Himeji, home to half a million people, is often a day trip or a stopover between Kyoto (or Osaka or Kobe) and Hiroshima. Himeji is most famous for its wooden castle (covering over 350 acres) which is widely considered to be Japan’s best and most beautiful surviving feudal castle. Also known as White Heron Castle (Shirasagijo) or White Egret Castle (Hakurojo). For nearly 700 years, the castle has survived war, earthquake, or fire. It even survived the World War II bombing. The first fortification were completed in the 1300s and later expanded several times over the next few centuries. The final hilltop castle complex was completed in 1618 and made up of over eighty buildings connected by a series of gates and winding paths across multiple baileys. Next to the Himeji Castle is Kokoen Garden. A relatively new Japanese style garden opened in April 1992 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Himeji city. It has nine separate walled gardens (including a tea garden, a bamboo garden, two flower gardens, and a pine tree garden) using various design styles of the Edo Period (1603-1867).
Sometimes one doesn’t know what to expect when one walks into a restaurant. This is an izakaya restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. We had lunch at Kichifuku while waiting for our 2 pm hotel check-in. We had our daily breakfast buffet here too.
Kokoen Garden
Inside the Himeji Castle wall; people having picnics under the cherry blossoms
Before entering the middle and upper castle grounds
Climbing up the original wooden keep’s six floors: the steps become steeper and the ceilings lower as one climbs further up.
View from the top window into the vast castle grounds below and into the main boulevard leading to the Himeji train station.
Just outside the castle
One of the many winding paths inside the castle grounds connecting from one building to another, one gate to another: one must prepare to tackle many stairs up and down
There is a cross on one of the tile. See the explanation in the next photo.
The castle grounds are constructed in tiers, each surrounded by walls
At the entrance
Unmanned kiosk for bento takeaway. One can find this at certain street corner. The amazing thing is one can walk in from the street. Certain things do not work in other countries.
Self-checkout at an unmanned kiosk for bento boxes or takeaway. Bento boxes are available at vending machines too.
Walking outside the castle wall which is surrounded by moat
Picnic lunch at one of the parks behind the castle
The best prawn and vegetable fritter we had in Japan: we had a few others but the prawns were very small and did not have as much veggies
Close to where we had our lunch picnic: one thing about Japan is they have many public toilets and they are clean
Night time illumination at the castle grounds: still lots of people out having picnics
