Another good-looking day, but after yesterday’s effort, Jane needed a bit of a rest, so we gave ourselves a lie-in. We slept until about 8:30 and weren’t out of the apartment until around 9:30.
It was only a short walk to Kyoto Station, where we picked up our JR tickets to Himeji. This was going to be our bullet train experience for the trip. We reserved seats, and to my amazement, there was a train about every 20 minutes.
The journey was going to take roughly an hour and twenty minutes, with a stop on the edge of Osaka along the way. The train pulled slowly out of Kyoto, then we could feel it picking up speed. There wasn’t a speed indicator, but my phone was telling me our average speed was over 160 kilometres an hour. Not bad! The scenery beside us flashed past.
It was a very smooth, quiet ride, and the seats were comfortable enough for Jane to fall asleep. Surprisingly, within about 20 minutes we’d pulled into Osaka. People quickly hopped on and off, and away we went again.
We sped along above the houses on a raised track, occasionally plunging into the darkness of a tunnel before emerging again among the mountains. An interesting experience, and sure enough, we pulled into Himeji right on time.
As soon as we stepped out of the station, we could see the castle in the distance. From what I understood, its history went back more than a thousand years, and it had survived the Second World War without being bombed. There it was, with its keep and surrounding buildings still standing—a wonderful sight.
We strolled up through the mall towards it. Surprisingly, a lot of the shops were still closed, and some would still be closed when we came back for a late lunch. After about 20 minutes’ walking, we reached the castle entrance. The tour buses were parked well down the street rather than near the castle, and there weren’t many of them.
We got our tickets and headed in, noticing there weren’t many souvenir shops near the building. What we hadn’t realised was that there were no lifts—just steps! It was quite a climb even to reach the basement where we started, before working our way up through all seven floors.
At the top, we were rewarded with great views of the city below. We took our time coming back down.
The winding paths, steep steps and defensive walls made it clear how difficult it would have been to reach the keep as an attacker. Once inside, we soon realised it was best to stick to the route or we’d get lost ourselves!
What struck me was that the castle itself was the keep, with the living quarters in the surrounding buildings. As I understood it, the keep was somewhere safe to retreat to during an attack, with weapons and supplies to see out a long siege. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be on the attacking side.
All in all, a beautiful building and one of the treasures we loved exploring.
Coming out of the castle, it was a simple walk along the moat to Koko-en Gardens. From what I gathered, the gardens had been a place for the castle’s gentry to relax. I understood they’d been replaced by army barracks before the Second World War, that the barracks were heavily bombed, and that archaeological work in the 1960s led to the gardens being rebuilt in the early 1970s.
We spent a good hour there. Jen was rather tired after all the climbing in the castle, so she sat in one of the gardens under the wisteria and maple trees, with a chance to contemplate and relax, while I explored some of the others. A great way to spend the afternoon.
It was about 1:30 when we came out and started thinking about what to do next. We slowly wandered back down the mall, looking in a few shops, and came across a little Japanese burger place. Only this wasn’t your usual burger lunch!
There was a big beef patty, which I reckoned had a bit of pork mixed in for some fat, served in a frying pan with chips and a little broccoli. Alongside it came separate bowls of salad, rice and miso, plus a very nice sweet, cold dessert that seemed to be made with fermented rice.
All that for about $12.00 each. We loved that lunch!
We made it back to the station at about 2:30 to catch the bullet train home. By just after 4:00, we were back in Kyoto and could take a leisurely walk to our accommodation. We relaxed for a while, then headed to the mall for dinner.
