Day 19- Kokura castle, memorial museum & Japanese gardens

Easy start this morning, left the hostel at around 10 to go to Kokura castle. The castle was beautiful.

Inside they had a full model of the city, it was amazing.

They also had a little show in silhouettes, it was so cool, would have been better if I could understand what they were saying. I got the gist, it was a replication of the kind of meetings that would go on in the castle.

They also had a little carriage that would move, it was pretty cool. It was like I was being carried around the city.

There was also a running game which would measure your speed. It would then tell you how long it would take to run that distance

There was board game, I didn't understand it because it was in Japanese.

I know it sounds silly, but it was so nice to be somewhere with so few tourists. That was until I got to the top of the castle and a scout group came traipsing through. Seriously, everywhere I've been, there has been a scout group. I can't escape them. I waited at the top of the castle for them to leave before continuing.

I wondered around the castle for a little longer before heading for the museum, the scout group was just leaving when I got to the museum. The tour guide stopped to talk to me, he was really nice. Then the Scouts came and he told them that I was from England, that really excited them for some reason.

They just sort of stared at me for a while which was weird enough, then they got their cameras and started taking photos which I found really odd. I think the american tour guide realised I was uncomfortable so he told them to stop.

After that uncomfortable encounter, I went into the museum. There wasn't anything in English so I walked through pretty quickly.

I then went to the Japanese gardens, they were beautiful. I sat on a bridge in the shade for a while. It was really lovely.

I then went to tea ceremony, first I was given red bean jelly.

Then I was given the tea. It was so nice. Frothy which I didn't expect.

Around 3, I left the gardens. There was a shopping centre nearby so I wondered around there for a while. There was a mini pool with a bubble machine and a slide for kids in the middle of the centre which was very odd.

Around 4 I realised I should probably eat something, I wondered around and somehow ended up in the market I was in yesterday.

I had some kind of chicken and some seaweed with some other vegetables. It was really nice. I just bought it from some stall in the market.

I spent a while in the market looking around before heading back to my hostel. I wasn't hungry around dinner time so I just grabbed something from 7/11

I planned my day in Osaka tomorrow and talked to my sister. I'm going to have an early night tonight, early start tomorrow.