Raining in Hachiman

We took a taxi up to the castle in the pouring rain. The taxi driver didn't speak a lick of English, and Meika & Mike's Japanese isn't perfect either, but he was a very nice man. We thought the castle was closed, but the gate was open so we went in. Later we saw the guy running it, and he refused to let us pay our admission fee. They didn't speak a lick of English in Gujo-Hachiman, but they certainly bent over backward to make you feel welcome.



Here's a picture of the town from the top of the castle. This picture is after the rain slowed a bit. At first the pictures were looking very grey. Note the highway tucked against the mountains. As I recall, the ride to Gujo-Hachiman involved a lot of tunnels.