Tips for Japan

Visit the school of the 'Last Shogun' - Mito Kodokan When you think of Samurai worriers and Shogun warlords of Edo period Japan (1603-1867 A.D.), the center of Japan was then Edo castle. The now imperial palace in the center of Tokyo. This is where members of the Tokugawa clan ruled Japan. However there were also a few regions outside Edo (Tokyo) which were well connected to the Tokugawa clan. One of these was the Mito han (Mito Clan) in Mito (Mito city). Geographically, Mito is north east of Edo, and was a strategically important location to protect the capital Edo from the North. So it isn’t surprising that the Mito Kodokan (水戸弘道館) in Mito, the largest worrier school in Japan, was built here in 1841. It was know as the best schools and was where the 'Last Shogun'  Tokugawa Yoshinobu was sent as a boy to be educated. At the time tuition was free for the 1,000 students who studied subjects such as…