Takeda Floating Castle

Takeda Floating Castle, sometimes called the Machu Pichu of Japan,  had been something I wanted to see since before I arrived in Japan. So why has it taken me 10 months to see it? I've been waiting patiently. According to the internet, the best time to see Takeda Castle is in Autumn in the early morning just after dawn. During this time, you have the best chance of seeing the "Sea of Clouds" that surrounds Takeda Castle and makes it seem as if its ruins are floating in the air.

And so I've waited.

It's been on my calendar for 10 months. And the day had finally arrived.

I tried to lower the expectations of my fellow travellers the night before. Even though we've waited for the perfect time of the year, there was still only a 1 in 3 chance that there would be a sea of clouds surrounding the castle. The weather conditions have to be perfect.

They assured me they were fine with trying our best, knowing we might be disappointed.

So the next day we woke up bright and early. Scratch that. We woke up early. It was not bright at all. In fact, it was pitch black when we left, at 4am. We ate pre-packed Japanese sandwiches in the car on the 1.5 hour drive, trying to wake ourselves up.

Our intention was to drive up to the highest point our car would take us, and then hike to the actual castle ruins. When we got to the mountain however, we were told that we could not hike to the ruins, as the paths were closed as a result of landslides. We were disappointed, but we did not give up. We instead drove to a neighboring mountain, and climbed up the summit next to the mountain on which Takeda Castle was perched.

We drove as far as we could, and then hiked for around 45 minutes to the summit of the mountain. From here, we were blessed with a breathtaking view of the Takeda Castle ruins, completely surrounded by the sea of clouds!


We sat at the top of the mountain and watched the rolling clouds in the morning light. They rose, and eventually completely covered the castle ruins! All things considered, if we had been able to go to the castle site, we would not have been able to view the castle floating on the clouds in the way that we could now. So it was actually a very lucky turn of events, that landslide!


After we had taken in the views for a good while, we decided to continue hiking on the other side of the mountain. We found our first beautiful autumn leaves, a bright blue lake, and we found a peaceful, thick expanse of forest around us. We pointed out flora and fauna to eachother, especially the large golden orb spiders that haunted the sides of the paths, before eventually heading back down to our car.

If you want to see Takeda Castle ruins, I strongly suggest renting a car the night before, and aiming to get there between 5:30-6:00am in October or November. I'd reccommend first going to the neighboring mountain carpark (Ritsuunkyo) and hiking to the top of that mountain first to see the sea of clouds surrounding the castle in the early morning. Then, after that, if the paths are safe, you can take a leisurely hike to the actual ruins themselves. The car park near the Takeda Castle ruins are manned so if there's something wrong with the paths, someone will be there to inform you.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Musem

The other weekend, Jason and I visited the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Museum. The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, at 5:46 am in Kobe and the Hanshin area.

While most people were sleeping, the sudden earthquake collapsed roofs, threw vehicles, and reduced major bridges and buildings to rubble. Over 6000 people died. 400 000 buildings, and 120 of Kobe's 150 quays were destroyed. One in five buildings were completely uninhabitable. The Earthquake was a 7.2 on the Richter scale, which is not the largest earthquake Japan has seen, but this one was different to others, and much more dangerous because of the severe amount of ground motion and its proximity to urban areas. The velocity and displacement of the ground motion were extremely high compared to the records from other earthquakes, making this the second most deadly earthquake in all of Japan's history.

The first thing that we say when we entered the museum was a simulation of the earthquake, showing video demonstrations of the events that occurred during the Earthquake. We saw building collapse on sleeping families, cars crossing bridges which promptly crumbled into the sea, and earth jutted up and down, with water pouring out of the ground from liquefaction.

After this loud simulation, we were shepherded into a theater, where we watched a video that depicted the true story of a young girl who was sleeping at the time of the earthquake. Her sister and herself were trapped under the rubble. People were able to pull out the girl in the story, but her sister unfortunately didn't make it. We saw footage of the houses everywhere on fire. As gas lines broke, the whole of Kobe erupted into flames. In some of the real footage, we grown men screaming and crying, being pulled from the rubble or searching for their loved ones. I will admit, it was quite shocking, and I cried.

After this video we made our way out into the main area, where we saw live demonstrations of how liquefaction works, and how Japan has now reinforced their houses and buildings so that this devastation does not happen again. They've implemented structures within high buildings that prevent them from swaying in an earthquake, stopping them from collapsing on the buildings nearby, and they've strengthened the ground floor of shorter buildings, the reinforcement in the ground floor stabilizing the rest of the building and helping to prevent the collapse that was so commonly seen in the Hanshin Earthquake.

After the Hanshin Earthquake, so many people were displaced. The reconstruction of the city started immediately. A year after the earthquake, imports and exports through the Kobe ports were back up to pre-earthuake levels, and within 15 months manufacturing was back to 98% of it's pre-earthquake level.

Since so many had to suffer through darkness in 1995 as a result of infrastructure damage from the earthquake, in 1996 Kobe started the Kobe Illuminarie, a Winter illumination of the city in memory of the victims of the earthquake and a symbol of hope, renewal and repair.