Takeda Castle 竹田城跡 – The Machu Picchu of Japan

I’m sure fans of Hayao Miyazaki will be familiar with this animated film. The Takeda Castle is referred as Japan’s Machu Picchu by local residents as it seems to be floating in the air and therefore looks like the castle in the famous animated film.

And this is the main reason why we decided to visit it !!

Technically, Takeda Castle is not really a castle anymore, it is now just a castle ruins. It is located in the Asago city of Hyogo prefecture and we visited this place as part of our road trip driving from Osaka – Kyoto – Hyogo – Tottori – Osaka.

Before here, we went to Amanohashidate, Kinosaki Onsen and Tottori sand dunes.

We needed to park our car at mid hill and trek about 35 minutes to the hilltop, where the castle ruins are. It’s a loooooooooong trek. Tiring. But looking forward to.

Unfortunately, we visited closer to summer and wasn’t able to catch any Unkai, sea of clouds. What a pity.

There weren’t too many tourists too, and so we were able to take our time snapping pictures.
You don’t really see a castle anymore. What we saw were just stones of walls around the hilltop. Nothing too spectacular, to be honest.

A slow walk around the ruins area took just 30 minutes, and we were done. Rest of the journey were spent trekking down the hill again…

Takeda castle is always ranked among the top 100 castles in Japan. However, we probably wouldn’t recommend it unless you are;

• a big fan of the animation film Laputa, or
• a fan of all castles and castles ruins, or
• in the right season to see Unkai, or
• just happen to pass by Asago city