Himeji Castle

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We decided to take a break from the temples and take a day trip out to Himeji to see the castle there - supposedly the best one in all of Japan. It did not disappoint. It was massive, and beautiful. We walked through the women’s quarter first and then headed up to the castle itself. There were 6 or 7 floors, each with displays pertaining to the people who had ruled from here or about the construction of the castle itself. Halfway through the castle we got inundated by school groups again which put a bit of a damper on the experience, but it was still really neat.
After a late lunch, we headed to the gardens next to the castle; these were by far my favorite gardens of the trip. Everything was natural (ie, made to look like it could be naturally occurring) but was precisely placed to create a sense of peace and tranquility. I loved it. We wandered around its nine gardens, taking time to stop in each and just take it all in.

It started to rain as we finished and so we headed back towards the train station. With some time to kill before our train, we looked through shops in a covered shopping arcade and fell in love with a painting there, which we ended up buying. It is a watercolour of yellow gingko leaves, and very beautiful. I was very excited.
We took the train back to Kyoto and went to see a cultural show. It was kinda cheesy, but gave a snapshot view of some different types of art forms including the tea ceremony, music, dancing, acting and puppeteering. It was in the Gion district (the geisha district), and we actually saw some real geishas going to and from appointments with clients. The buildings themselves were beautiful, and it had a nice atmosphere.

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