Himeji

A lot of updates in quick succession as we speed through locations! Our last week in Japan will be a whirlwind as we cram in everything between Osaka and Fukuoka. Just like our visit to Nara a few days ago, we felt our half day at Himeji deserved its own post.

The number one draw here is Himeji Castle, the biggest and most visited castle in all of Japan. As soon as you leave the train station, you can see this towering landmark a mile away down the straight main street. Himeji Castle itself is known as the 'white heron castle'. It's seven storeys high, and made entirely of wood on a stone platform—in the 1950s they took the ENTIRE castle apart to renovate it before putting it back together again 😳

It was punishingly hot, but we decided to do the 20 minute walk to get there, with plenty of stops on the way. These included watching a public performance by a J-Pop teen girl group (not sure we'd want to do energetic, choreographed dance in black costumes in 34⁰C, but hey you gotta sell singles somehow).

We also stopped into the shop of a local artist Yuki Matsuoka, where Chelsea bought a 'kimono t-shirt'. He asked her the main differences between Japan and South Africa... but we didn't have five days to explain, so just said 'everything works here'.

The castle is sprawling and was never besieged or bombed, so most of it is in excellent condition following the restoration work in the 50s and 60s. It was the seat of power through the Shogunate era into the Meiji restoration, and was at times both a garrison and an administrative centre.

Today you can climb to the top of the 46m building through a series of tiny staircases through see the ladies quarters and armoury storage, evidence that the castle once housed aristocracy as well as an army (or five, depending on which Samurai was in charge at the time).

We walked back through the shaded arcade, Dan enjoyed the perspective games on the floor and we got ice creams before running for our train.Read more