Following our early morning arrival in Fukuoka with Vietnam Airlines, we headed south towards Kumamoto in our rental car. As the Rugby World Cup match between France and Tonga wasn’t until later in the afternoon, we decided to visit Kumamoto Castle, located in the city centre.
Kumamoto Castle
After parking the car in the nearby Josaien, we followed the signs towards Kumamoto Castle and walked past the back of Iidamaru Gokai-Yagura, a five-storey turret.
This way to the castle:-
Each adult ticket cost 500 JPY.
Together with Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle, Kumamoto Castle is considered one of the three finest castles in Japan. Its history dated back to as early as 15th century and while most of the buildings within the complex were restored in the 1960s, there were still structures dating back to 17th century.
However, 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake caused severe damage to the complex and it was expected to take 20 years to fully restore all the buildings. Hence, during our time of visit, we were only able to view the exterior along the pre-determined route. We could see scaffolding and tools all around the complex.
Festival in Ninomaru Park
The walk through the castle complex didn’t take too long and we wandered into a festival taking place in the adjacent Ninomaru Park. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly was the occasion; I suspect that it might be in conjunction with Rugby World Cup.
Local performers were playing taiko drums and even invited tourists like us to give it a try.
Beside performances, there were also many food stalls where we could tried some local Japanese street food.
Two of the items that we tried were beef tongue and grilled pork.
Kumamon Square
Kumamon, the prefecture’s mascot, is probably also its most famous export. It was only created in 2010 as part of the tourism campaign to draw more tourists to Kyushu after the opening of Kyushu Shinkansen. It had since became internationally famous after being voted as the best mascot nation-wide.
It has since generated billions of yen’s worth of economic impact to the region each year and puts the prefecture into global limelight.
Since we were Kumamoto, we decided to pay a visit to Its flagship store Kumamon Square. It was around 20-minutes’ walk away from the castle.
There were all sorts of merchandise available for sale inside the shop, with shoppers from all around the world.
Beside being found inside Kumamon Square, Kumamon was essentially everywhere in the city. It is definitely a very successful product.
Due to our limited time, we didn’t get to explore more of Kumamoto City. It is a nice vibe and we certainly wouldn’t mind visiting it again.
