As I had made it to Nagoya a bit on the early side the previous day, I had some time to plan today carefully. The tentative plan was visiting Gifu and Inuyama, both castle towns. However, a third castle, Kiyosu, was also on the list, and it turned out that to get to Gifu, you go via Kiyosu. So there was a slight readjustment in Castle-visting schedule.

Thus I got myself on the train and 20 minutes later I stopped at Kiyosu [清洲]. I had seen the castle from the Shinkansen before, but I had never found the name until I was doing some pre-planning for this trip. Thus, it was a win/win situation. Everything seemed to be helping towards me seeing that castle this time.

Bonus points for Kiyosu: signs. Awesome, easy to follow signals reading “清洲城” in every crossing . Not in every second crossing. In every actual crossing so you can actually get to the place without even a map!

Anyway, the highlight of Kiyosu is the castle, Kiyosu-jō [清洲城]. It is not original by any means, but it is one of the prettiest ones I’ve seen. I like all the colourful stuff.

Then I snooped around Kiyosu Koen [清洲公園], the park where Oda Nobunaga Nōhime-zō [織田信長・濃姫像] stand, they are the bronze statues of Oda Nobunaga and his wife Nouhime.

Afterwards I returned to the station and continued onto Gifu [岐阜], where I took a while to figure out the bus system, but in the end I managed to get to the feet of the mountain where Gifu Castle is.

Before going into the park, I decided I would not go into the insect museum, and walked off to Shōhōji [正法寺], home of the Great Buddha Gifu Daibutsu [岐阜大仏].

I took the Gifu Safu Kinkazan Ropeway [ぎふ金華山ロープウェー] (Gifu Mt. Kinka Ropeway). As much as it seems that I am getting comfortable with the whole Ropeway thing, I’m not. For the record.

But there I went, up to Gifu-jō [岐阜城], the castle up the muontain.

Later I was wandering around the park for a while and of course I needed to go and see the Gifu Kōen Sanjūnotō [岐阜公園三重塔], the Three-Story Pagoda that stands on the slope of the park.

I was sort of tired, and it was very hot, so I took the bus back to the station, and the train back to Nagoya [名古屋]. When I got there I had rested a little, and I felt up to walking a bit in Nagoya – besides it just felt too early to go to the hotel. I walked by a cute little shrine, Yuzu Akiba Jinja [洲嵜秋葉神社].

I finally made it to Ōsu Kannon [大須観音],

and the adjacent shopping streets,

where I found Hakuryu [白龍], the white dragon.

I did some shopping in Mandarake and Book Off and I walked back to the hotel.