We checked into a hotel near Kumamoto Castle for our day trip out to Mount Aso. It was also great location for wandering around Kumamoto central, and the castle.

Upper left

The cherry trees around the castle were doing their thing (they were still mostly dormant in the higher elevations where we had been the previous week), and unfortunately it's necessary to set up these ugly barriers to stop people damaging the trees to get their obligatory cherry blossom photos.

Upper right

Kumamoto Castle was absolutely smashed by two huge earthquakes in April, 2016. There has been an enormous amount of restoration work, but there is still much to do.

Lower left

This is at the top level of the main castle building. It was our first real encounter with a major tourist draw on our trip, and this was on a cold mid-week visit. The new castle building has been built to safely survive a major earthquake, so it's quite modern inside.

Lower right

Tourist flow inside the castle is one-way, which stops log-jams. The stair wells near the top floors (where the floor areas are smaller) are split down the middle for two-way traffic. It's all very efficient.