Yesterday we ventured rather far north in Nagasaki Prefecture, past Sasebo and up to Hirado where there's a castle. We were pretty lucky that each day was quite Sunny, but yesterday it rained and rained nearly all day. We still made it to our destination though.

It was really pouring when we first got there, but began to thin out into a medium rain.

Here's the actual Hirado castle.

The view from the top gives a commanding view of Hirado city and all its ports. Here's a Panoramic.

Throughout the hirado castle complex are several towers that still stand or have been restored.

In the main grounds of the castle is a forest of Sakura, much like those at the Fukuoka castle. Though, since it's beginning to get a little late into April, the flowers have already begun to fall, and the leaves starting to grow.

A week or two earlier and the flowers still would've been in full bloom. We continued through the main area and out the front gates.

Afterwards, we went back to Sasebo and met up with Ikuko and her highschool friend, Natsuko, for dinner. They took us to Toriki near the shopping arcade and ordered some delicious food. ^_^

Time began to thin as the night went on though, and Gage and I had to catch the 9:56 train back to Nagasaki.

There's a couple more pictures I took of the day that I didn't fit into the post. You can check out all the pics here: http://www.theschlock.com/photo/080408_hirado/.