Ueda Castle & Shrine

Ueda Castle isn’t much of a castle anymore, only the entrance is preserved but the guy that defended it; Yukimura Sandada is a local legend.

Ueda Castle

Ueda Castle

Austin - ready for teleport

Computer! Mid-16th century Japanese clothing please. Make it so!

Off we go!

Ueda Shrine

The  plaque that says:

“Senada Shrine
This shrine is dedicated to all the past feudal lords of Ueda Castle – the Senada clan, the Sengoku clan and the Matsudaira clan.
Masayuki Sanada and his sons built Ueda Castle and made this town in 1583 (Tensho11) during the Sengoku (Warring States) period. The lords of Sengoku and Matsudaira did an exceptional job of administering the Ueda Clan and maintaining peace and order of society. Yukimura Sandada, in particular, is reputed to be the most resouceful general in Japan for twice defeating Tokugawa forces that were more that ten times the size of his troops, and so his soul is worshipped as a God of wisdom.”

In fact Yukimura Sandada has such a fan base here is a pic of the statue they built for him in the centre of town

Yukimura Sandada the man that saved Ueda

The general- 10 to 1 outnumbered! bring it on!

It’s difficult to imagine such violent times, seems such a friendly place at the shrine people put money in the box (for want of a better word) and prey then clap 2 times and ring the bell. It’s a lovely ritual.

Senada Shrine

Wait, Austin's found something

A Stone - Cheers!

The Shrine and Souvenir shop

Rie and me near the River at Ueda Castle

Playground near Ueda Castle

Note the Concrete slide, it damages your clothes not sure what health and safety would have to say about that.

Cool Slide

Rollers instead of polished steel means you go faster!

peacocks

The park has an avery, with Peacocks and other birds

Other birds

It’s a very family friendly environment and everything is free and very clean, in London we should learn from this, it costs to provide these things but isn’t it a better society as a result?

Elizabeth and Brandon with metal birds...

Winter wonderland

The River was frozen over, but it was really warm, best of both worlds.

Winters day

After this we went supermarket shopping this is so similar to the UK it’s scary they have the same kind of stuff we have. Meat and Cheese are very expensive and there is a huge emphasis on fish, which is healthly, but most other stuff is very similar to the UK. They did have signs up saying no photos in store which is a shame.

I saw  a guy that looked the spitting image of my Sister Elaine’s boy friend Jack working in a supermarket but it would have been impolite to take his picture.

We tried several supermarkets while we were here and my favorite was the green one (yes I know I should learn the names)  it was like Waitrose more expensive but really nice food. The orange one was cheaper but more limited in choice but good for beer, the Tesco of Japan if you like.