A day in Himeji

We took the Hikari Superexpress Shinkansen to Himeji today. It's less than an hour from Kyoto on the fast train, travelling west through Osaka and Kobe.

We started the day well with a coffee and our new addiction: a red bean dorayaki at the Himeji train station. 

Himeji is famous for its photogenic castle, the largest and arguably the most famous feudal era castle in Japan. It was registered in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World heritage sites in the country. It's known locally as the White Heron castle because of its brilliant white exterior and its resemblance to a bird taking flight.

 Harrison Redford at Himeji Castle.........

 The castle has been intact for over 400 years, although it has gone through restorations, the most recent taking over five years from 2009 - 2015. The city of Himeji was burnt to ashes in allied bombing raids in WW2 but by a miracle the castle itself remained standing.

The peak time for visitors to this castle is during Spring when all the cherry blossoms appear. We were lucky that it was not too crowded today and no queues.

 Are these some erratic cherry blossoms appearing on this tree???

 We were able to walk up the 6 levels of the castle's (it's really a fort) main keep. The interior timber work is absolutely beautiful. The main keep is held up by two timber pillars each almost a metre in circumference. 

 This was the view out to the west keep from the top level of the main keep.

 There were many rooms devoted to weapon storage (swords?).

 And 6 levels of very steep stairs (and no shoes allowed).

 This was our view of the castle from over at the western keep.

 and this was inside the long narrow western keep.......

 All the details on this building were beautiful - a close up of the roof .......

 We loved our visit to this castle!

The area outside the castle with the moat in the background and the extensive stone walls create a good backdrop for wedding photos.

 Separate to the castle, but adjacent to it is the Koko-En gardens. The gardens were constructed in 1992 on an excavated site of samurai houses and roads. It's composed of 9 separate garden "rooms" using styles typical of the Edo period (1600-1800s). The water feature garden (The Garden of the Lord's Residence) is the largest of the 9 - and certainly has the wow factor.

 Loved this beautifully made natural fence between gardens.....

 The garden with a hill and a pond .......

 The garden of flowers.....

 What a stunning garden.......

We were looking forward to finding a lunch spot on our walk back to Himeji Station. We struck it lucky with this little spot on the first floor overlooking the main avenue. Two lovely ladies cooking homestyle soba noodle dishes - and everything delicious, light and lovely. And we negotiated everything with no shared language!

 There was a funny payment system - all push button and electronic - but with some help we worked it out!

 This was our Shinkansen arriving to take us back to Kyoto ......

 ...at around 241kmp - although it was closer to 300kmp at times! - no wonder it only takes less than an hour.

We loved our day in Himeji.