Hommaru Palace and Nagoya Castle, Japan

A wonderful old site in Nagoya that has both a very spectacular, traditional style castle high up above a drained moat... and a far more down to earth, if no less opulent palace, that was actually being upkept and renovated while I was there.

The old Castle is everything you might hope to see from old Japan... and the palace, is a great example of open plan Japanese living, every room wide and largely empty of furniture, with long sliding doors, big covered decks and peaceful gardens. The walls of many of the rooms covered in traditional landscape paintings with gold leaf. The timber work on the newer parts of the palace was exquisite and exact to the enth degree. If there's a culture of perfectionists on this planet, you'll find it in Japan.