Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

  We visited Sunpu Castle on December 2nd, in downtown Shizuoka. It's not the original castle, which burned down sometime in I think the 1600s. This one was rebuilt pretty much directly after the first one was destroyed, so it's still a few hundred years old.

         Across the street from the castle is a school...and we just happened to see this guy leaning out of a window on the top floor. Andrew wondered out loud whether or not the guy was a jumper (it sort of seemed like it), so I snapped his picture. Which Andrew then got on my case about, me snapping a picture of a potential sucicide and all. But considering that it was only a 3 story building, I don't think that either of us were seriously considering the possibility. Neither was the guy, it turned out: he was passing cables up to another guy on the roof. I guess an over-active imagination runs in the family!

  Behind Sunpu-jo is a Japanese-style garden that's somewhat famous in the area. I can't remember the name of it, but they hold seasonal events there, and there's also a tea room/house where you can get free tea. Unfortunately for us, there was something going on in the teahouse that day, so no tea, but they did make up for it by giving us free calendars instead.

                Can you spot Jesus?



  In other news, I have made no further progress with packing since the last post. Go me!!