Snaking around Shuri Castle

The first time I went to Shuri Castle, I was exhausted. While Yui Rail has a stop at Shuri Station, it’s not in front of Shuri Castle. You need to walk a bit from the stop. I thought I had it all figured out until I had to hike.

Do not ask how I ended up hiking but this was one way of getting to Shuri Castle and obviously not the easiest way. Regardless, I made it and till this day, I have no flipping clue which route the other visitors were taking. Ah, the burdens of not being able to read Kanji and not traveling in a car. (But would I have even found the parking lot if I was driving in a rental car? Probably not. Lol.)

Greenery is quite plentiful around here and with greenery comes warning signs for poisonous snakes (habu) so do be mindful when you’re trekking about here. Poisonous snakes aside, I encountered a girl with venom in her attitude towards me.

I was minding my own business trying to figure out which route I should take to Shuri Castle. She was with a woman older than her. (Feels like it’s someone that’s too old to be her Mom yet too young to be her grandma. But then again, it could have been her Mom.) She looked at me with so much disdain. I was already having trouble figuring out this map and then this girl wanted to give me an attitude on top of it.

Looking back, I think her anger may have had to do with me not greeting or bowing but it’s not like she greeted or bowed either, so… I know we all had a moment where we all looked at each other but I am aware that I didn’t give her a bad look to “deserve” any attitude or acts of “frustration” from her. Lol “Mom” on the other hand seemed carefree and didn’t have an issue with me whatsoever. It was weird especially with one being so bitter towards me. I don’t know what it was all about but it left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Like, I did not escape mainland Japan to experience this type of BS again. I do not know if she was from mainland Japan or not, but I was not feeling this type of hostile behavior even if I may have supposedly committed an unknown cultural faux pas.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: Shuri Castle. I loved how admission was free. (Considering my hike, I deserved that free admission. Lol) Although I wasn’t able to get to the official “entrance” from the get go, I managed to find it nonetheless. The thing is, you could technically still get into Shuri Castle from other areas that are often manned by an employee/volunteer. However, there does seem to be a system in place to keep traffic flowing towards one direction. So, once you pass a certain area, you aren’t exactly allowed to reverse your steps. If you want to go somewhere again, you may have to start over.

This honestly can be quite annoying if you happen to be with a lot of people. If there aren’t a lot of people around, it seems you can take more time to chill, although technically, you can hang out on the grounds for as long as you want.

Shuri Castle isn’t as small as you might think it is. When you visit, make sure to see all of Shuri Castle. I say this because I didn’t get to see everything the first time I visited the castle. There were other areas to Shuri Castle that can unintentionally be left unvisited if you don’t visit the grounds carefully. This can easily happen if you get tired from excess walking. Even if you get to Shuri Castle by car, the ugly reality is that you’ll still have to climb somewhat steep and slippery stairs to get to Shuri Castle. I can not tell you how overly cautious I was with myself when I was going up these stairs with my darn flats that of course have no form of traction whatsoever! (Advice: Wear walking shoes. No flats and definitely no heels!)

As mentioned earlier, you’ll want to see every portion of Shuri Castle and the grounds adjacent to Shuri Castle. You’ll also want reward yourself with a view of Shuri (castle town) from Shuri Castle. Make it worth your trip!

P.S.

I believe there was a snake hidden in a tree on the grounds of Shuri Castle. I can’t say for sure if it was the famed habu or some other snake but there was a good amount of people (native travelers from mainland Japan) getting excited and taking pictures of this tree. I looked at the tree a few times and couldn’t see anything extraordinary. Perhaps, unlike me, they were able to see through the tree branches and spot a habu? The habu is brown, after all and can often be mistaken as a tree branch.