Kumamoto castle
Kumamoto Castle
It looks like the building year of the Kumamoto Castle is unknown. The first records come from the year 1588 when Kato Kiyomasa became lord of the Higo Province. The castle is burned, bombed and quaked to the ground. A earthquake in 2016 completely destroyed the castle. They just finished rebuilding the castle in 2021. We saw that they changed the interieur to some kind of museum. We used app in English, called “Kumamoto Castle the official app” for translation and found it via a QR-code from the brochure. The castle is 6 floors high and we could look over the city from the observation deck. It had a magnificent view.
Address: Castle Kumamoto – Google Maps
Website: Kumamoto Castle | 【公式】熊本城 (kumamoto-guide.jp)
Admission: 800 yen per adult
Mount Aso Tour
One of the things we wanted to see here in Kumamoto was the Aso volcano. It took a long time to get there and we booked a tour. On this day, we visited a few lookout spots where you can look over the crater. Secondly, we went to eat something in one of the villages in the caldera of mount Aso. After that we went to the volcano itself. It was really big and we could look inside it. The clouds of the volcano are very toxic. The most of the day it was to dangerous to go up and they closed it. After looking into the volcano, we went to walk around in one of the other parts of the volcano. Some places were covered with snow and it was very nice to see. Then we went to the Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine. It was very beautiful.
Website: Explore Kumamoto information, places, tours & more (explore-kumamoto.com)
Admission: Admission: 15000 yen per adult
Address: Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine – Google Maps
Website: town.takamori.kumamoto.jp
Admission: free
Address: Mt. Aso Naka-dake 1st Crater – Google Maps
Webite: Mt. Aso
Admission: Unknown
We had a wonderfull day at Mount Aso and we recommend the tour. The guide spoke very good Englisch. For more information about Japan, go to Japan Travel Destination » Tim and Ellen’s Blog (timellen.net).
