The next morning, the mountain road leading back to the Yamanami Highway was a tunnel of autumn leaves, shining brightly.
On the road to Taketa City, I come across a light truck with an elegant English Pointer on its back. The pointer on the loading platform does not look at me easily. He is balanced well on the carrier.
Meanwhile, I arrived at Taketa. I didn’t have enough time to visit the old town (>refer to the post in the near future), so I headed straight to Oka Castle. This castle was the setting for “Kojo no Tsuki” (“The moon over the ruined castle” in English) composed by Rentaro Taki who spent his childhood here. It’s interesting that the admission ticket comes in the form of an old period scroll with a guide map of Oka Castle, but it gets in the way and is inconvenient when it comes to taking it home. Although only the stone walls remain of this mountain castle, the stonework is beautiful and draws a parabolic curve.
Since there is no protective fence, you can sit on the protruding tip of the stone wall, but it doesn’t feel like you’re alive. It feels like my lower abdomen is falling out. Those with a strong heart can admire the beautiful Kuju Mountain Range from here. There are several castles in the sky floating in the morning mist in Japan, but Oka Castle, which appears out of nowhere amidst layers of mountains, is a true Ghibli castle in the sky.
