We had a early Starbucks start and headed for Kyoto station, boarding a shinkansen for the 1 hour journey to Himeji.
Himeji is known for its famous white castle, which is long declared as the one must-see castle in Japan. It is also called the White Heron Castle as it is said to resemble a white heron just poised to take flight. The castle is visible from the train as it pulls into the train station. Once off the train, we followed the signs for the correct exit out of the station. Its a straight walk down from the station, taking about 15 minutes.
We crossed the bridge and entered the castle grounds.
On entering the castle complex, there are two walks indicated on the brochures and signs, one being longer than the other. We decided to opt for the shorter walk that headed straight for the main castle, rather than the circuitous one that took in battlements and look out points as well.
We stopped at the interestingly named Harakiri Point. A peaceful site today, it was where traitors and others were left to commit ritual seppuku.
We were finally at the base of the castle. On entering, we had to take off our shoes and put on the usual one size fits all slippers for the trip to the top.
The climb to the top of the castle is up wooden steps. Its six levels of climbing, and at each level there are exhibits about the history of the castle, such as this one, showing samurai armour.
At the top, one is rewarding with great views of the city and surroundings. The first picture below shows the walk from the train station.
We descended the six levels and made our way out of the castle and then followed the white walls to exit the complex.
Our next stop was Koko-en gardens, which are next to the castle. However, one has to come out all the way from the castle to the main road,bear right and then walk about 5-6 minutes to the entrance.
Koko-en was easily one of our favourite gardens. Its manageable in size, has a well laid out and signed path, has beautiful Japanese settings, and best of all, no crowds. It comprises 9 different gardens, ranging from seedlings, to flowering bushes (that were not flowering at this point), to pine trees, ponds, teahouses, the works. Highly, highly recommended.
We started off with the largest garden which was laid out for the top lord, and it was spectacular with a waterfall, koi ponds, japanese bridges, an overhanging walkway leading to the tea house, and beautiful foliage.
We moved on to see the other gardens.
After finishing Koko-en, we decided to head for Shosha-san, which is a little off the beaten track for most tourists who end up leaving Himeji as soon as they have covered the castle, and maybe the garden. We were hoping to find a little peace and quiet away from hordes of tourists. We crossed the road from the gardens and spend a couple of minutes looking for the bus stop. We took bus no. 8 all the way to the last stop, which is the Shosha Cable Car stop. The ride took about 30 minutes.
We took the Mt. Shosha cable car up. The ride lasts about 5-6 minutes.
We were very pleasantly surprised to find a small internal bus service to ferry people up to the main shrine. We were anticipating a couple of hours of uphill slogs so this was truly welcome. It costs about Y 1000 per person for the return trip.
We got dropped off near the main shrine which boasts a wonderful overhanging balcony.
The view from the overhanging balcony is filled with green trees and shrubs.
We then walked towards the main courtyard to see the three great halls. Its a lovely short walk through some beautiful forests. There is truly a sense of peace and tranquility that fills the space, and it comes as a breath of fresh air after being surrounded by throngs of tourists all the time. This is exactly what we were hoping to find when we decided to come here.
We reached the main compound housing three beautiful halls, which were used to film some scenes from the film "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe.
The compound is bordered on three sides by three structures. This is the first one, which was not open.
The second structure in the compound was also closed for viewing.
The third structure in the compound called the Jikido, was the only one open for viewing. It functioned as a school and dormitory for young monks. The schooling was done at the lower level while the dormitory was situated on the upper level.
The presiding monk was patiently showing photographs of the filming of some scenes from "The Last Samurai". He would show a photo and then show the real location to all tourists. He was really quite sweet.
A good view of the compound from the upper floor which houses old relics and statuary.
We walked back to the internal bus drop off point near the main shrine and were dropped back to the upper cable car station. We took the cable car and then the bus to return to the station, and then the shinkansen back to Kyoto.
It had been a fairly busy day, so we did not want to do any more major sightseeing. We hung around Kyoto station itself and browsed through the underground mall there called Porta, which also has many cafes and restaurants, way better choice than the Cube, I thought. We had a great meal at Capricciosa before heading back to the hotel.
