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Himeji Castle
View of the castle from the main gate Long before we came we decided to visit Himeji and Nara as two half day trips from Kyoto, what we didn't decide until today was the sensible thing and do them on the same day!
We got the bullet train to Himeji at 8.20, arriving just after 9am. The weather was already hot, clear and sunny, just like we've come to expect from the weather each day - watch that change!
We arrived at the grounds of the castle, a very imposing building at the top of the hill over the city and went in. The first part of the tour was through the western bailey building, taking us through the parts of the castle lived in by Princess Sen. The white buildings were blinding in the bright sunlight, but inside the wooden floors and walls made the rooms cooler. One thing about Himeji Castle - if you don't like steps (and I don't mean the pop group) don't come, the steps in all parts of the building were designed to make it very difficult for attackers to gain entry to upper floors in numbers, as they are nearly vertical. After the bailey building we headed for the
Himeji Castle
View of the castle from the Western Bailey main castle building, a building designed to look like it has five floors from the outside, but which actually houses six floors and all of them accessed through the vertical stairs. Climbing was made all the more entertaining as you had to either wear slippers or remain in your socks.
The amusing part of the slipper thing was that unlike most of the other places, where you left your shoes outside on a rack, here you were given a plastic bag to carry them in - it was a slightly odd sight seeing all the visitors walking round with a carrier bag in their hands! Despite this oddity, the castle itself was very impressive, if a little bare inside - the main attraction being the knowledge that this was the original building and to wonder as you made your way through, in whose footsteps you were walking.
After the castle we went into the ornamental gardens, a very impressive and pretty set of grounds, designed to compliment the adjoining castle.
It was then that we moved on to Nara. We needed to change twice on the train to get there with less than five minutes between stops,
Himeji Castle
View of the castle from just as you enter the main building but Japanese trains being what they are, the only thing that would make us miss our connections would be our inability to read signs - fortunately we passed on that test, so we reached Nara as planned.
On arrival we caught a bus to the Todaiji Temple, a huge temple and the first occasion we met with enormous crowds. In the main hall of the temple was an enormous Buddha, very impressive and imposing. Now, one thing my Mum always asks when I visit places like Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur etc. etc. is to light a candle for her, so I decided to do this at Todaiji - not sure her reaction when I tell her that I lit a candle of prayer to Buddha, but there's nothing like hedging your bets!
Here at Todaiji, we also encountered the "Elementary School Children", there were hundreds on a school trip, covering a number of different subjects, one of them was English. Their English task was to run frantically up to unsuspecting tourists, ask them a series of harmless questions and then get their autograph off them. Hopefully the last part was part of some fan worship or proof of
View of Himeji
Taken from the sixth floor top building of the castle actually talking to people, rather than some organised crime syndicate's way in to identity theft! At Todaiji, Anthony & I got questioned by a handful of these students, but as we moved on to Kusaga Taisha Shrine, our fan base grew ever larger, as we must have signed our name for about fifty or sixty students each! Ah, the infamy!
Kasuga, was a shrine bedecked with more lanterns than Halloween in small town America - speaking of which, when you're in a country with not so many Western tourists, you can sense those from across the Atlantic well before others, as their know-it-all loud attitude makes its way towards you several moments before they do. Anyway, back to Kasuga, the lanterns were along the paths, looking like ornate gravestones, I can't imagine how impressive it must be when they are all lit. Our respite from the school kids was only achieved by entering the sacred part of the shrine to look closer at the metal lanterns all lined in rows and at the central housing of Kasuga - once again the peace and tranquility of these shrines never ceases to amaze me, even though the hubbub of the crowds
Himeji Koko-en
Ornamental gardens in the outer grounds of Himeji Castle in the main area is only metres away.
Having walked our feet off through Himeji and Nara, we made our way into the town of Nara for something to eat and we both enjoyed a delicious meal of pork cutlets with spring onion and rice, served with Miso soup, very simple and incredibly filling. The waitress did have explain that we move the different parts of the dinner into the supplied empty bowl to eat from, chuckling away at our ignorance - still we have become more adept at using the chopsticks. We have still yet to have raw fish on our journey so far, but that has been mainly due to the fact that it isn't as easy to find as you would think, as you see there are more McDonalds & KFC than sushi bars.
So that was our bumper day in Himeji & Nara. Hope you are enjoying these blogs and until next time it's cheerio from Kyoto!
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Helen
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Day 7
Hi, the day 7 photos are amazing, gorgeous. I see you are still attracting alot of fans on your trip, and quite rightly of course! Bizarre there are more fast food places than authentic japanese eateries, still that seems typical nowadays! Keep enjoying the experience.