OKINAWA TRIP 17: SHURI CASTLE
By Jenifer Tull-Gauger
On Saturday, July 4th, we went to Shuri Castle, in the capitol city of Naha. There were a lot of (mostly) Asian tourists there, and it was fairly crowded. Our hosts worked their magic with the attendants in the full parking garage and finagled enough parking for our whole group.
Shuri Castle has been rebuilt several times. In the past, fires destroyed much of it. Now it is the most complete of all the castles, with many beautiful buildings.
As you might expect of a capitol, it is large, with a lot of walking. A big urban city surrounds the Shuri Castle location. The walking areas and stairs are concrete.
The sundial, restored in the year 2000, and the Bridge of Nations Bell:
These pictures show Una forecourt:
The Main Hall is beautifully restored and decorated in its original glory:
We had to take off our shoes to be able to walk indoors through the halls of the court of Shuri Castle.
We got to see the same (or very similar) views of the garden that royalty saw decades ago. See the modern and the old courtyard pictures? Look for the rock that looks like a giant molar in the old photo of royalty. It has Japanese words just above it.
Items and replicas in the throne room of Shuri Castle:
And back out to the gift shop, where they had a very nice inventory to browse!
Beautiful outer grounds of Shuri Castle:
Drainage systems:
Goodbye Shuri!
