Himeji

As the train from Kanazawa to Himeji took a long 3+ hours, it was already late at night when we arrived in Himeji. We stayed really close to the station, which was great as we were all pretty tired by the end of that day. We spent the rest of the night planning our day for tomorrow as we wanted to head to Kyoto as early as possible so that that we were able to see a few things there, given that the train ride to Kyoto would take us about 90 minutes.

The only thing that attracted us to Himeji was it's castle, also known as the white heron castle due to it's white walls and it's roof structure. Located in the Hyogo perfecture, this magnificient castle was made the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. It along with Matsumoto Castle (that I visited a few days ago) are two of the Famous 3 Castles in Japan with Himeji Castle being the most visited castle in Japan.

Approaching the first gate to the castle

There is only 1 moat surrounding the castle now, which can be seen in the picture above. In the olden days, there was 3 moats and the castle was surrounded by a samurai village. The 3rd (outermost) moat was at where the current Himeji Station is, which is about 1km from the castle itself.

View of castle from afar

The wonderful thing about this visit was that we managed to score ourselves a very well-spoken guide for the castle, in English. Not only we didn't have to make reservations for a guide, we didn't have to pay extra. I think it was partially coz we were fairly early and there wasn't much people there yet. Nevertheless, having a guide makes the visit much more meaningful, and they do tell us a lot of other things that aren't written. Not that I can read Japanese, even if they wrote it down :P.

A group picture FINALLY!! :)

The castle at closer view

Throughout the whole trip, we've only seen one cherry blossom tree that was in bloom as all the others were plum blossoms. This is apparently the winter cherry blossom which is not very common. It was quite white, instead of the pastel pink that I've imagined, and it was the only cherry blossom in bloom in the garden that we were in. But it smelled pretty sweet to the nose, not at all suffocating. In fact, I think after this tree, I started sniffing at all the other plum blossoms I came across, LOL.

Cherry blossom

The cherry blosson tree was located near the 'Cosmetic Room' of the castle, specially built for Princess Sen, granddaughter of the famous Ieyasu Tokugawa shogun. According to our guide, her family paid a current value of 6 billion yen in dowry for her marriage to Tadatoki.

The Cosmetic Tower

Like the Matsumoto Castle, Himeji Castle was built to be ready for attacks, shoult it ever happen. The castle had the holes on the wall for weapons placements, and the slots for pouring hot water or oil and stone throwing on enemies, the trap doors and the confusing pathways leading to the main keep. A lot of thoughts have been put on the construction of the castle to protect it's occupants, but from memory, I think this castle was never attacked from ground.

See the slots on walls at the corners?

One of the many family crests on the roofs of the castle

Leaving the castle

Just like the Matsumoto Castle, Himeji Castle also had a hidden floor in its main keep. From the outside, it appears that the castle only has 5 stories, but it actually has 6 floors and a first basement.

Only 5 stories are seen on the exterior
Isn't it just beautiful?

The castle tour was definitely worth getting up early for, especially if one wanted an English speaking guide. Our guide was terrific, and made castle more than just a pretty place to look at. There is so much architecture/building thoughts and character in the castle that makes it all the more interesting. Our tour took almost 2 hours, but it was tailored to our needs. There were 1, 3 or 4 hour tours available.

Right next to the castle was the Himeji Castle Nishi-Oyashiki-ato Garden Koko-en. This is the garden that I was truly impressed with in the whole trip to Japan. To me, it was even prettier than the world famous Kenrokuen in Kanazawa. Unfortunately for us, we only had less than an hour to finish the garden as we bought our tickets to Kyoto in the morning.

View of Cho-on-sai from the roofed corridor

Built in 1992 for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary for the establishment of Himeji municipality, the Himeji Koko-en is composed of 9 separate gardens. All the 9 gardens has characteristics from the Edo Period.

*Because I can barely remember the sequence of gardens in my visit, I am just going to be posting photos of it :P*

At the Oyashiki-no-niwa (Garden of the lord's house)

Another pond and garden house

More plum blossoms

In one of the 9 gardens

Nagaya-mon in one of the gardens

Nagaya-mon are traditional style gates which consist of 2 rooms on the sides. It is common in the Edo period where guards would have been posted here to screen visitors before allowing them in.

Picturesque scene in Tsukiyama-chisen-no-niwa
(The garden with a hill & pond)

Take-no-niwa ( Garden of bamboo)

Garden walls towards the exit

I only wished we had a bit more time in the garden. It was definitely the prettiest one we've been to in this trip (although I have to say, we didn't go to that many garden).