Himeji and Home Cooking

"I turn my back to the wind

To catch my breath, before I start off again

Driven on without a moment to spend

To pass an evening with a drink and a friend"

Up and out this morning to catch a Shinkansen to Kansai! I reflected a little this morning at how the fantastic becomes mundane after a while. When we first came to Japan, we would take videos of the Shinkansen arriving and pictures of the trains and platforms. Now, we just walk to the station and get on board without much thought, and are whisked away over 360 miles in a little over three hours. 

Our first stop is the castle "town" of Himeji. Himeji is now a full-fledged city, but started as a town surrounding the castle. Getting off the train, we stowed our stuff in a locker and headed towards the castle, taking in the sights along the way. It was a Saturday, so the station and park were very lively.

The city mascot Shiromaruhime, which literally translates to
"White, round princess", was at the station, posing for pictures

Sculptures and recreations of details of the castle line the wide,
2km walk to the castle.

There was a grand opening, of sorts, this weekend on the way to the castle park. The Japanese love their historical dramas, especially centered around the Toyotomi and Tokugawa era (late 1500's through the early 1600's). There has been a long-running series called the Taiga doramas (Big River Dramas) on NHK that are year-long dramas centered around some part of Japanese history. They are melodramatic and, in my opinion, awful. That said, there is a lot of history contained in them, and they are very popular. This year's Taiga is Gunshi Kanbei, and centers around Kuroda Kanbei, chief strategist of the Toyotomi, who was from Himeji. So what do you do when a famous person from your city is the focus of an NHK drama? Why, you put up a Kuroda Kanbei Drama Museum! And how do you celebrate the opening of said museum? Why, by bringing in an Idol Squad to perform and pose for the otaku!

Teenage girls in mini-kimonos and lots of very large cameras to capture them
acting cute and flirty onstage

 I will say, the Idol girls really do work hard. They were performing for hours out in the rather warm sun and managed to actually look happy about it. The were performing before we arrived and continued, off and on, the entire time we were at the castle.

This is the most we saw of the museum, a small building just outside the castle park area.
We didn't know anything about the TV show so it would have been
wasted on us.

After a brief stop for some ice cream (it was sunny and warm again), we headed to the castle, which we could see as soon as we exited the station 2k ago

Unfortunately under construction, Himeji is the largest castle we've ever seen in Japan

Himeji is located inside a large park that is on the site of the original castle town. Various layers of walls and gates surround first the park, then the inner section of the park, then the castle itself. It is also one of the only castles to be largely original, just renovated, rather than reconstructed, as it avoided being demolished both during the Meiji Restoration and WWII. 

Outer gate details. The gold trim of the decorations is still brightly polished.

 We stopped and paid our respects to the current occupants of the castle grounds

It's kind of like being back home....we're outnumbered.

The only long-haired cat we saw having a conversation with another cat.

As we approached the inner wall leading to the castle, we saw some promotional video rehearsal featuring a bunch of employees from some company, some soccer players (World Cup!) and Shiromaruhime. All I can say is, this would NEVER happen in the US.

As we approached, we started getting a better appreciation for the size of Himeji.

Under construction until March '15, we couldn't see the inside of the castle itself

But the outer buildings and grounds were open.

Long walls with arrow holes. The holes alternate between square, circle and triangle.
Aesthetics? Strategy?

Along the west side of the castle is a long, sprawling building that follows the castle wall, that once
housed the ladies-in-waiting for the lords and ladies of Himeji, as well as some storage and defense rooms.

Two large, heavy doors on either side of the living quarters to protect all the ladies from
the evil, lustful men.

This is as close as we could get to the main castle. We'll be back when it reopens!

Next to the castle, on top of where the samurai had their living quarters, was the nishi-oyashiki-ato, a series of nine different Edo period gardens. 

Entrance gate to the garden grounds

Running water is a key to any Edo garden...

...to fill the koi pond...

...so important people can gaze at oversized goldfish

This pond is so large, there are two waterfalls that fill it

There are over 250 koi in this pond alone

Reconstruction of samurai quarters

An amazing amount and variety of dragonflies were present

in colors I've never seen.

A heron disapproving of our presence

Himeji really is a day-long excursion, with the gardens, the park, the outer buildings and, when available, the castle. We plan to return, maybe next year, and spend a day seeing the entire castle. Even the truncated tour we took today was really quite impressive. 

Back at the station, we gathered our stuff and headed to Takarazuka to meet up with Suzuki-san! She met us at the station and a with a short walk through hair salon-infested streets, we arrived at her new apartment (well, new to us. She's been there a few years, now). After settling it, she was a tireless host, serving us delicious tomato, basil and mozzarella appetizers while she cooked a wonderful meal, with more food than even we could eat!

Kanpai!

Potato soup, salad, pork croquets, corn and paella(not pictured) and amazing cheesecake for dessert!

 We spent a long time eating and catching up. Once we could eat no more, Suzuki-san laid out some futons in the spare bedroom and we had the best night of sleep the entire trip, with good company, filled with a great, home-cooked meal and a comfortable bed.