Traveling Pains: Himeji Castle: Walk, Run, or Ride the Bus

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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Traveling Pains: Part 2

21:00 hours and getting later. It was probably around 9:30 by the time we decided to leave the airport for home. Both of us tired and grouchy. It was a long train ride back. When we got to our station, there were no more buses going to our school so we had to ride a taxi back. It was my first time riding a taxi (to my knowledge) and I don’t even remember much of it, I was so tired. Finally, home… already after midnight.

We got up early the next morning because that night before we returned home I had already decided we “were” going to do this trip. This would probably be our last chance to go on any sort of lengthy trip anywhere and I wasn’t going to let it pass. We were taking the Shinkansen!

So if you have never done it, which I hadn’t, the Shinkansen is amazing for long distance. It is a really fast bullet train. If you are scared of flying, but want a similar experience without getting off the ground and maybe taking twice the time (trust me that’s not a lot more time compared to other methods. I’ll tell you about our return trip later, but I’ll just say “9 hours”,) then the Shinkansen is the way to travel. Cost wise it was a little more than plane tickets at around 16,000ish yen or 145ish dollars to ride, but in exchange we didn’t have to worry about a lot of things. We didn’t have to reserve tickets, just buy them as we got on. We didn’t have to go all the way to an airport, just a semi large train station (way more of those.) We didn’t have to fight for a seat, they are all accounted for (not a plane problem, more a train problem. On the other hand, plane problem-wise, there were so many empty seats.) You don’t have to worry about luggage weight, or cost for having extra, although carrying it is all on you because everything is carry-on. And the view is way better. In a plane, you see it from way up as it slowly drifts by, but in the Shinkansen you really feel the speed as buildings zip past at really high speeds. Even trying to take pictures was hard because I had to set the shutter speed really high in order for everything to not be blurred.

Obviously I loved riding the Shinkansen, and I didn’t care that I had to sacrifice a 1-hour flight for a two-hour train ride.

Noon.

We arrived in Himeji. What? Himeji? I thought you guys were visiting your friend in Osaka?

Ok so, yes we were planning on going to Osaka the first day, but that was because we were planning to stay the night at her place and hang out with her in the evenings, but during the day we were going to run around to all kinds of nearby cities. One of the cities we had been considering early on before this trip was Himeji, but there was only one thing we really wanted to see there so it had been scrapped. Now that our first day had been reduced to less than half a day, we decided to add the half-day-jaunt through Himeji castle to the trip. And I’m so glad we did.

Himeji-jo or Himeji castle was amazing, like no really truly amazing. We didn’t know about very many locations to go to in most of the places we went because we didn’t have time to really plan ahead, but the list of places we should go only listed here in Himeji, and I can guess why. As soon as you leave the station it is the first thing you see, and everything else around just disappears after you’ve seen it.

In the distance a large white castle with a brilliantly cloud filled sky, framed by the building in the town leading straight for the castle, nothing to stop or distract you from wanting to just run straight for it like a little kid… except for the long walk.

Next time: Himeji Castle; Walk, Run, or Ride the Bus.