One day trip to Yamanashi Prefecture

My second cousin, Kuninobu, and I were the planners of the annual family meeting this year.
Last year somebody at the party mentioned that it would be nice to visit somewhere nice places where is associated with our ancestors.
When we trace back our ancestry, they came from Yamanashi-Prefecture as I mentioned before.
One day trip is sometimes a bit hard for old people, so I didn't expect a large number of people to join this tour. But though it was raining on that day, 29 people participated.

To begin with, we visited our ancestors family temple, 'Erinji'.
We were led to the main room and greeted the highest monk of the temple.
Not anybody can get into this room. It looked gorgeous and was peacefully quiet.
After we left the room, we visited the graves of our ancestors, Takeda Shingen and Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu. To get there, we went through the special corridor.
It's called 'Uguisu(Japanese bush warbler) rooka (corridor)'
Because when you walk, the floor creaks and the sound comes out like a bird calling.
In the olden times, the corridor let you know about the invasions of enemies.
There are the graves after you pass through that talkative corridor.
This is Takeda's.
And this is Yanagisawa's.

Buddhist monk recited the sutras, and one by one, we worshipped the tombs.
By then, luckily the rain stopped.
The garden carries a reputation as the one of the place of scenic beauty in Japan.
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, it is with atmosphere.

Here you are. Those pictures were taken in spring.

I feel sorry for not be able to introduce you the whole garden.

After lunch, we moved to 'Kofu Castle'.In 1705, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu became the castellan. Back in those days. the castle was the one of the biggest castle in Japan.

He and his son maintained the castle well till they were moved. After that, sorry to say, some part of the castle was burnt out because of a conflagration. Eventually Kofu Castle became a deserted castle.　Yamanashi prefectural government built Kofu railway station and government offices in the site.But its castled wall remain as it was. The wall was made with well-heap-up-stone.And it's huge!Incidentally Satolela papa is about 8'6''tall.

So the government maintained the property and has established as 'Maizuru Castle Park'. Nowadays it's become popular in Kofu city.The scenery from the ruin of the castle tower

We had a good time together!!

written by Arwen

P.S. Well......I don't think I am a good writer today. It took time to write this time.
Sorry for my English today :-<