After a delicious breakfast, I took the monorail to Urasoe station, where I explored the Urasoe Castle Ruins.
Though for most people, this place is better known by the name the Americans gave in World War II: Hacksaw Ridge.
It's also the title of a Mel Gibson movie about a pacifist medic called Desmond Doss. It's all based on true stories, and in fact, they left some parts out that Desmond did in real life because they thought the audience wouldn't believe it.
In the movie, the top of the ridge is shown as a long stretch of no-mans land, while in reality it's about 20 meters wide today (they used this ridge as a rock quarry after the war, so it's both lower and wider today.)
It's kind of unimaginable that almost 2.500 Americans and 5.000 Japanese died around this small patch of land.
And for those wondering why they chose this cliff to head up to, the other parts were either even less passable, defended by bunkers in caves, or a castle with a wall.
From the castle, I made my way around the ruins through a park, and on my way back to the station, I stumbled across an "Unagi" store. Unagi means eel and this little mom-and-pop store sells them as bento fresh from the grill, delicious!
After this great lunch, I took the monorail to my next destination, another castle ruins.
Only this time, the castle was ruined in 2019 by a huge fire, and they are in the process of restoring it.
They still charge the entrance fee, and you get to see the restoration process up close, which is very cool! It also helps them finance the rebuild, so I encourage everyone to go :)
After the castle, I wanted to see a nearby botanic garden, but while both Google Maps and the website said it was open, it looked suspiciously empty to me (It was closed).
I comforted myself with a piece of carrot cake I got at a bakery along the way and decided to walk back to the hotel, which would take about an hour.
In the evening, I craved curry and looked up nearby curry places. This one had the best reviews, and the curry was luckily less spicy than the name implied.
