Himeji

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On my second day in Japan I headed out of the city to Himeji. However, for the entire hour's journey I didn't see a single patch of non-city, every single square inch was built up! Japan's population is over double that of the UK's, but I don't think they have double the space, so you can understand why it is so packed!. I think it also has something to do with the amount of inhospitable land full of mountains, people have to live in the flat parts.

Himeji however was lovely, be it completely built up. The walk to its castle was a straight line from the station, which was easy enough. However, I was looking for a restaurant recomended in my guide book, so I scanned the streets for a sign saying "Me-n-me," forgetting that the sign for the restaurant wouldn't necessarily be in English as it was written in my book. When this clicked, it turned out that I had looked at the restaurant I wanted and walked on by, just 5 minutes before without realising... The sign was written only in Japanese characters and as so much *is* written in English here, I think can be forgiven for making stupid foreign assumptions! Maybe.

I had an udon soup, the udon noodles were about a metre long! The soup also had mochi, which are doughy rice ball things, and some brightly coloured things that tasted a bit like crab sticks, weird but kind of nice.

I then headed on up to the castle, which is an original, rather that a concrete recreation like most, including the one in Osaka. Everyone had to remove their shoes and walk up all the slippery wooden floors in just their socks, quite dangerous!

After exploring the castle I went in search of some gardens that Holly has insisted I see. I managed to walk in the wrong direction though and into a wedding scene. I timidly watched a bit and then the camera lady smiled and waved me in, pleased to show the little westerner what was going on!

I then walked into the other direction and actually found what I was looking for, the gardens were very pretty, full of koi carp, little bridges and stepping stones, just like the little Japanese gardens you see in garden centres, but on a proper scale!

By this time I was pretty exhausted, my trip so far hasn't been so centred around city day trips, I felt much like I had spent the whole day going round exhausting London! I then toddled off back to Osaka to meet with Holly and her expat friends for dinner. I say expat, I don't know how long you have to live somewhere before you acquire this title - suggestions welcome!

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