An Escapade in Japan -- Part 8

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Himeji Castle, Himeji

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My notes for 25th Feb, consist of the following :
1) Check out of the hotel and come to Kyoto station
2) Put the luggage in the station locker.
3) Take the train to Nara
4) See Todaiji Temple and Park
5) Come back to Kyoto for luggage.
6) Travel to Tokyo on JR Pass (Might see Fuji on left if you are lucky)
7) Take a taxi to the hotel

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However, we already had visited Nara the previous day and had also decided by now that we will be visiting the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Western Kyoto and enjoy the tea-ceremony with the Geishas in a grove of flowering plum trees and also shop at the flea-market.

The idea of spending the time with Geishas in the romantic setting of a plum-tree-grove was very appealing to me. From the movies (Memoirs of a Geisha) and books, I had formed a sort of notion that a Geisha’s art is part song, part dance and part witty conversation and mind you, NOTHING more. Her heart too is ruled by the love of the Japanese culture, love for her ‘danna’ and love for the country.

Kyoto has the dubious distinction of being the Geisha capital of the world. Its geishas are supposed to be the most cultured, well-trained and well-versed in the geisha arts.

So, no wonder that I was quite eager to go to Kitano Tenmangu.

The rains poured water on our plans. (This is a direct translation of a Marathi phrase, the meaning of which is quite clear.) They may not hold the tea-ceremony since it was supposed to be in open.

Avinash is a totally unromantic person and pointed out to me that there won’t be any song and dance at the tea-ceremony and the ‘witty conversation’ part would be in Japanese.

“What is so great about making tea anyway? In all likelihood, it will be just a boring 2-3 hours of green-tea-making and the tourists would be yawning and wishing it to be over.” He said.

“2-3 hours? I make tea in 2 minutes flat.” I exclaimed. With my method of boiling water, milk, tea and sugar together in a pot and pouring it through a sieve, it should not take more time than that.

I promptly lost all interest in the tea-ceremony exactly as was the intention of Avinash.

He still wanted to visit Himeji Castle instead.

I worked out the logistics of Himeji visit and found that it was possible to do it. We weighed the pros and cons of keeping the luggage in a coin-locker at the Kyoto station against keeping it at the hotel and coming back to the hotel to get it, before we left for Tokyo.

We had observed that even though Kyoto station has a large number of lockers, the number of large lockers is small and generally not available.

We decided to check out, keep the luggage in the hotel lobby and come and get it after our Himeji visit.

Accordingly, we took the shuttle to Kyoto station, reserved our seats for the next train to Himeji, cancelled and re-reserved our seats for the Tokyo train and also reserved our tickets to Nikko from Tokyo for 26th Feb. and were on our way to Himeji. With the JR-Pass, you can travel like royalty on the Japan Railways. Their computerized reservation system is fantastic. Of course, I had a printout of the trains that we wanted to take and it helped in the reservation process.

We got down at Himeji and there the castle stood in the middle distance beckoning us like a beacon on the stormy seas. (This is just a metaphor, mind you. It was a rainy day but not stormy. I just liked the sentence that I had composed and decided to let it stay.)

I had read that it is also called ‘The White Heron’ castle because of its white exterior walls. Strangely, our photos show that not only the color but its shape is also like a flying heron with upswept wings.

This castle is more like a ‘Bhuikot Killa’ i.e. flatland fort of Maharashtra rather than elegant, effeminate castle of a shogun with its gardens and ponds and grove of plum-trees and golden paintings. In fact, there in nothing effeminate about this castle with features meant for defense as well offense - the moat, the strong walls, the labyrinthine approach, the placement of guns and holes for dropping stones on the heads of the enemy.

Up and up you go along six flights of steep stairs of donjon keep (Balekilla) huffing and puffing and wondering why would anyone in their right minds would want to attack this place and climb up fighting the defenders, till you reach the top story and look through the windows. Then you understand why they wanted to do it.

It must have been a great feeling for the victor to thump his chest and proclaim aloud “I Am The King Of The Castle”.

Himeji is easily the tallest structure in the vicinity if you discount the smoke-belching chimney-stacks of the factories on the horizon.

Each story has nails on the walls to hang the weapons though the weapons and armor are at present encased in glass cabinets.

The armor strongly reminded of ‘The Last Samurai’ and in fact parts of the movie were shot on location here.

At the foot of the castle we saw the words “Harakiri-Maru” and a lot of steps led down a dark passage.
I was too tired to go down since I know that you have to climb the same number of steps to come up again but Avi could not resist the temptation. He went down to take the photos.

A couple of young teen-age girl tourists came and read the words ‘Harakiri-Maru’.

Immediately, one of them decided to act out the last moments of a harakiri and asked the other to take photos of her grotesque expressions as she used her umbrella as a prop. It represented a sword, or a knife or hatchet according to her fancy.

I must say she did quite a good job of the pantomime, actually surpassing Jim Carrey in “The Mask” in his “Dying Western hero’ role.

I could not help laughing and this made the girls shy and they scampered down the steps.

So far, I had seen only the serious side of Japanese people. They are always nice and polite, do not talk much, when the talk, they talk in low whispers, walk fast but in measured strides, observe queues and all in all, are quite a sober and disciplined people.

However, it was amusing to know that teen-age Japanese girls are just as flippity, irreverent and irrepressible as teenage girls anywhere in the world.

Avi came back and described the Harakiri-Maru to me. I would rather spare the readers the gory, gruesome details.

What is a feudal castle without a ghost-story? Here I give one.

Okiko, a maid-servant, saved her master when a retainer conspired to kill him. The retainer took revenge by stealing one of the treasure dinner-plates and said, Okiko had broken it. She was put to death and thrown in this well and then started haunting it. People could hear Okiko counting the dishes every night "One dish, two dishes" etc.

"Oh, my God, if I were to die every time I broke a dinner-plate, I will have to be reborn a thousand times." I thought with horror.

As Avinash’s military urgings were satisfied, we came back to Kyoto and took the shuttle to the hotel.

I still had yen (literally and figuratively) for that peach kimono and dragged Avi to the shop only to see it still closed, while other shops were open. We tried the other shops but did not find a kimono that I liked.

Thus was lost my opportunity to own a classic piece of sartorial elegance. I felt like kicking myself.

I consoled myself with the thought that it being a Work of Art, would have ended in a showcase at home. I could not have ‘used’ it till it fell apart.

But it was ‘sour grapes’ all the same.

I did not have much time to lament over the lost opportunities anyway, so we just took our luggage to the Kyoto station and boarded the ‘shinkansen’ i.e. Bullet Train for Tokyo.

We did not see Mount Fuji as it was already dark.

At Tokyo, we took the taxi to Toyoko Inn, our home for the next five days. This is a wonderful hotel-chain, conveniently located and reasonably priced.

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Photos

Himeji Castle
The 'white heron castle', Himeji. Can you see the beak and head of the heron to the left and the upswept wing of a heron in the main castle?

Aspot of color
The castle walls enlivened by a spot of color in the stark winter barrenness.

Some evergreens
Some evergreens with some bare trees at Himeji

Himeji Castle
Dark and light evergreens with Himeji in the background

The sixth story is not seen here
Only five stories are seen here. The sixth is hidden.

View of Himeji town
View of the moat and Himeji town from the castle

A model of Himeji
A model of Himeji castle and Himeji town

Okiko's well
It has a 'ghost legend' associated with it