Katsuren-jo castle ruins

We had a fun family outing on Saturday to the castle ruins of Katsuren-jo. It's about 1/2 hour from our house and up a steep hill. Once at the top you can see why this was such a great stronghold during times of war. You can see 360 degree around and there is a wonderful view of the ocean (there is always a wonderful view when you live on a island). I'm not quite sure exactly how old this castle is, but I know it was defeated in 1458 and I think it's been abandoned since then. There are no walls, but there were labels like "shrine" or "living quarters" in different areas.


I told the boys to give me a "storming the castle" pose.


Can you tell Typhoon Sinlaku is around here...Noah is about to blow away. It was a very overcast day which made for great pics, but it did start raining right before we left. It was soooooo windy. A bad day for me to wear a skirt.


This is Rob's attempt at being artistic. I think he did well, but the subject was rocks so it's hard to get enthusiastic. He was trying to catch the texture of these stones. Something like this wouldn't fly in the States. There was no guard rails between us and the several hundred meter drop in most spots. The footing was authentic and unstable. The kids loved climbing all over the place, though.