Himeji Castle Day Trip From Osaka Vlog | Japanese Street Food Festival | Cherry Blossom Season
[Music] Hey guys, John here. Just want to give a quick shout out for our second channel, Kanto House. There we do a lot of home vlogs, tech content. I do a lot of guides on the Nintendo Switch, too, as well as house DIY setups. And Sarah also posts her cooking shorts on there. Please give us a subscribe. We’re trying to grow the second channel. And yeah, thanks again for watching. The train. This is the Hamakaz one to taking it to Hamei. [Music] Well, don’t even need to look that far. It’s just straight ahead from the station entrance. Isn’t that amazing? That’s so cool. All right, we just took the bullet train from Osaka to Hamemedi and we are here. It is almost 9:00 a.m. in the morning. Yes, it is windy today. Cold. I’m glad it’s a clear day and I’m glad to see him castle in the distance. Um, but we’re going to find some food first. the shopping arcade mall here. It’s actually pretty quiet, pretty tame. Um, and Poppy Sauce is probably just down there so far. Yeah, it’s been pretty quiet so far. It is a um Friday morning, so not too many tourists yet. Oh, there’s kind of a big line though. We might not be able to get in, especially with that long of a wait. Looks like we’re going to find something else. Looks like it’s beef bowl time. Beef bowl. All right, we’re going to rely on good old beef bowl beef bowl place mozza cuz we haven’t had beef bowls yet and it’s self-service. So, let’s go. Good old moatzia. Always a good backup option. Sucks. I just do a beef bowl. Yeah, there’s a lot of good options. Next page. Okay, Kimch back page. All right, which one you want? Maybe onion and salt. Sounds good to me. Should I get soup though? Yes, regular. So, not for me. I do want beef bowl. They have hamburger steak though. Interesting. They also have curry rice. They have African style curry. This other set. Tomato and chicken. Tomato and stew. Seared salmon. Interesting. That’s grilled mint. Oh, it’s just straight up Korean barbecue. Oh, what’s the what’s the difference between I don’t know rice bowl. It just has other meat. Oh, it’s beef in. Wow, they’re really branching out. Let’s do your mayo and give me give me a large. Okay, that sounds good to me. 1,800. Oh, they also have a sauce. Let’s see. sauce. Got lots of colors and also seasoning in February too. [Music] Tea. All right, our food came. What we got? I got the beef bowl with green onions and soft boiled eggs. That looks really good. Porks. Yeah. And then they also have brown rice tea. Oo. And I got the beef bowl with cheese on top and also the pork soup. And I got it in large portion. So it’s slightly more. But yeah, let’s eat. She’s not convinced on beef bowl. So let’s see if this wins her over. Looks better though. All right. All right. Give it a shot. That looks like good, too. This looks good. Look at that. It has so many things inside. How is it? the meat. That looks pretty meaty. [Music] Nice. All right, now give the beef pull. Let’s break the yolk. Here we go. That looks so good. I can’t believe this is only like 800 yen set right here. Oh my gosh. Yeah, cuz this is regular. Yeah. Get a little beef in there. Is it good? Is it yummy? I need some seasoning. M. Yeah, I mean seasoning, dude. I love the side tables. They’re just packed with seasoning. Here’s some radish. And then it’s just all right here on the table with you. The cheese isn’t quite melted yet, so I’ll let it like melt on each other. But I will try a bit of the pork. [Music] I think matzia might be my favorite out of Yoshinoya and Sukia. Yeah, I definitely think they have like they have it nailed down. We’ll try some pork soup. It’s hot. That’s good and hearty. Probably add a bit of the seasoning, but yeah, that’s really good. All right, we’re going to eat up and head off to our next stop. Found some nice souvenir shops lining the city. See if we can find a magnet. Yo, for the one compi fans. Got a little container. Puck heads are cool, too. Yo, we found a park just down the street a little bit. Look at all the soccer. This is amazing. Oh my gosh. Just It’s just like a big open park and it’s free. Yo, avoid all the soccer crowds, man. just come here. And look, see the castle in the back. Yeah, we came at the perfect time during blooming season right now. Oh, it’s so nice. You know, these are true sucker when it’s more like white than pinkish cuz the really pinkish ones are like plum or other varieties, but this is like amazing. It’s white. H. And this only lasts maybe a couple weeks at best until they all fall down. So enjoy it while it lasts. Especially if you come to a cool park like this. All right, we’re approaching the castle grounds now. And as you get closer, there’s going to be some rick shaw riders. And there it is, the entrance to Hameji. We might check out one more restaurant while we’re waiting for friends. And I think it’s around the corner. pop by one of the gift shops right before me. And look, we found our magnet. Very nice. Yes, they also have some other merch, too, if you want to look around. Honestly, a lot of the merch is really cool. Look, there’s a nano blog up Castle and you can see it right here. Dude, the foil would look so much better. The foil looks good, though. I’m down to get it if you want it. Wait, the shop is literally in front of Kameji Castle. That’s so funny. Oh my gosh, it’s just right out the door. So goodly placed. Some bento box restaurants. More souvenir shops and gift shops just along the sidewalk right before the crossing to uh I think one of the restaurants I put down the list was like around here too. Um but maybe you just sit and eat with a view. There is a food stall looking festival going on right before the intersection to Hamemedi. Look at this. It’s so pretty with the Sakura. Mhm. So cool. Ooh, we got some choco banana. This looks good. What else do we have? Get some taco yaki. Got they got the got some mochi over there. Moi got some fried food right here. Got some games. And the Korean corn dog is here, too. They’re everywhere. got some buns. It’s like fried wrapped bacon. Got some coobe beef skewers over there. Some corn. More takoyaki. Oh, there’s different choco banana. We got to get a choco banana gift shop. Ooh, a strawberry. You want to try your fancy strawberry? No, I’m good. [Music] Sweets. Oh, so mochi. Oh, look. I want to try that. They have the mochi here. Look at that. I think that’s the thing I want you to try. That’s the red bean mchi that you see. Yeah. Try one. We can try once. Or like the pancake. But the red bean kind of like pancake with the red bean. That’s so cool. All right, we’re going to get one. Wow. They just have more and more food stalls. It’s all locals here, too. But barely any tourists. And they have seating area and everything. They even got sushi and ramen. Oh my god. This is like a proper Japanese festival. Yoza fried foods more. [Music] Honestly, all this food here looks so good. Oh my gosh, I’m so happy we stumbled upon a random Japanese festival. There’s even a band playing up there, too. even more stuff. Lot of soda. That’s so cool. Got some yaki soba. All right. 600 yen for some classic yaki soba. That’s street food. Got a yuzu soda pop for 150 yen. And what you finally got your thing? this red bean like pancake thing. How much was it? It took so long. How much was it? It was 110 yen. And dude, the lady behind me spoke to me in Japanese. And I think she was complaining about the guy in the front cuz he was holding the line. We get one of those chocolate bananas. Probably the green one for about 600 yen. 400 yen. Yay. Choco banana. But it’s green. Uh, I’m living out my Japan festival arc right now. Okay. Here is the red bean. Um, I don’t know what it’s actually called. I’m just going to call like a red bean pancake thing. Mhm. Um, yaki soba. Got some yaki soba. Classic street food. Choco banana in green flavor. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s any different from just food color, but I really just want to try a choco banana. And then I got a yuzu soda pop for 150. All right. We are going to eat up at the festival. All right. S’s going to give the red bean pancake pastry a try. It’s fresh. How is it? Oh my god. Yeah. Better than like some of the other ones we had actually. Nice. And it’s freshly made, too. Yeah. Probably cuz it is fresh. All right, got to give the yuzu soda pop a try. That’s good. Imagine a Sprite, but this is more yuzu. Ooh, that’s a good aftertaste. I really like this. I want to try the yakisoba. That’s a good portion. She fried it up in front of me, too. Oh, I’ve been craving yakisoba. Here we go. I mean, what can I say? If you love like yakisoba, I guess even like I guess low men, but like this is street food, it’s good. It’s not like super oily. It’s cheap, too. I can’t complain. I wish there was a little bit more sauce, though. I know there’s sometimes they got kizoba sauce. Choco banana time. I feel like it’s going to taste very like artificial. It’s good. The banana is kind of fried. M. It’s just the outer layering that’s like chocolate. Oh, that’s not like strong chocolate. Is it like minty chocolate? No, it’s very subtle. Oh, I don’t think that’s better than I thought. It doesn’t taste that artificial at all. Okay. All right. We are going to enjoy this festival. Wait for our friends to come. [Music] The band starting to play the school band. And it looks like we just caught the festival and it’s only here 445 and 46 [Music] playing some anime songs. It’s awesome. Boy, they’re playing the YMCA here at a Japanese local festival. Oh, they’re doing the motions on stage, too. Only two of them. They even know what the YMCA is over here. And here we have the local Japanese local. Here soft serve from a stall for 200 yen. Want to open it? Are you okay? I feel like I’m going to break it like break the cuz it’s like slanted right now. Got to open it. Oh, okay. There you go. Nice. You take a first bite. Oh, this is good ice cream. [Music] Oh, it’s kind of hard. Has it melted yet? How’s the Hokkaido soft? Fine. Oh, it’s like vanilla or milky. Creamy. Creamy. Very creamy. Very hard. Yeah. It’s cute. Milky creamy. M. That’s good. Yummy. Very long. Long long. Look at this. Is longer than Alan’s head. How’s the long long fries? It’s good. It tastes like real potato. Real Japanese potato, ladies and gents. I’m back at the souvenir stall. Actually wanted one of the ice creams cuz they were here. Look, they got sakura mochi flavor, matcha, vanilla, strawberry cookies. I got soda, though. I just love Japanese soft serve ice cream. They’re done so well. Got ice cream, soda. It looks good. Mhm. Tastes like ramen. That’s good. It is now hameji time. Crossing the bridge to the castle. Dang, a lot of soccer here. That’s really cool. And there she is. Aji Castle in all of its glory in front of the park. Wow. [Music] Everyone’s trying to get that shot. Look at this. Look at this guy. He’s trying his hardest to get in between the pedals. [Music] Wow. We’re at Himei. Look right here. And it’s so pretty with all of the sakura. Yeah, this park is pretty huge. And we took a lot of photos. There soccer around too. Um mixture of tourists and locals. But yeah, it’s awesome. I am glad that it’s like open space here so you’re not just like shoulderto-shoulder with everyone. Yeah. And it’s open to the public, too. You don’t need to pay to get into this park area. Um we’re going to try to walk a little bit up there a bit. We don’t know how far we’ll go. We won’t go in the castle cuz I’ve heard repeatedly that the view is much better appreciated outside and I don’t want to be shoulderto-shoulder inside crawling up ladders and alleyways and stuff. U but yeah, we’ll see what we can do. [Music] Well, here’s the ticket booth, but we don’t think we’re going to go in. But right in front of the castle, there’s some really pretty Sakura in the backdrop of the castle. Well, there’s the castle wall right there. Just scale it. Just scale it up. It’s rock climbing time. Rock climb. But look, there’s also another park area up here. Just up the stairs a bit. Oh, so pretty. So many people. All the locals here are actually just enjoying a picnic under the soccer blossom. get some good photo spots by the staircase. All right, that was our time at Habachi. Honestly, even if you guys don’t go in, I highly recommend if you can on the way, stop by the bullet train, do a day trip from Osaka. Um, and yeah, the park is beautiful here, especially during cherry blossom season. Yeah. And like the further into the park you go, like the more like quieter it is, too. Yeah. And I think the food festival was definitely the cherry on top. So, that was awesome for lunch. Um, but yeah, we definitely think you should make a half day trip here. I think it is well worth it. You’ll find some good food and a lot of locals and tourists coming here. And it’s for good reason. It’s an amazing castle. All right, that’ll be it for our hei adventures. Yeah, as always, please like, comment, and subscribe, and we’ll see you in the next video. See you in the next Japan vlog. [Music]
Join John and Sarah for the 27th vlog in our Japan 2025 series! We take the bullet train to Himeji from Osaka. The sakura was in full bloom during this time and was so pretty to see. We stumbled upon a local Japanese festival that was set up across the street from the castle. There were many vendors with delicious food & drinks. It is free to wander around the park area and picnic by Himeji Castle.
Watch our entire Japan ’25 series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5mDwydd3h9nNGAG2GQeUUGY-22FsWUZP&si=mFTbenDujmQniDMb
View our Wanderlog itinerary: https://linktr.ee/cantoexplorers
Watch our 2nd channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CantoHouse
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:57 Arriving at Himeji
1:54 Breakfast at Matsuya
5:40 Souvenir Shopping
7:55 Local Japanese Festival
16:16 Himeji Castle
LOCATIONS:
📍 Matsuya: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9uiA7gmvh6njXtB2A
📍 Kakiuchi Store: https://maps.app.goo.gl/innGBD3oKcVS8b3B8
📍 Otemae Park: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XXS1o1MfJD6Hsv2SA
📍 Himeji Castle: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ykyFz3TtyJgdYAVp7
MUSIC:
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New Day (Official)
Produced by Ikson
Shine (Official)
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Spring (Official)
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Taste It (Official)
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#travel #vlog #japan #japantravel #japanvlog #japanesefood #himeji #castle #daytrip #japanesefestival #souvenir #shopping #coupletravel #sakura #park
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