Light Up Your Own Japanese Castle
Japanese castles are cool. You know that. They represent massive history and culture and are spread out all over Japan. Wherever you go, you are bound to get some impressive pictures like this:
But this is only one half of the scenery. At night, castles light up. Some say it’s due to ancient samurai magic. Others say it is electricity. I’ll let you be the judge. But you get a whole different feel from a castle.
So Japanese castles have it pretty good. But what about castles that don’t light up at night. Or castles that only light up for a few evening hours. You flew all the way to Japan. You got a little carried away at a Japanese pub, but you want your castle lit up. At 1am.
Give up?
No. Light it up yourself. You don’t need super powers. You just need to head to 高知 (Kouchi) and check out 高知城 (Kouchi castle). Well not the actual castle. A bar/restaurant in the distance, that decided to install super powerful lighting that gives them the ability to light up the castle whenever they want. And freely passes this ability on to its customers like a game of shine the bright light on random distant object.
Hmm. This must be a nuisance to the city. You can’t just go around lighting up people’s castles can you?
The answer is yes, you can. Actually please go ahead. Pictured is the restaurant owner receiving a thank you award from the city for doing a good deed and spreading castle joy throughout the city to tourists at all hours of the night.
Job well done.
And just in case you were wondering…
Yes, it comes in pink.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Oh my god that is so awesome!!! Thats the only castle thing that was missing from my trip!! And, well, the ability to explore one in its entirety instead of just walking by empty rooms…
Better head back right now!
I’m hoping your first trip went well, and you’ll have many more to come.
That’s really cool! I’ll be sure to pass by if I get the chance this summer (two week tourist trip).
You could sit there for hours straight just turning the castle on and off.
That’s amazing! Only in Japan!
Maybe this personal monument lightup will spread to the rest of the world? I could see a restaurant in NY lighting up the statute of liberty. I can’t see any problems with this…