Exploring Historic Bitchu-Takahashi | “Little Kyoto”/ 備中高梁ってどんなところ？

Exploring Historic Bitchu-Takahashi | “Little Kyoto”/ 備中高梁ってどんなところ？

All right. Hello everyone and welcome to Takahashi City in Okyama Prefecture. It’s also known as Bichu Takahashi. And right now I am at Matsyama Castle or Bichu Matsyama Castle. This is the oldest castle in Japan. So today there are only 12 original castles and this is the oldest out of all of them. It was constructed in the year 1240. So to get here it was not a wasn’t easy to access. Uh we took a taxi from the station and then we went up to the closest parking lot and then from there it was still another uh 20-minute hike and it was a pretty steep and uh it was a pretty tough hike actually. So it was about 700 meters from that parking lot up here to the castle entrance. But look at these views. We’ve got excellent weather today. You can see there’s some nice aelas here. Right over there you can see some wisteria. This is the Golden Week holidays at the beginning of May. And uh it’s definitely not crowded compared to other places in Japan. But uh yeah, there were some shuttle buses bringing people up here, but uh anyway, this is also the only mountaintop castle out of the 12 original castles. So uh anyway, there was some English information here. I’ll show you the sign. And then you can pause it if you want to read more about it. It’s right here. So you can read more about this castle. And again, yes, it was built here in the year 1240. So very, very old castle. And there’s a nice view over the city of Takahashi here in Okyama Prefecture. So anyway, we’re going to go inside the castle. I don’t think there are good views of the city from uh from the top of the castle, but uh we are going to go in and check it out. Again, this is the oldest castle in Japan, dating back to the year 1240. So, let’s go in and check it out. See you soon. Bye. All right. So, actually, uh before we go into the castle, I do want to show you this. This, as you can see, is getting a lot of attention here. But the owner of the castle is a cat uh is a cat. And it looks like Sanjudo is his name, but getting a lot of attention here. Everybody’s coming to get a photo here of the cats. So, apparently a super famous and popular thing. Uh well, not thing, but a very popular cat everybody wants to see here at the castle here at Matsyama Castle. So anyway, all right, let’s go in the castle and check it out. See you soon. All right, so we have reached the top of the castle. It is a two-story castle. So uh kind of small and simple for a castle and uh again, probably because it’s so old, but back in those days when they built castles, they were mainly for defensive purposes. So, um, a few centuries later, uh, the the castles were built to show off wealth and power and things like that, but, uh, these really old castles like this one here were built mainly for defense. And so that’s why the location is so hard to reach at the very top of this mountain, 430 m up. I believe it’s one of the highest mountains in all of Japan. So, the inside’s pretty simple. As you can see, this is the top floor, the second floor. The first floor had some displays um showing the history of the castle and I think I’ll go downstairs and bring some of that to you. But there’s probably the best view you can get of the city and then that’s where I started the video down there. Another interesting thing here is uh in the quarter months, maybe November, December, or even January, you can actually go to the top of one of those mountains over there in the distance and there’s an observation deck and then you can actually see this castle floating above a sea of clouds or unkai as they say in Japanese. So, um yeah, the the clouds, the fog comes in early in the morning and it’s actually under the castle. So, it makes the castle appear as if it’s floating above the clouds. So uh this is May like I said so of course we cannot get that view but uh other castles in Japan also do that as well. I know a taka taka castle ruins in Hyo Prefecture is another place where you can see the castle floating above the sea of clouds. So anyway this is the view from the second floor from the top of Matsyama Castle. So let’s go downstairs. All right. So now I am down on the first floor. I’ll give you a quick run through. Uh you can see some of the displays and uh exhibitions. They’ve got some information about the history of the castle and they even have a little video here. I’m not going to talk cuz there are quite a few people in there and they’re trying to read. I don’t want to disturb them. But let’s walk around the first floor of the castle. Oh, All right. And so if you walk around the side of the castle from just over here, you come around to the back and then you can see the second turret here and uh you can actually go inside. So let’s go inside and then I’ll show you what it looks like from the inside. So let’s go. All right. So uh I went into the second tower and uh it was really small. It was a small space inside and it was pretty crowded. So, I didn’t really film anything. There wasn’t uh there wasn’t much to see, but it was pretty interesting to go in and look around. So, if you get a chance, definitely I recommend it. But, uh probably not good for filming. Just uh too close and too crowded inside. But, uh anyway, excellent castle here. Highly recommend it. Especially for anyone who loves castles. This is definitely a a must visit here. So, again, this is Matsyama Castle in Takahashi City. Bichu Matsyama Castle or Bichu Takahashi City. So anyway, let’s continue going around and exploring the city. All right, see you. All right, so now we are down in uh the old town of Takahashi. Oh, there goes a train. And uh anyway, we are in the old town of Takahashi. The Takahashi old town, I guess. And this is a samurai district. And they’ve had they have this nice little stream flowing around, flowing down. Really beautiful day. And uh yeah, we’re going to walk around the Takahashi Oldtown and explore and see what there is around here. And uh actually right here is the first thing we’re going to see. And this is the oldest Christian church in Okyama Prefecture. You can see it uh has kind of Maji era style of architecture. And it was founded by the same man who founded uh Dosha University in the Kai area. So uh anyway, this church was built in 1875. So this year is 2025. So it’s the 50th anniversary. So you do have to take off your shoes to go inside. You can put on the slippers. And then let’s go in and look around. All right, there it is. It’s pretty small and simple, but you can definitely feel the history here in this church. So again, this is the oldest Christian church here in Okyama Prefecture. So let’s keep exploring Takahashi Old Town. See you later. All right. So, now welcome to the Samurai District here in Takahashi City and they actually have two residences that are open to the public and we’re going to go in one right now. This is called the Odi residence. So, a samurai family lived here and we can go in and check it out. So, let’s go in take a look around. So, actually they have these dolls here and they move. This one will actually bow when you go inside. I’m not going to go inside because you have to take off your shoes, but you can kind of get the idea of what it looks like inside. There’s a nice Japanese garden in the back that I will show you. The cat is everywhere here in Takahashi. But here it is. You can Yeah, like I said, take off your shoes and you can go inside the house and walk around and see the different rooms. Then this is the the bath. I guess this is the well. Used to be the well, maybe. And then back here, they’ve got some displays of uh samurai armor. So, let’s check out some of that. Pretty cool stuff. Kind of hard to see with the glare, but uh yeah, I think that’s a little bit better. You can see some of the protection they used to wear. And uh actually at the castle there were two guys and they were wearing this kind of armor. and uh you can get your picture taken with them with the castle in the background. And that’s what we did. We had a family photo made with the guys wearing the samurai armor. So, here’s the uh small, not small, but uh Japanese garden here in the back. And of course, the rooms, the sliding doors open up, so you can have a nice view as you sit and relax inside the room. So anyway, I think that’s just a quick run through of the uh of the samurai residence here. This is the Audi family and uh now we’re going to go over to the next one and check that one out as well. So, let’s go. All right, so we’re just going to take a quick stroll here down through the uh the Samurai District. I want you to kind of get a feel for the for the atmosphere the atmosphere here. And cars do still run through here. You can see a looks like a taxi coming through. And actually, this street is one of the streets that goes between the station and the castle. So, if you take a taxi from the station, you’ll come right through here on these streets here. And actually, I do recommend taking a taxi up to the castle uh from the station. And it was just under 2,000 yen, about 20 bucks, about $15 with the uh current exchange rate. But uh yeah, they can drive all the way up to the uh the second parking area and they can pick you up and bring you back. I think this is it here. This is the Hib residence. So this is the other samurai residence that you can enter and uh you can pay and go in and check it out. So, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go in see if there are any highlights, and if so, I’ll bring that to you. All right. See you soon. Bye. All right. So, I’m going to give you a quick tour of the uh of the Samurai residence here. This is the Hibata family. And I’m not going to go in because you have to take off your shoes. But I think we’re going to walk around the outside and then you can see the rooms from the outside. But we can walk all the way around on the outside with your shoes on. These are what the rooms look like. They’re pretty simple. Just tatami rooms. But they all all these residences have really nice Japanese gardens. And of course, it’s springtime, so we can enjoy the beautiful flowers of the spring. So there it is. Maybe this is the well. And that’s it. And they’ve got tons and tons of things here connected to the to the cat here, as you can see. The cat is everywhere here in Takahashi. So anyway, this is the Hatada Samurai residence here in Takahashi. All right, see you. All right. Hello everybody and welcome to Cuji Temple here in Takahashi. This is probably the most famous temple to visit here in Takahashi. And this is a Zen Buddhism temple here. And it is most famous for its rock garden and it was designed by uh Kobori Enshu and he lived in Kyoto and he designed a lot of uh famous rock gardens there and also uh castles and palaces and temples. He did a lot of uh famous uh designing for uh rock gardens and other things. He was also a master of uh tea ceremony as well. But uh anyway, he stayed here and uh while he was here, he designed the rock garden and uh that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go inside and see the rock garden. I’m not going to talk because it is a place of meditation. You’re supposed to sit and meditate while enjoying the rock garden, but it does use uh borrowed scenery. So, you can see the mountains in the distance behind the rock garden. And uh there’s a lot of uh symbolism in the rock garden. Uh some of the islands are in the shapes of uh turtles and cranes which represent longevity. So uh anyway, I’m not going to talk. Once I go in the temple, I’ll take you to the rock garden. And please enjoy the beautiful view of the rock garden. How do you do that? All right. So, welcome to the Takahashi Folk Museum. And as you can see here, it is in a very historic building. This is uh from the Miji era, which would be the late 1800s, early 1900s. And uh so very unique building here in Takahashi. But inside, they’ve got over 3,000 items that have been collected over the years, over the centuries, and they’re on full display here for people to come and look around. So, I’m going to give you a very quick tour, but they’ve got just a little bit of everything here. So, um you can see, for example, a lot of these old electronics, they’ve got old telephones, cameras, video projectors, projectors. They’ve got uh these old record players, just all kinds of uh things kept over from the past. They even got military wear here. There was a gas mask that I thought was pretty interesting. But uh yeah, just all kinds of toys and the instruments and things like that. But the building itself is also really cool. It’s very atmospheric and again dating back to the 1800s or early 1900s. It’s a very cool building. Of course, all these items that have been collected are really nice. There’s an old beach takahashi sign for the uh for the train station. And then just coming upstairs up here, they’ve got some items that have been used in festivals in the past, some floats and other things like that. So, let’s take a look at that. So, here it’s like a really big ship, like a sailboat. I don’t know. Was it used in a festival? Maybe. Over here, it’s a collection of uh tools used for making sake. They even have some containers here. Some oldfashioned sake containers. A tokuri. So, very cool. And then of course here this is a a float that has been used at a festival in the past. So really interesting building here and just they’ve got a little bit of everything. Any kinds of any kind of tool or anything that’s been used in the past. I guess this is for weaving a weaving machine. So, it’s kind of a a glimpse into old life here in Takahashi City. Some agricultural tools here as well. So, anyway, that’s just a very quick look around the Takahashi Folk Museum here in Takahashi cities. So, now we’re going to go to a different part of Takahashi. It’s called Naniwa, and there is a contemporary art museum there. We’re going to go and check that out. So, let’s go. All right, see you. All right, and let’s continue our tour of Takahashi. And right now, I am in the Nariwa district of uh Takahashi City. And I am at the Nariwa Museum. And as you can see, it’s kind of a interesting design here. It was designed by the famous architect Ando Taro, who’s a famous Japanese architect. And this is very much in his style here. these very straight lines, very minimalist uh concrete slabs here. But a very interesting museum here. Um inside the museum, you can see some work by uh Cojima. Um what’s his name? Anyway, Cojima is his family name. Um Torjito, that’s his name. Tojito. Cojima. inside uh you can see some of his works which is uh very European style which is very interesting. He does paintings of um uh different types of scenery, European scenery, Japanese scenery but everything is done in a Japanese style um a very western style. But uh anyway, there’s no filming inside, so I can’t show you anything on the inside, but I can film around here on the outside and show you the uh interesting and unique design here of the uh Nadia Museum. Also, uh Kojima, he uh also had a collection of uh things from Egypt. So, uh you can also see that inside the museum. And really it’s almost like the museum itself is a work of art with uh Andotto’s unique design. Here you can see uh other types uh other famous buildings in Japan are designed by him. So if you’re interested, you can definitely find uh other interesting buildings very much uh like this in his style here. So, very cool museum. It was a,000 yen to get in. Uh, but I would say it’s definitely worth it. Uh, we went through there pretty quickly because it’s almost 5:00 and they’re about to close, so we went through it pretty quickly. They do have a cafe and, uh, it’s got a water garden, so it’ be a really nice place to come and sit and relax and just enjoy the architecture and the very peaceful environment here. It is surrounded by trees here. So, uh very nice uh background. And also this area here, the forest in the Nariwa area is I think one of the oldest forests in all of Japan. It goes back more than 200 million years. And so you can actually see some of the fossils and the artifacts uh showing the history of the forest here in the Nadiawa area of um of Takashi City. So anyway, unfortunately, like I said, I can’t film on the inside, but uh this is kind of a quick tour of the outside of the area that I can film and show you. So I’d say it’s definitely worth it. Come check it out. This is the Niwa Museum in the Niwa district of Takahashi City in Okyama Prefecture. So, let’s continue our tour of Takahashi City. All right, see you. All right, so now we are back at Takahashi Station. This is Bichu Takahashi Station. And on top of the station, just right here, uh, is a library. It’s a very nice new, it looks new, very modern library. And, uh, I’m up on the fourth floor right now. And it’s a kids area. It’s a kids library. There’s tons of arts and crafts and books and play area and things like that. I’m not going to show it to you, but uh there are a lot of kids running around playing right now. And uh anyway, but there is a terrace and there’s a nice view of the city down below. As you can see, beautiful mountains in all directions. And then actually if you look really close up there, the very top of that mountain. I don’t know if you can see it, but you can see just the roof the very top of Matsyama Castle. Bichu Matsyama Castle right up there at the top. But uh anyway, very beautiful library here. I might show you a little bit more, but again, there are a lot of people there and I don’t really want to invade people’s privacy and things like that. But uh if I can, I’ll show you a little bit more. But uh very beautiful library here at Bichu Takahashi Station. All right, see you. All right, and here’s the inside of the library. Again, I’m up on the fourth floor, but very cool uh design here, and you can see uh just these bookshelves here all the way down to the bottom. There’s an area down there. There’s of course a Starbucks, a library, a study area, cafe, bookstore, and different things like that. But really, really cool architecture, nice design here. And I’m guessing that uh up here on the fourth floor, this really nice kids library is probably to attract families here to Takahashi or to encourage young people to have children because as you know the uh population is in decline here in Japan, especially in rural small towns. So uh this is excellent for families to uh a place to bring their kids to learn and uh just to enjoy arts and crafts and other activities. But anyway, super cool library here at Bichu Takahashi Station. Okay, see you. All right, so now we are outside the library and the train station. Wanted to show you the architecture from the outside. You can see it’s a very nice design, very new modern building here. There is a Lawson here just across the street. This is where we’re standing right now. And then right over here, this is the JR, the train station, the main entry point into Takahashi City. So anyway, this is going to be the end of our video. So, do you have anything to say? England is how fun is for and fun to find is combat in hot. Yes, exactly. So, we’re about to get on our train and head back to Okyama City. That’s where we’re staying tonight. So, we did this as a day trip. So, it’s an easy place to come as a day trip. take the train up in the morning, spend the afternoon and head back or stay the night. There’s a hotel not far from here as well. Also, we got the 1,000 yen ticket. So, all the places that I showed you in the video today, um you can go around for 1,000 yen or about $7 right now with the exchange rate. But, uh that’s a really really good deal and I’d recommend it. Go in and get that uh 1,000 yen ticket and go around and see all these places. So, anyway, that’s going to be all for our video today. Thank you so much for watching. If you like the video, please click like, leave a comment down below, and subscribe to my channel. I’m making videos like this all over Japan. So again, thank you so much for watching, and we’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

Takahashi (or Bitchu-Takahashi) is a historic city in Okayama Prefecture. It is famous for Bitchu-Matsuyama Castle, which is both Japan’s oldest (1240) and highest (430 m/1,410 ft). The Old Town contains many historic buildings in the samurai district as well as Raikyuji Temple, which is famous for its rock garden. Because of its deep history, Takahashi is known as “Little Kyoto.” Join me as I explore this beautiful city!/ 備中高梁。岡山県 高梁市にある歴史的な城下町です。日本三大山城の一つであり、日本一高いところに現存する山城、備中松山城。「天空の山城」としても有名です。足利尊氏が諸国に命じて建立させた安国寺の一つ、「頼久寺」。国指定名勝の枯山水の庭園は圧巻です。このように歴史的、文化的価値の高い建物が集まっており、小京都の町並みを堪能できます。さぁ、一緒にこの美しい街を散策してみましょう！

0:00 – Introduction from Matsuyama Castle/ 備中松山城より
2:09 – Famous cat/ 猫城主 さんじゅーろー
2:44 – View from top of castle/ 天守からの眺め
4:38 – First floor/ 本丸
5:44 – Second turret/ 二の丸
6:00 – Comments about the castle/ 備中松山城の感想
6:41 – Old Town/ 紺屋川筋美観地区
7:11 – Christian church/ 高梁キリスト教会堂
8:32 – Orii Samurai Residence/ 武家屋敷 旧折井家
11:00 – Walking in the Samurai District/ 武家屋敷
12:15 – Haibara Samurai Residence/武家屋敷 旧埴原家
13:45 – Outside Raikyuji Temple/ 頼久寺の外観
15:16 – Inside Raikyuji Temple/ 頼久寺 境内
16:15 – Rock Garden/ 枯山水
16:58 – Outside the Folk Museum/ 高梁市郷土資料館の外観
17:30 – Inside the Folk Museum/ 高梁市郷土資料館 中
20:15 – Nariwa Museum/ 成羽美術館
22:39 – View from Bitchu-Takahashi Station/ 備中高橋駅からの眺め
24:49 – City Library/ 高梁市立図書館
25:51 – Outside Bitchu-Takahashi Station/ 備中高橋駅の外観
26:18 – Farewell message/ ドリューからのメッセージ

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