Hello fellow travellers. Today is our final day in Osaka and we have selected another number one Japan destination; and the category is … Castle…Himeji Castle.
The friendly Shinkansen is helping once again.
We are the first in line, but in the wrong spot. Can you tell me why?
And now the answer to the riddle. I was standing at car # 4 of a 16 cars train. The JR pass does not include reservation. Please watch the panel …NOW!
But no drama, we are now in the right car, mobiles charging and WiFi running wild at 60 MBs.
45 min and $40 later we are arriving at our destination
Himeji castle is in walking distance, a short 15 min away, on a quite picturesque street. You can see it right from the station at the very end of the boulevard.
What you are about to see in terms of dressing is the style Kawaii, or “cute” in translation.
The millennial vloggers led you to believe that every single girl in Japan dresses like this. Well, as a matter of fact this is only the second time in two weeks when we had such an encounter. The first was in Shibuya, which is a very posh district.
I was surprised that most of the shop signs here are in French or Italian.
It feels like North America! Doesn’t it?
The castle was surrounded by three moats. The outer one is now buried and the one you see is the central moat.
The no-fly drone icon is exquisite 😇; like in most touristy places in Japan … no drones allowed… but the friendly gatekeepers are ready to join you for a photo, …free of charge 😀.
Himeji Castle is the largest in Japan. It dates from 1333 but it was reconstructed a few times. The current set of buildings dates from 1618.
The 400 years old castle survived without a scratch to both WWII and the Great Hanshin earthquake from 1995. Rumour has it, that a bottle of sake on the alter on the top floor was still standing on the table after the earthquake.
As part of the defensive strategy, a long and confusing maze of access alleys will challenge the visitor to the main keep.
The main keep has 6 floors and a basement, being almost 50 m tall. The visitor needs to struggle with the very steep and narrow stairs.
As you can see, you have to take your shoes off, put them in a bag and carry them with you.
More about the two mega-pillars in the section “Did you Know?” at the end of this video.
We made it! This is the altar on the top floor. But the bottle of sake 🍶 I previously mentioned … is gone! 👹
Going down is actually worse.
This is the famous hideout room; 13 fighters can emerge from the secret room and surprise the attackers.
After the main keep, there are a few more buildings worth a visit.
The Koko-En gardens are located outside the Himeji complex and have been constructed in …1992. It encompass nine different thematic smaller gardens and it is a place o serene contemplation, better to be left for the end of the day.
Did you know?
By size and number of visitors, Himeji is the number ONE 🥇 castle of Japan 🏯
Himeji Castle gets around 3,000,000 visitors annually 🤭
Himeji Castle 🏯 has 83 buildings and covers an area of 233 hectares or 576 acres.
The main keep has two pillars: the East one, with a base diameter of 97 cm (38) in, made of a single fir tree. The West pillar is 85 x 95 cm (33 x 37 in), and it is made of Japanese cypress.
Himeji Castle was declared in 1993 as one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites
If you enjoyed [ 😍] this episode [ 👍], please [ 🙏🏻] subscribe [ ✅] and share [ 📢] the link
AloJapan.com