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After visiting Gunkanjima in Nagasaki City in the morning I was heading towards Hirado in the afternoon.
Before arriving there, I stopped by in Omura City which is on the way.
I wanted to visit Kushima Castle in Omura Park so that I could add it to my Japanese Castles list.

Visited: January 6th 2012

From JR Nagasaki Station to JR Omura Station it takes less than an hour.
From there it’s a 20-30min. walk to Omura Park.
The fastest path leads you through a shopping arcade which is where I took the photo.

(*click to enlarge)

I turned into a huge fan of manhole covers here in Japan! There are so many beautiful ones and each city has their own design.
I have a very HUGE collection already and maybe I’m going to make a post about my favorites some day.

After some walking I finally reached Omura Park (大村公園).
As you can see spring would be a great time to visit.

Unfortunately it was winter and thus no flowers at all. Only some naked trees were greeting me.

At least I finally got to see what I came for: Omura Castle!
It doesn’t have a main tower anymore, so there’s nothing you can enter. The good thing about it is that you don’t have to worry about opening hours!
Actually it’s better known as “Kushima Castle“. It was built in 1599 by Omura Yoshiaki.

This board had some nice information about the original castle.

That’s pretty much all you can see of the castle remains. That and a few walls.

Besides the castle and its ruins Omura Park also has a shrine on its grounds.

Welcome to Omura Shrine!

After washing your hands and mouth you can go and pray!
I usually don’t! The only time I do is in January during “Hatsumode“.

Somebody put their lucky charm on a trunk!

The Ema of Omura Shrine. Quite nice, but not interesting enough to buy one. (yes, I occasionally buy them as a souvenir!)

The omikuji of the shrine were really colorful and nicely decorated!

There was another very small shrine right next to the bigger Omura Shrine!

And I also spotted a cat on the shrine grounds. It wasn’t a stray cat. It belonged to the people at Omura Shrine!
It was such a beauty! I was fascinated by its completely white fur and blue eyes!
Unfortunately it was super shy, so I had a hard time taking a good photo! ^-^;

On my way back to the station I spotted a “Drive-in Starbucks”! Pretty cool!

Back at JR Omura Station. Although it was already January they still had the Christmas illumination up everywhere.
In Japan you’ll see it throughout winter everywhere – even long after Christmas!

It was already getting dark and I took a train to Hirado which was my next destination of my winter vacation 2011/12.
Hirado with its castles, shrines and historical sights was another highlight!
Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for reading.