Taketa City is famous for the ruins of Oka Castle, a castle built on top of a cliff. It is the motif of the song “Kojo no Tsuki” (Moon over the Ruins of the Castle) composed by the musician Rentaro Taki, but I’ve already been there so I’ll pass this time. I took a walk around the old town, which I hadn’t been able to see last time. It’s a town with a sense of history like Kyoto. I was surprised to see a bronze statue of Lieutenant Hirose, who carried out the Port Arthur blockade operation during the Russo-Japanese War. I didn’t know he was from here. After the operation, the Japanese Navy, led by Commander Togo Heihachi, faced off against the Russian Baltic Fleet, which was said to be the most powerful fleet in the world at the time.
In one corner of the samurai residence is the Hidden Christian Cave Chapel, giving the area a sense of its rich history.
Finally, we had a special lunch (reservation needed in advance) at Okura Shimizuyu, a café that was once a bathhouse. Apparently, his parents own a vegetable shop next door, so they served us a variety of vegetable dishes. I couldn’t finish it all. They even served us matcha green tea.
Our final stop was a barley shochu brewery in town, where we had the opportunity to try a variety of shochu while the proprietress was busy on her way to Tokyo to attend a wedding.
