Of course, there were some new defensive innovations introduced at Matsumoto. There was the traditional gate that had to be entered, or, if that proved to be a hassle, invaders could wade across the shallow moat instead. However, the moat was filled with expensive ornamental fish, and accidentally killing one of them could cost a soldier a fortune. But if they managed to get past the fish without a debilitating lawsuit, they had to face the tea lady. At one hour per cup of tea, the obligatory tea ceremony could slow the enemy advance to a crawl.

The castle was built in 1504 by the local noble family, and they seemed to have learned nothing about defensive techniques from the earlier Himeji castle. While incorporating the same design flaws as Himeji, i.e. no rooftops or windows from which to attack invaders, they also did away with the idea of putting the castle on a defensible place like a hilltop or cliff. So instead this castle seems to be built on a large playing field, allowing the invaders ample time to organize their assault plan, then amble in the front door while the defenders sit inside and wait to be taken over. On a positive note, they do have beautiful views to keep them occupied while they waited for their demise.

25. Himeji

I just had a complaint about the formatting of the posts (which I agree with), which is that often the pictures mash the words into narrow gaps that make it hard to read. My only controls on the pictures are whether to align them left or right, and I usually choose one of each, which I think sometimes drives the words into a narrow column in the middle. I'm now going to try left aligning both pics to see if that helps, but I think I'm going to end up with big white spaces instead. It also looks totally different on different monitors depending on screen size, so there seems to be very little I can do to control the aesthetics here, but if anyone has any ideas please help! Back to the gripping narrative...

On our last day staying in Kyoto we took another short train ride to Himeji, which has probably the most impressive castle remaining in Japan. It was built by the shogun around 1600 to reinforce his control over rebellious nobles. This was the first castle (as opposed to palace or other residential buildings) I've seen outside the West, so I was quite surprised at the differences. When you see a Western castle, it's very easy to picture the fighting, with crenellated rooftops allowing soldiers to shoot down on attackers, and slits in the walls for archers to shoot their arrows etc. I really couldn't figure out how this castle worked. It was awe-inspiring, perched on a cliff with quite elaborate architecture, but there didn't seem to be any place for doing castle-y things like attacking and defending. There were gates you'd have to get through and narrow passages you'd have to navigate up to the castle, but once you're there, it seemed like you pretty much just open the door and come in, while the defenders could only look down at you through the windows. I'm sure it functioned better than that, but more importantly, it's quite a unique sight architecturally.