Inuyama

Since we are going to be leaving Japan soon (more details will be announced about this later), we have been spending our time trying to visit all of the place we have wanted to visit since first arriving in Japan. Naturally, we had to add Inuyama to the list! Inuyama is in the state that we live in, Aichi. It is in the northwest part of Aichi, and it is only about a 25-minute train ride from our apartment in Nagoya.

Inuyama is a rather small town, the main attraction being the castle. The castle is actually one of the five national treasure castles in Japan. This is probably due to the fact that it is the oldest standing

castle in Japan! Over time, many castles have been destroyed from war, natural disasters, etc. Considering the fact that this castle was constructed in 1537 and it still standing today-- that is pretty remarkable! The castle grounds also have beautiful red torii gates, statues, and a lot of pink hearts. Having issues with your love life? You are in luck. You can fill out a pink heart with prayers which is meant to help a person find love and/or sort out issues in their love life. Another cool thing about this castle is that it sits on a hillop, and it has amazing views of the town and surrounding area! Check out some of our photos above!

Close to Inuyama castle there are a few streets that are filled with shops and restuarants. A lot of them are housed in very old, traditional Japanese building. Many of them had been homes and are have been converted into stores and restaurants.

Some cool eatieries we checked out included Honmachi Saryou (in a traditional Japanese house built over 100 years ago). While there, we ate dengaku [tofu with sweet miso sauce]. This is one local speciality, so we could not resist. The dengaku was served on skewers that almost resembled popsicle sticks, and there was an assortment of 7

different savory flavors, all of which was delicious! You could order a set with different things like soup, matcha, but we opted for the beer flight! We had taken the train in, enabling us to sample some of Japan's brews.

Another cool spot that we stopped by was Showa Yokocho (Karuya). It is a food stand that is super popular in Inuyama because they sell "Koikomachi" dango. We are not entirely sure what "Koikomachi" means, but dango is a traditional Japanese food (actually it oringated in China). It is made from rice flour, and dango are usually rolled into balls and between 3-5 dango are typically served on skewers. They can be savory or sweet. The dango sold at this stand is unique because it is decorated in unique, adorable ways and it often is sold in fun, different flavors. We had some lemon and melon flavored dango. Apparently, this stand is so popular that people travel from all over Japan to order the dango and post it on their Instagram accounts. We read that we should be prepared for long lines, but we got quite lucky, When we arrived, there were no lines!

We also swung by another cafe with a super adorable summer drink (non-alcoholic). There are just so many places to eat, and drink. It was hard to decide where to go, but places with cute food and drink lured us in. Last, we stopped by an area with a lot of food trucks and outdoor seating. We had another beer flight which had Japanese craft beers, and we had some fun skewers. The nice thing about the outdoor seating was that it had a view of the Inuyama castle.