Himeji Castle

We have visited Himeji castle twice before, most recently a few years ago with a friend and former teacher, Junko Suzuki. It was in the midst of a 6-year renovation project, and was covered in scaffolding, and even then it was very impressive. The work is now done, and one of Japan's World Heritage Sites is now fully open again.

Himeji Castle

The castle has gone through several remodels, dating back to the 1400's. The current structure was completed in 1609, and sprawls across an enormous swath of land, all surrounded by a deep moat. It is a very impressive site, even from a distance. The white color is from a special type of plaster that is used to coat not just the walls, but even parts of the rooftops, giving it the nickname "The White Heron Castle". It was covered in camouflage during WWII to protect it from air raids, and was virtually the only structure in Himeji City still standing when the war was over.

An interesting thing about Himeji is what a poor design the castle was, initially. The main support beam, a single fir tree of over 100' began rotting 50 years after construction, so they were forced to replace the lower half of the support very early on. The plaster that is used, while striking and beautiful (especially in the sunlight), needs to be reapplied every 50 years. One of the internal support beams, another huge fir tree, began leaning under the weight of the structure by almost 4 degrees, so THAT had to be shored up as well. Still, it is a very impressive castle with a lot of history and insight into life during the Shogun era of Japan.

A view outside the main gate

Approaching the castle grounds. One of the four main guard towers

The stone foundation was over 30' tall at points, and has not been altered since the 1600's 

The castle interior is much brighter when it is sunny.

Tiger-Carp Gargoyle. Notice all the plaster on the tiled roof

This is a commemorative view? No, turn around.

Oh hai

We spent several hours touring the castle and its buildings. There is a very attractive garden on the west side of the castle, but with all the rain we opted to not visit it this time. Instead we headed to Miyuki-dori, a huge open air shopping district that takes up four square blocks of downtown Himeji:

Miyuki-dori

These shopping areas are home to some good food in small restaurants. We were tempted by the "Steak-Don" shop (Gyuu-don, or Beef Bowl with Rice, but with Kobe beef), but ended up trying a tiny Thai restaruant. This was after I had to put my foot down and refuse to eat here:

Cafe de Miki with Hello Kitty

I feel I made the right choice.

The sign reads "Himeji Thai Kitchen"

Spicy Fried Noodles and Green Curry

But Sumi did get a picture with Hello Kitty, though

The rest of the day was filled with chores and general laziness (we ARE on vacation, after all!). Tomorrow, we travel by bike and ferry to Shikoku, one of the other large islands of Japan. No rain in the forecast, fingers crossed!