Matsue City

　　I visited Matsue City, which is a historic castle town like my home town, with my friends to attend a Lions Club related wide-area meeting. I had visited the city nearly 40 years ago, but I don't remember anything about the city. As soon as I arrived in the city, I stopped by Matsue Castle, the most prominent sightseeing point in the city.
　　In general, medieval Japanese castles were protected with their high location or surrounding moats, but the moats got meaningless in modern times and most of them were filled in. Matsue Castle, though, keeps its original moat even at present. Tourists can enjoy sightseeing from on the boat floating on the moat. An hour of relaxing boating in the cool breeze on the surface was really wonderful.
　　After climbing up to the keep, I was going to visit Koizumi Yakumo Museum, but it was closed for refurbishment. He is a Briton and a big figure on the Japanese literature scene. When I was a kid, I read his works over and over again. I'd like to revisit the city to find out about his life.
　　Shimane Prefecture, in which Matsue City is included, is known as the scene of several Japanese myths. The performance in the welcoming party held by local Lions Clubs was a Kagura (Shinto music and dancing). I was impressed that the performers were all young people, 10 to 18 years old, as far as I saw. The education of Japanese myths had been prohibited during the U.N.'s domination (1945-1952). Consequently, even now, it doesn't appear in kids' textbooks in the wake of the GHQ's policy. I was very glad to see young people learn our myths. After the party, my local friend took us to a nice bar, where I found my favorite Islay malt whiskey and lost my memory. (grin)

(Vocabulary)
moat  (城壁周りの) 堀; (動物園の) 堀
the castle moat 城の堀
keep [C] (中世の城の) 天守閣
refurbish 〈ホテル，レストランなど〉 を（全面的に）改装する, 新装する
refurbishment  (建物・部屋などの) （全面的な）改装, 新装

Comments

[Peter]

I have been to Islay and indeed their whiskey is excellent.