Hiroado and the Dragon Neck Falls

Zack has been very busy this week. As in, he didn't come home to sleep most nights. Very very busy. Poor guy. So when he arrived home Friday night, we were determined to do something fun on Saturday. I had visited MWR for information on quick and easy day trips from here, and we chose Hirado because to get there we didn't have to use toll roads, so renting a car wouldn't be necessary.
Hirado is an island a little north of Sasebo. It's claim to fame is that it used to be the site of a Dutch warehouse for the East India Trading Company. However, the views from the island, hiking, and castle are far more interesting in my opinion. It took us about an hour to get there, but the drive was quite lovely, too. To get to the island, we crossed this bridge:
Pretty, huh? Upon arrival on the island we got temporarily lost in the void between the big road map and the little tourist map provided by MWR, but this detour lead us straight to the castle so it worked out. The Hirado castle, like most in Japan, is a reconstruction. The original I think was actually destroyed in a battle. The castle walls used to contain what is now a lovely little park on a bluff near the bridge. During Cherry Blossom season, I can imagine it would be really amazing. I'm hoping to go back around that time and check it out. The castle building itself is not enormous, but it is very pretty:

Inside we found various "cultural treasures" including samurai armour, swords, scrolls, and so on. And check out the view from the top:

When we were done checking out the castle, we took a self-guided walking tour through the middle of town to see what's left of the Dutch influence on the town: a bridge and a wall. The warehouse building was destroyed on an order from an emperor because the date on the outside was by Christian reckoning. By that time, lunch seemed like a good idea, so we took a break.

The problem with sightseeing in August is that it's hot. Really hot. Too hot to have fun for very long hot. So after lunch we were getting a bit tired of seeing things and a bit ready to hang out inside near an AC unit. We decided to check out the church before we left. We still aren't sure what makes this particular church special, but it was also a lovely building:

So, considering the day a success, we retreated home to the cool of the indoors. It was quite a fun day, all things considered. We enjoyed being out of the house and doing something fun. May be when it's cooler, we'll go back for some hiking around the island.

Sunday, Zack had duty, so he trudged back into work. I, on the other hand, accepted an invitation to see the Dragon Neck Waterfalls. Rob and Shay, the new CHENG on Zack's ship and his wife, invited a group to come check it out. We were instructed to bring lunch, shoes for hiking, and bathing suits. We drove out of town, south this time, past little towns and rice and tea crops, and an hour later, we were parking on the side of a tiny road up in the mountains a little ways.
Those of you who went to Appalachian, or visited regularly, might have seen Hebron Rock Colony, a favorite hang out of outdoorsy college students. This was something like that, only the water was not rushing so fast. The main waterfall had a pool under it so deep that the divers in our group couldn't find the bottom. There were signs everywhere saying that you shouldn't swim because the water was too cold, but that wasn't stopping any of the Japanese people, so it didn't stop us either. Even though the water really was pretty cold, we swam and took the paths down to see the other waterfalls, and generally had a good afternoon. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Needless to say, I can't wait to take Zack to check it out. What a great weekend!