The Castle in the Sky, Little Kyoto, the Natural Basalt Quarry, and Onsen Resort

On the weekend of 11/14 I hopped into the neighboring prefecture of Hyogo to check out Japan's "Machu Picchu", Takeda Castle, with a couple friends Kerstin and Will. After a chill night hanging out with some of Will's friends in a nearby city, we set off at 4am Saturday morning to Asako to hike a nearby mountain to view the ruins as the run rose. This is the ideal time to view the castle ruins, as they sit atop a mountain. The morning fog covers the valley below, creating the illusion the castle is floating in the sky. This effect inspired the film Castle in the Sky. It was quite a sight to behold, especially at this time of year with the fall leaves. The colors across the mountainside faded in as the sun rose, adding a vibrancy to the experience.

Afterwards we ventured across the valley to the castle ruins itself. I was shocked to see the scale of the ruins atop a mountain that took 20 minutes to drive up. The castle complex must have been massive when it was in use. Now all that remains is the stone foundations and the beautiful, moss covered, trees.  Constructing castle itself must have been quite the feat at the time, even more so knowing the castle was only used during times of conflict, which is understandable because of how difficult it must have been to summit.

Next on our trip was the town of Izushi, known as Little Kyoto. The town has a famous, ancient clock tower which looks surprising modern. That or clocks haven't changed much in a century. The town also has a short section of gates ascending a mountain to a shrine, and a preserved historic street which is now occupied by restaurants and gift shops. In that sense it is incredibly similar to Kyoto. The streets were full of tourists there to try Izushi's local variation of soba noodles. But we had more places to go, so we took a pass on trying the food.

Continuing to work our way back towards Will's town, we made a quick stop at the Genbudo caves. These five basalt rock caves served as quarries for castle foundation stones due to the rock's natural pentagonal shape. While entirely natural, the quarries look like they were carved by machinery. Yet this is a natural occurrence caused by a lava flow cooling. It is an awe striking and baffling sight to behold.

The caves also had a small souvenir shop which contained a pretty extensive rock museum, which had some really rare stones in their natural state as well as some exquisitely carved stone statues. Apparently I was supposed to pay to see it (whoops), but I had just walked upstairs and started browsing around.

By this time of the day we had done a fair amount of walking and hiking, so we stopped at the nearby resort town of Kinosaki. The town features seven different hot spring baths (onsen) with a quaint river running through the town center. Most of the people in the town were wearing yukata, basically outdoor robes, hopping from onsen to onsen for the day on a weekend relaxation getaway. Visiting the Gosho no yu onsen, I can understand why. The bath was massive, half indoor and half outdoor, with massage jets, a sauna, and even a waterfall. It was a great way to relax after a long day of hiking and driving.