Castles and Geishas

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A quick stop at Himeji for a few hours to visit the very beautiful castle there. And was surprised to find many many beautiful cherry blossoms as well. Took way too many pictures (again). A nice 'little' city of only 2 million people! The weather was wonderful and sunny (we were definitely due for this) making the day that much nicer. It is very hard to believe that this part of my journey is coming to a close so quickly. Hope to get some photos loaded up in the next few days - working from an internet cafe at the moment, and trying to find out what I can and cannot do here.

After Himeji, it was off to Kyoto. On this, our last train ride, I cracked open a bottle of sake that I bought in Takayama (apparently noted for its sake) to share with the group. Let's just say it is a little like lighter fluid...😊/

Staying at a great little ryokan close to the train station meaning it is handy to all sorts of transport. After checking in we headed to the geisha district (known as Gion) for some dinner and scouting around. Kyoto has much more character than Tokyo - not having been bombed during the war it is very preserved. Think Memoirs of a Geisha in terms of the setting. But I find Tokyo much easier to navigate.

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