Japan - Day 4

Today was a really great day. We continued to stay off the tourist trail (we can count the number of Westerners we've seen on one hand) and headed to the city of Wakayama. Our rail passes don't kick in until tomorrow so we chose this place purely because it was fairly close. It turned out to be an excellent idea!

Twenty minutes walk down the main street from the station saw us arriving at the city's main attraction, Wakayama Castle. The grounds of the castle were gorgeous and we had a great time exploring them. We were there probably about a week too late to see the cherry blossoms at their best, but it was still very pretty.

It was 300 yen (about $3.75) to enter the castle so we went in and were able to climb the stairs and step out onto a balcony which circled the top. The views of the castle grounds, and of the city, were fantastic. I have yet to mention that the weather was perfect for sightseeing, with sun and blue skies and a comfortable temperature of about 18 or so degrees.

After the castle we somehow wandered into a really strange part of the park which contained a small free zoo area which contained a bizarre selection of animals (a lemur, a beaver, flamingos, penguins and a bear were there) in tiny cages. It really made us appreciate the efforts that zoos at home have been making to make the enclosures more pleasant for both the animals, and for the people viewing them.

In the evening, as we wandered the streets near our hotel, we came across an incredibly friendly man and his buddy who turned to be Jehovah's Witnesses....the last thing we expected to come across in Japan!