🌧️ Ghost Stories, Hydrangeas & a Quiet Day in Matsue 👻🪻 — June 22nd, 2026

🍚 My last day in Matsue started with an amazing hotel breakfast — including a bowl overflowing with ikura. 🌧️ Then I walked through the city in the rain to Gesshoji Temple. The hydrangeas were in full bloom, and the quiet temple grounds felt especially beautiful in the cloudy weather. 🪻 I also came to see the famous giant stone turtle. According to an old local story, it once came alive at night and walked around the city. 🐢👻 Lafcadio Hearn was fascinated by stories like this. He collected and wrote about the ghost stories, legends, beliefs, and small mysteries that people in Matsue had passed down for generations. 🏯 Later, I walked around Matsue Castle and visited Jozan Inari Shrine, another place Hearn loved, filled with stone foxes. 🦊⛩️ Before coming here, I thought rainy weather might make a trip less enjoyable. But Matsue made me feel almost the opposite. The rain, the quiet streets, old temples, strange legends, and stories hidden inside ordinary places were exactly what made this city beautiful to me. ☁️ Maybe that was also what Lafcadio Hearn saw here more than 100 years ago. 🚆 And with that, my three days in Matsue came to an end.