Day 7 — Storming Himeji Castle

Thursday greeted us with familiar chilly winds and cloudy grey skies. On the agenda today was a brief day trip to the city of Himeji, which was a quick 40~ minute Shinkansen ride from Osaka.

Himeji is famous for Himeji Castle, Japan’s finest example of feudal castle Architecture. There were hundreds of tourists streaming towards the castle, which was visible as soon as we got out of the station.

Himeji Castle is especially beautiful in the sakura season, but Japan’s cherry blossoms were beginning to wane — petals were beginning to fall and fresh green leaves were starting to emerge in most sakura trees.

That said, we were still fortunate to enjoy the splendour of Himeji Castle and cherry blossoms while we were there!

Himeji Castle was built in 1333 and had undergone various expansions until it arrived in its current form, which is said to look like a white heron taking flight.

Himeji Castle had been undergoing restoration work for several years and had only just reopened to the public in late March.

Peak travel season and an iconic Japanese tourist attraction meant extremely long lines. We waited for almost an hour before we were allowed in.

Being in line had some benefits, namely that we were allowed plenty of time to admire Himeji Castle’s dazzling white walls and metallic looking roof tiles. It was one of the most beautiful Japanese structures we had laid our eyes on.

Himeji had some pretty cool bits of historical trivia to it, for example, it survived the heavy bombing of the city during World War 2 — pretty remarkable fact since most of the city was levelled by American bombers.

Truth be told, the interior was far less interesting than viewing the castle from the outside. There were some interesting points of interest such as these weapon racks, secret hiding places and even an ancient toilet but it was mostly bare.

And filled with too many tourists for its own good. Congestion, rude Chinese tourists who seemed incapable of queuing up made the inside journey a poor one.

You had to climb countless staircases to get to the highest floor which held a small Shinto Shrine of sorts. Slowly trudging up clogged and steep staircases was not fun.

You did get some pretty good views of her castle grounds and the city of Himeji at the top, which was a small consolation.

Here’s the view of the train station (at the end of main street) and a large field where people were Hanami-ing away under the fading cherry blossoms.

To be completely honest, I felt that Himeji Castle was much better experienced from the outside than it was on the inside. If we had known that we had to fight through hordes of tourists to get to the top, we simply wouldn’t have bothered.

We did get to visit Kokoen Garden, which was situated next to the castle which was absolutely gorgeous.

The Japanese are really good at landscaping and creating beautiful and serene places to chill out and enjoy a bowl of warm green tea. There was a small Tea house within Kokoen Garden where we partook in some green tea and yummy wagashi!

We got to enjoy some Himeji-shaped candy at the shops outside the castle grounds which was yummy.

I also managed to find my favourite cheap Japanese ice cream brand, seventeen ice! Best 140 Yen you will ever spend after extended sightseeing journeys!

An easy going day with not too many activities packed in! We had our first fancy Japanese Sushi dinner at Harasho in the evening, so we didn’t want to tire ourselves too much!