If you want to take a break at Wakayama Castle

There are many restaurants in the area from around Wakayama Castle to Wakayama Station and Wakayama City Station, and if you start walking without deciding which restaurant to go to, you will end up getting confused and getting hungry.

In this town, I recommend eating outside when the weather is nice, using takeout, bread, and bento shops.

If you want to have lunch outdoors, Wakayama Castle is the place to go. There are many benches installed in Wakayama Castle Park, so unless it’s an event day, you won’t have to worry about finding a place to sit.

There are many restaurants in the area from around Wakayama Castle to Wakayama Station and Wakayama City Station, and if you start walking without deciding which restaurant to go to, you will end up getting confused and getting hungry. It will be.

In this town, we recommend eating outside when the weather is nice, using takeout, bread, and bento shops.

If you want to have lunch outdoors, Wakayama Castle is the place to go. There are many benches installed in Wakayama Castle Park, so unless it’s an event day, you won’t have to worry about finding a place to sit.

One of the best-kept secrets is the east side of the castle. Enter the castle from the Okaguchi Gate on the south side, walk north, and you will see Kuranomaru on your right. There you will find a long horizontal staircase called “Gangi” along the moat. When you go up the narrow steps, there are several benches where you can take a break while looking out at the moat.

It’s a little difficult to go up to the castle tower, but here you only have to climb up Gangi a little. Carp and turtles often swim in the moat, and various birds also gather there.

I think it’s a good place to relax when you want to take a short break.

Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Bulbul

Gray heron and blue stone of Wakayama Castle

この前目にしたカワセミの写真を撮ろうと紅葉渓庭園に来ましたが、残念ながら一度だけしか姿を現してくれませんでした。蚊がたくさん集まってきてしまったので、代わりに御橋廊下でじっとしていたアオサギの写真を撮って、そそくさと退散しました。

Even so, as expected of a large daimyo’s garden, there are many crystalline schist stones (the Aoishi Stone) with wonderful striped patterns.

Aoba Festival was held at Mt. Koya to celebrate the 1250th anniversary of Kukai’s birth

On June 15, 2023, the “Aoba Festival” was held in Koya Town, Wakayama Prefecture to celebrate the birth of Kobo Daishi, Kukai. The Aoba Festival is held every year on June 15th, the day Kukai was born, and this year marks the 1250th anniversary of his birth.

In the morning, a memorial service called “Gotan-e” was held at Kongobu-ji Temple of Mt. Koya to celebrate the birth of a great monk, and about 100 people, including monks, chanted sutras. In addition, believers and tourists from all over the country poured sweet tea on the statue of Kobo Daishi’s child.

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New Tama Cat Train in Kishi, Wakayama

たま電車ミュージアム号

Wakayama Electric Railway‘s Kishigawa Line connects Wakayama Station to Kishi Station, a distance of 14.3 km. The line offers residential areas, historic shrines, scenic parks, and peaceful scenery, but the trains that run on this line are another attraction.

As of August 2022, there are five types of trains on the Kishikawa Line, and one of the most popular is the Tama Train Museum-go, which was introduced in December 2021.

The "Never-before-seen cat train" was made possible through crowdfunding.

The Tama Train Museum is a train that was realized in 2021 as a crowdfunding project. The purpose of the project is to revitalize the local community through railroad infrastructure, and the design was created by Eiji Mitooka, a leading railroad design expert. With the addition of approximately 10 million yen raised through the support of 959 crowdfunding supporters, the train has been in operation since December 4 of the same year.

The concept is that the first Tama Station Chief is surrounded by Nitama Station Chief, Yontama Station Chief, fans and children.
From the interior to the exterior, this gorgeous train is filled with the charm of the cat stationmasters.

Each car, including the Tama Train Museum runs at intervals of about one per hour.