I had a quick visit to the Odawara Castle a while ago on the way to the Odawara City Office. I had read some books on history of Japan through it I got some knowledge about Odawara Castle, these books mentioned battle of Odawara during the Sengoku period of Japan. In Japanese and Chinese, Sengoku means battles and conflicts between countries, which is definitely an unstable and painful era for the people. During 3-day consecutive holidays of October, I paid another visit to the castle with my friends. The castle was holding a Matsuri (traditional festival) of Oden.

Odawara Station is a large scale station in my opinion, there were many gift shops outside the ticket gate, the whole station was ornamented in a sophisticated traditional taste. Western tourists can be seen sometimes, indicating this is a internationally well-known city. Odawara Castle can be reached by walking from the station for 10 minutes, there were many small shops and restaurants in traditional Japanese style on the roadside, some looks very tasty to me. There is a Manga called “Kodoku no Gourmet”, I felt like the hero of the Manga, just eat wherever I went. After passing a few alleys, I saw a long bridge in scarlet color, under the bridge was a river with clean water, the level of the water is higher than usual due to the typhoon several days ago. Inside the river, there were many bulky carps nudge their mouth out of water, trying to catch bait thrown by tourists.
         
The weather was great, I felt pleasant to visit the castle. Climbing along the stone steps, passing through the heavy wooden gate, I entered the ground of the castle, there was a pure and tranquil place under tall trees. I saw a pack of monkeys kept there. A friend told me that this place was once a zoo with many animals when she was a child however there is only few monkeys kept here these days. These monkeys looked glum when compared to monkeys living in Hagachizakien where I visited previously. Due to it was a 3-day consecutive holidays, traditional events are scheduled, the ground was packed with tourists. At a small open space, half of the ground was filled with antique sellers and another half was packed with food vendors sell traditional Japanese foods such as Oden, etc. There were also various performance going on.
Looking up from below, The Tenshukaku of Odawara Castle stood highly toward the sky with grandness and dignity. Chalky walls and deep blue tiles looked simple and modesty which were different from the traditional architecture of China. Traditional architectures in China tend to use vivid colors such as red, yellow and blue to achieve the magnificence and majesty of the building. I was especially impressed by the old trees surrounding the Tenshukaku, these trees were still and modest with the magnificence of long history which need to be achieved through maybe hundred years or so.

Last time I visited here, the castle was basked in the twilight of the dusk with beautiful sunset. Golden twilight of sun basked Tenshukaku of the castle, lights poured through leaves of trees. We sat down at bottom of tall trees gazing at the sunset, forgot all the noise of city life and immersed in a recollection of wartime of the castle in the past.

When we were about to leave, there were still many tourist kept entering the ground of the castle. I was so happy to got a chance to take photos with Sumurai for free!
Now I have visited Odawara Castle twice, there will a Chrysanthemum Exhibition hold in November, I will definitely visit here again. Odawara Castle express different scenes and colors through many visits, I think there will be always new findings on my future visits.

Information

* Please refer to the latest info before visiting place.