Another Day, Another Castle

*yawn* Another castle. Boooring.

Haha, what am I saying? I love castles. Especially here in Okinawa, where we can wander along the walls, taunt the laws of gravity, climb all over stuff, and generally have far too much fun for our own good. That, and castles are just freaking cool.

Today we went to visit the Nakag... Nagaku...Naguska...
Nakagusuku. Yeah, that one.

We parked, bought our tickets, and headed up the steep - but conveniently paved - trail that leads up to the castle. During our ascent, Eddie wasn't paying attention and managed to walk into a low-hanging branch.
You may think that hurt, but I'm sure it was nowhere near as painful as when I nearly ruptured my spleen laughing.

Anyway, on to the castle...

But wait! ADD moment...

A BUG!
Okay...really moving on to the castle this time.

See? CASTLE:
One of several cool archways:
Another view of the archway, with Eddie to show scale:
Well, not really. He wouldn't get out of my picture. So...well...there he is.

The paved trail ended, and we continued up very steep steps to the various tiers of the castle. Not just up, but also down...specifically, down to the one of the wells. The well itself wasn't anything spectacular (Imagine, if you will, a bathtub-sized basin made of stone, full of murky water and weeds, with a few coins people have thrown in over time), but the staircase made for a cool shot:
We continued going up, up, and up, until we were in the courtyard of one of the upper tiers, where I found this sign:
Oh, lead me not into temptation, for I know the way myself. Then there was this sign:
Presumably, this means "Quickly! Climb up onto the wall before you miss something cool! Go! What are you waiting for???"

So, naturally, I did...and this is what I saw:
And this...
And this...
Did I mention that we freaking LIVE here? God I love this place.

There was also this lovely building...
Not exactly sure what it is, but we intend to find out and summarily pay it a visit. We continued wandering along the walls...
More walls and cool views...
Until ADD struck again!

ZOMG! SPIDER!
I tried to get a size comparison of the spider vs Eddie's hand, but that's as close as he would put his hand...
Wandering down the path, we saw this sign, and I suddenly had a craving for a chocolate chip cookie...
There was also a very strange concrete structure just past the castle, but it looked decidedly more modern than the castle. Curiosity - and the fact that other people were wandering towards/around/in it - drew us down the path, and we learned that this is the allegedly haunted hotel we've heard so much about...
Naturally, we went in and wandered around a bit. Those pics are for another blog entry, though.