Since last autumn, there had been continuous reports of bear sightings and damage caused by bears. However, for the past month, I've heard no such news, nor have I received any bear sighting alerts via LINE from the town hall.
Perhaps the bears have finally gone into
hibernation?
So, Sachiki-san and I went for a walk on
Shiroyama(Castle Hill) in the neighbouring town.
Shiroyama was the site of the Otsuchi clan's
castle from the Muromachi period until the beginning of the Edo period.
It is now maintained as Shiroyama Park.
We started from the car park of the Otsuchi
Town Central Community Centre at the southern end of the park.
The paved road has a gentle gradient but
continues uphill for about 1 km. I regretted not starting from the western car
park closest to Honmaru(Centre of the Castle) site, one of the three available.
This is the western car park.
We left the paved road and entered the walking
path, reaching the base of Honmaru site. However, I, turn 65 years old this
year, decided not to go all the way to Honmaru site.
Honmaru site is located at the top of these
steps.
We didn't go up to Honmaru site, but we got a good view of Otsuchi Bay.
