Hello
Everyone, and Welcome back to Stir-Fried Tango.
Last time we had just made it to the station near Himeji-jo also known as
Himeji Castle and I was looking down the road toward the castle as the
buildings framed it and just showed us the clear path there. We grabbed a quick
snack (who needs lunch when there is a giant castle sitting out there) and
swapped out our luggage in a coin locker about 5
times until we had what we actually wanted to carry for the rest of the
day. 2500 yen in a 500-yen coin locker later we started heading for the castle.
Christine asked the people at the information counter about what the best way
to get there was and they told us that we should ride
the bus because it would take about 25 minutes to walk there and the
castle would be closing soon. Too bad I didn’t ask "how soon."
We headed
out for the bus stop and started waiting thinking the bus would be there soon,
then I checked the time. This bus only ran every 30
minutes exactly and I had just missed it… by
1 minute! Ok so 30 minutes for a bus (and then the time to get there,)
or a 25-minute walk. 25-minute walk it is
since it closes soon. I walked down the street until I saw a few obviously English speaking people that would know a
little about the castle. I say “obviously” because of their tall stature, white
skin, and giant camera hanging off of their neck like one of the chains that
hold Jacob Marley down in “A Christmas Carol,” not because I heard them
speaking English or because they were walking away from the castle. Christine
asked them what time the castle closed (it was around 3 something then) and
they told us 4.
As I was running to the castle I remembered that I
didn't bring my inhaler with me. One of the many things left in the locker. No
time to care, give me the castle or give me
death (or both?.) I made it to the castle gates out of breath but with
plenty of time (take that 25-minute walk) and entered the castle grounds. What I saw next took my breath away, either
that or the asthma did, don’t remember quite which. The castle… didn’t close until 5.
Why? Why
me? Oh my air. Did
I mention Christine won't run? I think it was mentioned by "Jedimaester" in the comments.
From the
castle gates you walk into the open castle grounds leading to a large white
castle sitting atop a hill. The walls surrounding the castle spread out all the
way around us so far that even shooting a panoramic shot on my widest lens
could not even take it all in. a trail along the big open field, I mean castle
grounds, ran along the nearest wall all the way to the first layer of
surrounding walls and another set of large gates leading up to the castle.
There were trees along the sides of the grounds separating it from the paths,
and while the sad trees were lacking in beauty at the time, I could tell that
in a few weeks when everything was in full bloom this place would be as breath taking as my asthma.
It only
cost about 500 yen ($4.25?) to enter the castle so of course I was going. When
you enter you follow a steady trail up through several
layers of walls all the way to the castle and around almost every corner
you get another spectacular view of the
castle itself until you finally get inside. At the door you have to take off
and carry your shoes while you go through the inside (don’t worry if they are
dirty, they give you a plastic bag.) This is where the climbing starts… and keeps going… and going up several
flights of stairs all the way to the top of the castle and then all the way
back down. Don’t worry, the view is worth it even if your camera doesn’t seem
to take the same pictures you see in your head. I would even tell you to still
try and take pictures through the thick stone window openings. Who knows, it
may come out.
So a
little about this beautiful spectacle, Himeji-jo. This beautiful castle's
construction happened sometime around 1330, actually starting as a fort. OMG
that’s old. Maybe ten times older than my grandparents. Were there still
dinosaurs around then? So yeah, I said "fort" because there was some
fort there, but then some ruler's son was like "hey who needs a fort? I
want a castle." Now, the part that made me feel happy. The castle wasn't
completed until around 1560 (Take that you bratty
kid.) One of the next owners added a three story keep in about 1580, and
not long after in about 1600, it got remodeled. Why? Son one else's son (Well
really son-in-law) decided to tear the whole keep down and rebuild the castle.
Sadly this was built and expanded, with awesome moats and fire breathing dragon, in about 10 years (Bratty kids!) The castle stayed basically the
same getting passed from one person to the next (I think a lot of people were
dying.) Someone added a few new building including a tower for their
daughter-in-law (These kids!) Afterwards,
there were many destruction attempts on the castle's life, and yet somehow it
came out mostly unscathed. Someone tried to develop the land after buying the
castle for about $2,000 (heck I would buy
it for that,) but fortunately couldn't destroy it because it cost way too much
to destroy. Also during WWII a bomb hit the castle, but again it was blessed
with a dud. Thus we have this amazing castle.
While
wondering around the castle I heard the announcement that the castle would
close at 4:30 (yes I was confused too.) So this is when we found out the castle
actually stopped people from entering at 4:30 but didn’t kick people out until
5? And the castle grounds didn’t close until 5 (so really 5:30 because it was 5
when we left, but there were still a lot of people inside,) so people could
still take pictures of the castle itself while the sun set. At this point I was
starting to wear out from lack of food and a little concerned about our time
because we were supposed to meet Eriko at Sakai station in Osaka. We pigged out
on a source of electrolytes (I’m a little ashamed to say where) and started to
head back, again riding the Shinkansen.
Remember
all of the wonderful things I said about
the Shinkansen? I don’t take them back, but the second trip was a little less awe-inspiring. Why? Because the first time
we were riding in reserved seats. I don’t
know why my seat ended up being reserved, maybe they thought I was a silly foreigner that should pay more and gave
me those ones on the way from Tokyo to Himeji (I did notice that people in
Himeji seemed nicer and more considerate,) but they gave me reserved ones. This
time my tickets were in the not quite so shiny,
looks like it might be a slightly old looking,
un-reserved seats. Oh well the Shinkansen
didn’t stop being amazing.
Rocketing
past everything I soon arrived in Osaka where once again I played musical
trains until I finally made it to the right station (give me another week and
I’m sure I can tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street.) I exited the
station out of the wrong exit, walked all the way around to the other side of
the station and finally, we met up with Eriko.
Osaka At Last!
At this
point all I could think about was sleep. We went back to her place and stayed
up for a little while catching up but soon sleep caught up to me and I was…
Next time:
Nara; Oh deer!
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