Sleepless Travels Reloaded

Chrysanthenum, Himeji-jo

We spent a day at Himeji. We thought we’d take it easy and just see the castle and its attached garden.

Himeji-jo is reputed to be the prettiest castle in Japan. Having seen the castles at Hiroshima, Nagoya, Okazaki, Kanazawa and Osaka, I think that’s probably right. It sits on a hill and is built on the slope, which is why, at some angles, the castle looks like it’s leaning. That’s why some of my photos don’t look straight >_>

There was this cool wall leading up to the main donjon. It had little rectangular and triangular holes in it which I surmise was for not only decorative but defensive purposes (to shoot arrows through?).

Find out more about Himeji-jo on the wiki here.

Because it was a Sunday, there were tons of tourists around.

You could take photos with some actors dressed up in feudal-era clothes. There’s a bunch of cafes and restaurants at the front of the castle grounds and there was a pretty good jazz band playing there that day. Oh yeah and there was a wedding in the vicinity too. The weather was great that day - not too hot and not too cold. It was bright and sunny. A lovely autumn day.

Seems like at every castle the local chrysanthenum club has a chrysanthenum display. They were HUGE! So many varieties and colours and sizes…Some were used in bonsai displays, and some were used to form sculptures.

We went to lunch after that. Went down one of the shopping arcades and got some department store bento. Originally we wanted to eat them at Koko-en but we weren’t allowed to ;_;

Koko-en was constructed on the former site of the Nishi Oyashiki (Lord’s Western Residence) and other samurai residences. It is made up of 9 separate gardens, each with a different theme. These include a tea ceremony garden, a garden imitating the countryside, a garden of bamboo and a garden of summer trees.

Even though it was autumn and the gardens looked a bit dead it was still very pretty. It’s too bad we weren’t there in spring though. There were tons of sakura trees everywhere.

Himeji-jo as viewed from the front of JR Himeji station

Himeji is on the main Sanyo shinkansen line. A main road leads from the front of JR Himeji station straight to the castle and is probably about a 20 minute walk. Don’t forget to drop by at the tourist office that will be on your right if you’re walking from the station to the castle. They offer *free* bike rental for the whole day. How trustworthy is that?!

Full-size photos, some with extra descriptions, are available in my “Japan 2007″ flickr set here.
See the rest of my Japan blog entries here.