Here are some photos from two visits to the Three Tiered Turret in Takada Park. The uninitiated might call this replica a “castle,” but it was only a turret or guard station for a bigger structure that was nothing like how we imagine western castles. We first went with a Rotary exchange student earlier in the summer, but just yesterday the kids at I CAN told me they want to go back, and go inside. They had their kids’ resident passports and got in free. We were all pleasantly surprised by the interior and the displays as well as views from the top which you can see if you flip through. The video “virtual reality” explanation, while in Japanese, was gorgeous and very well done. Best surprise? A perfectly translated, native-speaker-checked, accurate, informative English pamphlet! These are much rarer than they need to be. At the end of our tour, the kids told me, “if we were going to regular school, we’d never come here and never learn about this! Made me so happy to be a #freeschooler 😃✌️ #joetsu #takadapark #freeschoolican #castles #history #landmarks #rotary (at 高田公園) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnarV0mgY95/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ae43nyfursjb