In 2016, a series of earthquakes struck Kumamoto. The magnitude 7 quakes took many lives, injured people, and left many without homes. It also caused the collapse of several foundations and buildings within Kumamoto castle. The city of Kumamoto started repairing what damage they could in 2016, and they finished repairs in 2021, but the damage is still visible to this day.

Though the main keep had been completely repaired and strengthened, the entire grounds have been modified to protect people and the 500+ yr old grounds from further earthquakes.

Whilst there is no doubt the castle is beautiful with the grounds filled with flowering cherry blossoms, Kumamoto Castle has a had a rough time of it. A turbulent history burnt down in the late 1800’s it was reconstructed in the 1960s with only a few key gatehouses and towers still original constructions.

Inside the main keep is a museum, part of the renovations made after the earthquake.

Now, it has been tourist streamlined, with great concrete ramps and never-ending baricades and signs. Any genuine heritage has been hidden behind construction. To be honest, I enjoyed Fukuoka castle ruins more, and there are only foundations there.

Still, seeing the damage cause by a major earthquake on such an ancient structure is fascinating in a way. I won’t point out all the damage but will let you find it for yourself.

Now, to deviate a little from the seriousness of today. It was raining, and the temperature had dropped down to 13 degrees. This meant that when I left the hotel, I regretted not bringing my beanie out for the first time. Still, once I started walking, it was less of a problem. The rain was a drizzle that had started to create all sorts of puddles in the recess of stairs and edges of roads. It was a whole day of don’t step in the puddle and get your socks wet.

Not that the weather stopped the people from coming out. A Sunday in cherry blossom season meant there were people out and about despite the weather. It also seemed that today was the last day of a March long festival, so despite leaving the hotel early, when the castle opened at 9:00am there were swarms of people.

I also visited a museum on the grounds. It’s the more kitschy, fun history. It even has a short stage show with puppets.

Including people pushing dogs in strollers. But do you think I could get a photo. No. they moved too fast. There were also dance groups decked out in colourful traditional clothes doing dances throughout the grounds.

Lots of people meant that food was hard to find in the grounds, so I went to Matsuya next to where I had dinner, for lunch. Kumamoto is an interesting city where the city centre is not near the train station, but out near the castle, the bus station and my hotel. It also has a tram system that I had to catch yesterday to get to my hotel.

I found some more interesting ground covers (not only manhole covers) and lots of Kumamon themed, well, everything.

A special word about breakfast at the hotel today. It was buffet style, with both Western and Japanese style food. So it had, toast, crossiants, cereal, fruit eggs, bacon, ham, salad, miso soup, rice, butter chicken, beef stroganoff, dumpling soup, corn potage, desserts and yoghurt served with a ladle…

Not sure they understand the word breakfast.

Came back to my hotel, did my washing, and then passed out in my room for an hour and a half. Woke up, unaware I had fallen asleep then tired as all hell I wrote this. So, if it’s less than coherent or changes tone abruptly, that’s why.

Some extra food and funny words. Of course, gacha, which apparently is going extinct. It’s the hardest thing to find on this trip.