On Saturday I visited Himeji Castle - my first true tourist activity in Japan. Heather and I just checked it out on our own (without a tour guide), so I'll just summarize what Lonely Planet has to say about: It's the most magnificent of the Japanese castles. It was built in 1580 and enlarged 30 years later. (It's called the White Heron castle and the White Egret castle in different brochures. I'm not sure which it is, since these are clearly different birds, and I've seen both of them in the river here - although the heron is decidedly more blue than white... So whatever!)
The castle is 7 stories high and we climbed the stairs with all the Japanese tourists. Everyone had to take off their shoes when entering the castle, so it was quite amusing to walk through a historical site barefoot! The castle itself was rather bare inside, just a few museum type cases and empty rooms. From the top floor, there were great views of the city. The photo from the top shows the boulevard in downtown Himeji and the big bus station in the distance. The castle grounds are extensive and there is a huge moat around the castle. The castle is lit up at night - on Saturday night we went to a beer garden on top of a building downtown - great views of the castle!
No comments:
Post a Comment