Melissa (Catlin) Kiser said...

hey sandy...i haven't had a chance to look at your blog until now. you guys have been busy! we should go to this park sometime. it looks great and i'm sure my kiddos would love it.