Nomura’s Hidden Castle

Nomura's Hidden Castle

This post is dedicated to K, who may not make it through tomorrow without my help entertaining her.

I’m trying to find pumpkins so my elementary school kids can make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Through an acquaintance I managed to get my hands on a few pumpkins from a contest in Nomura, the closest place where they actually grow non-citrus produce. I managed to get out of work to go pick the pumpkins up with some people.

We took a bit of a detour. A long, narrow, winding road led us up a mountain, all the way into the grounds of a castle. This castle isn’t left over from ancient times or anything. It was built by some weirdo with money he skimmed from his own company rather than let it get taken as taxes.

It used to be a hotel and restaurant, and also a retreat for company parties and whatnot. Then the guy got old and donated it to the city, but the city doesn’t take care of it because it’s in the middle of nowhere and never really got any business.

Now it’s just home to the biggest insects I’ve ever seen outside a zoo in my life.

Then I had an amazing dinner, came home, got tired, gave up on the idea of studying, blogged, and now I’m going to rot my brain with TV until I go to bed. Sorry my life isn’t more interesting.