Day 3 - Adventure through Japan "Himeji"

The day once again began out way too early.  I believe I opened my eyes around 3 a.m., unable to sleep past that I poked around the small apartment, trying not to wake anyone else up (writing in my travel log and such) until around 6:30 a.m., the designated wake-up time.  This day we would head out to Himeji Castle.  It had been pouring rain since about 2 a.m. as far as I could remember, as it was very loud with the paper-thin walls of the old styled apartment.  On top of that, once outside we also realized it was no warmer then 40F.  However, little did we know this would make our day overall better, not worse.

 

Part I - Himeji-jō:  After around 40 minutes on the train that departed from Kyoto Station, we arrived at Himeji, Japan.  At this point we are actually a little behind schedule (see "things learned" below), it is now around 10 a.m.  Upon our arrival we can spot the castle off in the distance (see picture) and decide we can just walk to it.  According to our printed directions it is simply "across the street", though the distance seems a bit further then the map now.  After a 20 minute or so walk, we do finally make it on to castle property.  After stopping for a lot of pictures, one of which Donnie amused a crowed of a hundred or so natives walking by as she yelled for us to say "chiizu!" while taking a picture, it was pretty hilarious.  However, we were running late and I was getting anxious to just get our tickets and start our treck to make it inside the main tower.  Much to our surprise, there's a sign posted at the ticket booth stating "ask about our free English guided tour", so we ask.  We're informed that the tour was just about to leave, however we're confused when there is not a crowd (especially of foreigners) anywhere in sight.  Instead we were promptly greated by a very nice Japanese lady speaking English very well, clearly and loud enough for all five of us to hear (which was a huge problem most of our trip, even if you can understand someone, it didn't mean you could actually hear them).  We then realize that we're in for a what turned out to be a private tour (due to lack of people) for the five of us AND for free (minus the normal admission price of ¥600), super lucky!! 

 

As we begin the long treck she guides us through all of the details of the castle, taking special care to explain even the little things that you would not know about otherwise.  She first explained that we were there about two weeks before they began a three year restoration process on the castle (that is done once every fifty years) and that they will actually have it set up so people can view the work being done.  A first for a restoration in Japan.  We started our walk by touring outside, being told about the haunted well first.  The story goes that there was a maid who was in charge of washing 10 very expensive plates for the royal family everyday, but she accidentily broke a plate one day and was killed by being thown down the well for this crime.  She was still heard counting the plates, stopping at nine every night until they built a proper shrine for her in the city.  Some creepy stuff right there.  We also learned about the tiles placed at the end of the roofing and how some of them have water charms to prevent fires and others charms to represent the royal family at the time it was built (they varied since there were different masters during the castle's construction).  Climbing up to the top of the main tower proved to be very interesting as well.  There were a lot of traps, a hidden floor, hiding spots and small staircases, all meant to provide protection to the master who would reside at the top.  Though this was not a residence it still provided much protection to anyone inside (if warring factions could even make it inside, which proved to be difficult enough).  The view at the top was gorgeous, even though much was being "blocked" by the bad weather.  They actually allowed pictures of just about everything inside and out, we will share most of those on the separate photo blog.  The entire tour was expected to take 1 and 1/2 hours and turned out to last just about that.

 

Once outside again our tour guide asked if we were in a rush to get anywhere else, fortunately we had no other plans for the day. We were told how she would like to take us to a long building on the other side of the castle grounds that was actually used for the maids and female servants to live in and also to the attached tower called "Hime Tower". All of this was actually one huge wedding present for the Princess (Hime) who once lived there. It is was actually her favorite place on castle grounds, we were excited to go and she was excited to have a group willing to go (her tours normally end before this time since people are always in a rush).  During the much more quite tour of this building we were able to strike up more of a conversation, learning that she had been giving these tours for 15 years and how today was very unusual as we were never stopped by a crowd trying to get through the castle.  With such narrow walkways and stairs she is apparently rarely able to give a complete tour of the place, so even though the weather was not very good we lucked out in this sense.  She seemed almost as excited as we were to be able to tour the grounds smoothly, just the day before her group was not allowed to the top of the main tower due to overcrowding! 

 

The maids quarters and Hime tower proved to be very interesting.  They had actually started some of the restoration process on this part of the castle grounds already.  About half-way through we get into a room that had a door open, showing the corridor connecting it to the room next-door.  These corridors were used in case of attack and the outside doors being blocked, so they could still move about between rooms.  Apparently in her 15 years of touring Himeji, she had never seen the actual corridor since the door was always shut, though behind glass and with construction parts in the way, she was so very excited to see it for the first time!  Apparently those doors are only open once every 50 years during restoration, she was so excited to see it for the first time, she even scambled to find her cell phone and take a picture as well.  We also felt privleged to see such a rare sight.  Once in Hime Tower we were nearing the end of our tour.  Though tired, it was very worth it and probably my favorite and most memorable part of the trip. 

 

A replica of the Princess and a maid playing an old-styled matching game.  Seen in Hime Tower.

 

Once finished with the maid quarters and Hime Tower we were back outside.  The extra part of the tour only took about 30 minutes, so to anyone planning on going I would highly recommend it.  We thanked our tour guide and started our trek back to the station, hoping to find food along the way.  With the experience had the day before trying to order lunch at the tofu restaurant we were careful not to walk into a place that didn't have a picture and/or English menu.  Unfortunately in Himeji there are not a lot of places that have an option for ordering, so after 30 minutes or so of walking the streets we end up at a little fast food (I assume) Italian place that had a picture/English menu.  We both ordered a spahgetti with meat sauce, which turned out to taste completely different then Italian food in the States.  It wasn't bad, just wasn't the same.  The food was reasonable, but after ordering Cokes for drinks we learn they were in the small glass (old-styled) bottles and cost us ¥320 each, expensive!

 

Part II - Getting back:  Tired by this point and just playing follow-the-leader (the leader this time was Matt), we end up following him on to the wrong train!  We head one station in the wrong direction, before realizing and hopping off.  After a bit of a heated discussion regarding the correct train, get back on a train, this time it's actually heading towards Kyoto. 

 

Part III - Bic Camera:  Once back in Kyoto, we are still running kind of late for the day.  It is nearing 3 p.m. and I still had some shopping to do on my list.  We head to a place near to the station called "Bic Camera", which would be our first true "department store" experience, this one is a seven story electronics store.  Inside there were all sorts of goodies.  1st floor was cell phones and cell phone accessories, just like I've seen on the NHK channel.  They seem to just love cell phone things in Japan, I don't exactly get it, but they do make some cute accessories.  The 7th floor (the top) was where we headed to though.  It had CD's, DVD's, Video Games and anime merchandise.  After browsing for about 45 minutes, we end up with just two Pokemon figures (they were cool).  Matt attempted to purchase Initial D Arcade Stage for the PS3, but it turned out to be sold out.  Floors 2-6 mainly had larger electronics and appliances, so there wasn't much more for us to see here.

 

Part VI - Failed shopping & End of Day:  After Bic Camera I tried locating a discount kimono store that was marked in my book.  However after 20 minutes or so of walking in the cold and rain, we were forced to give up on trying to locate it, by this time it was dark and even harder to navigate where it might be on the street.  Matt was tired and getting irritated by this point, so after a failed attempt at finding a taxi we started the trek back to the Apartment on foot.  Matt went straight back, however the four of us stopped at the local noodle shop for dinner as previously planned.  After a small struggle with ordering completely in Japanese (again), they at least had plastic food this time, I ended up with the Tempura Udon.  It was delicious!  As to be expected for a family run shop.  We then started the short walk back to the apartment to rest and eventually sleep. 

 

Prices:

• ¥600 admission, per person, to Himeji
• ¥1,200 lunch (total)
• ¥400 2 Pokemon figures
• ¥1,000 misc. food/drink
• ¥800 dinner, per person

Lessons learned:

• Frosted Flakes (which were breakfast) are MUCH more sugary then they are in the States, my goodness!
• Take the train!  Taxi if you must, but you should never have to walk more then 10 minutes to get anywhere.
• Vending machines:  red price labels=hot, blue price labels=cold (duh, but still took us awhile)
• Just as in D.C., you need to know the final stop of the train to figure out what direction you are heading in and in order to catch the correct train for your destination.
• CD's are slightly more expensive then the States (around ¥2,500), Video Games are much more expensive then the States (around ¥8,500 for a new release) and DVD's are much much more expensive then the States (around ¥4,500 for 45 minutes)!