Because yesterday was such a long and exhausting day, we decided to take it easy by doing a half day in Himeji to check out the castle of Himeji-jo and the gardens of Kokoen. Although we left at noon, we spent quite a bit of time at the Kyoto station getting errands done and exchanging for our new passes. I thought the JR train line would be a convienent train line so I bought the JR-West pass. Unfortunately it is not. All the local trains are convienent. I should have bought a local train pass. But JR is the best way to Himeji. It's a long train ride and we didn't get to Himeji until 2:30 PM. We did pass under the Akashi Kaikyo, the world's longest suspension bridge at 3910 meters long. It looked like a giant silver version of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.
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| Himeji-jo Castle |
Once we arrived in Himeji, we grabbed some food, leaving us with only 1.5 hrs to see both the castle and the gardens. It seems no matter what we do, we're always rushed! Probably because everything closes at 5 PM and Shane doesn't get up until 9 AM! The train ride to Himeji was longer than expected too. We walked along the castle grounds, seeing and reading about the technology they used. For instance, they had huge rice and water storage areas to prep for seiges. One peice of the castle wall was original. It was made of kneaded sand and clay and rice glue. The wall is hard like concrete, repels water, and is even bullet-proof, all at 400 years old! Despite being a cloudy day constantly threatening more rain, the castle was lovely and we took a jaunt up to the top to observe the nice view. We didn't linger too long because the gardens were going to be closing in less than an hour. The gardens were magnificent! We definitely could have spent the whole day just wandering those gardens! In fact, because we spent too much time at the first main garden, one of the security guards had to escort us out. He was nice enough to escort us 20 minutes before the actual closure so that we could quickly walk through all the mini gardens. What a beautiful place; we definitely could have spent more time there. After being escorted off the garden grounds, we decided to take the long train ride back to Kyoto to get home on the early side.
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| Kokoen Gardens |
Back at home, I told Shane that I am not leaving Japan without getting some sushi and since both of his roommates and mom are vegetarian, I got Shane to come with me by offering to pay for his dinner. We went to a cheap place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book next to the covered arcade. Even though it was cheap sushi (¥125 per plate), it was better than the $1.25 sushi we have around Portland! They offered one plate that was rice with a bit of mayonaise, scallop, onion, and avocado. Oh my that plate was delicious. I also liked the fact that they had bags of green tea and hot water stations every few seats so you could serve yourself free green tea. We both stuffed ourselves and the whole deal cost $20! After filling ourselves, Shane and I walked along the atmospheric Pontocho Street and then back to Sanjo along the river.
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| Delicious sushi |
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| Pontocho Street |
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| Pontocho Street |
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