Tokyo Tofu Japan » Himeji Castle!

For the past month, I’ve been enjoying using the special Seishun 18 tickets, which allow you to go as far as you can go on JR trains in a 1-day period. I could try to add up all the money I’ve saved, going to Tokyo, Ise, and Osaka, but that would take brain power….we’ll just say that its a lot. So, with the deadline of the current period of Seishun 18 tickets rapidly approaching (they are valid from December 10-January 20), and with two uses left, I had to devise an interesting day trip. Himeji castle, which is about a 2.5 hour or 3200yen trip from JCMU seemed like a good choice. I’ve been in and seen quite a few castles around Japan so far, but Himeji castle is *the* castle in Japan. Going by myself though seemed rather dull, so I wrote up a little advertisement of my trip on the white board, and during the potluck a new student here at JCMU, Katie (also in 3rd year with me), told me she wanted to come along. So, Sunday morning, we met at the doors to JCMU at 8:30am, hopped on our bikes and rode to Hikone station. Got there in time for the 9am rapid, which goes from Hikone directly to Himeji, without having to change trains. Arriving at Himeji at precisely 11:13am (which was somewhat of a suprise to me since 20 minute prior my watch battery decided to die ), we left the station and we’re able to see the castle directly down the main road about 1km away.

And now, the obligatory history segment: The original version of the castle was first built in 1333 by Norimura Akamatsu. In 1581, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a member of Nobunaga Oda’s military staff, the first ruler of Japan in the age of civil wars, entered this castle and worked out a basic layout for construction of a castle, building a modern castle with a three-storied tower. After the battle of Sekigahara in 1601 (which actually took place very near to Hikone), Toyotomi was replaced by the Tokugawas, and an eight-year expansion project began that would bring the castle to a state roughly like what it looks like today. The last major addition, the Western Circle, was completed in 1618. In 1879, he War Ministry took over control of the castle, which had previously held a regiment of infantry troops. The main tower was renovated in 1910 using approximately $900 in public funds. In 1945, Himeji was bombed during WWII, and although nearby buildings were completely destroyed, Himeji castle survived almost unscathed. A few interesting tidbits about Himeji castle include:

-Large parts of Akira Hurosawa’s 1985 film Ran were shot at Himeji castle
-The Last Samurai also used Himeji castle as a location, along with some fake snow
-There is a zoo on the castle grounds
-Himeji castle is a UNESCO World Heritage site
-It is the oldest surviving original castle in Japan

One feature of the castle is its winding, maze-like stairways and pathways, which in a battle would have helped to confuse would-be invaders and also given archers and riflemen inside of the castle easy targets. However, Himeji castle was never invaded, so its untested as to whether this strategy would have worked. Paying our 600yen and going into the castle, we made our way through the maze and eventually got inside of the castle. We had to take off our shoes and put on ridiculously small slippers, which let me tell you are oh-so-fun when climbing nearly vertical stairs. I ended up walking around most of the castle in my socks. The interior of Himeji castle wasn’t much different from some of the other castles I’ve been in, except this one had actual weapons hanging in some locations along the tour route. Reaching the top of the castle after about a half an hour of slowly circling each floor, we got to see some great views of Himeji on a perfectly clear day. On the top floor, (which was much smaller than the floor below) there was a small shrine erected with offerings for the new year (including some really yummy looking pineapples….), and we were also able to get a stamp on our brochures. Walking back down all the flights of ’stairs’, we left the main castle building and walked around the grounds a bit. We were able to go into another building, which we found out later had been the women’s quarters. I was slightly disturbed by the fact that the women’s quarters were inside of a long building which basically wrapped around the perimeter of the main castle building, thereby being the first defense line from invaders. One part of the women’s quarters was a very extravagent (in its day) building, which was built by money from the dowry of Princess Sen, who married (at the age of 7!!) Toyotomi Hideyori and lived in Himeji castle for 10 years from 1603. (When we went to enter this building, we came to where we were supposed to take off our shoes, and I guess I stood somewhere I shouldn’t have as some older woman came over and literally pushed me off of this platform….not sure if she thought I didn’t speak Japanese or just didn’t want to bother attempting to communicate with me AT ALL.)

After spending several hours wandering around the castle and its grounds, we left and searched for a place to eat. Right outside the castle was a restaurant serving unagi-don, so we both went in and had a bowl. After eating we started walking back to Himeji station to plan where we would go next (since it was only about 2pm at this point). Then, all of a sudden, a parade literally appeared right in front of us. I really have no idea why there was a parade, but I think it probably had something to do with the new year. The parade consisted of a few ‘floats’, as well as groups of people carrying women dressed up as Shinto priestesses in these wooden palanquins, and at certain intervals they would start to roll and toss up the palanquin, causing the woman inside to hang on for dear life. As we caught up to the parade, we found that as they walked along the sidewalk on this main street in Himeji, they would stop at random businesses, where someone would come out (very nicely dressed in a suit or kimono), and a bunch of women dressed as Shinto priestess (I don’t think they were real priestesses) would begin to bless the business (at least, that’s what I THINK they were doing), and gave whoever was representing the place some flowers and an arrow ema. This process was repeated several times, as the procession slowly made its way closer to Himeji station. At one point, on a ‘treasure boat’ that approached us, I noticed there was a baseball player sitting on it, with people coming up and asking for his autograph. I haven’t a clue who he was, but…maybe someone famous (baseball is huge in Japan). We spotted another baseball player, in one of the tumbling palanquins, who actually waved specifically at us and said “Hello!”. Eventually, the parade changed directions and crossed the street, heading for a covered mall, and at this point we parted ways and headed for the station.

Getting to the station, we found a Baskin Robbins and decided to go in and see if they had any interesting ice cream flavors. My last visit to a Baskin Robbins (which is now called Baskin 31 in my family, that’s thanks to you Khoi ) in Fukuoka was great, and I had this Apple Caramel Fondue ice cream (I’m not sure which part was the fondue…). This time around, I opted for a Matcha ‘Blast’ which is basically a smoothie. I was hoping for something close to what I had at the Starbucks in Shibuya, and it was pretty close. Katie got an Apple Caramel Fondue (on my advice) and Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream cone. At this point we pondered for a bit what we wanted to do next, and instead of wandering around Himeji some more, we headed back to Osaka to go to a bookstore (that sold English books!) as well as make another stop at the Osaka Hard Rock Cafe.

Getting back to Osaka at…..some time that I don’t know (my poor watch ), we had to make it to JR Namba station to get to a bookstore called Maruzen, which is supposedly the largest bookstore chain in Japan, and each store has a section of foreign books. Not having read a book in the past almost 5 months, I was feeling somewhat deprived. Jumping on the Osaka Loop Line, we decided to take the long way around since the train we really wanted wouldn’t come for another 10 minutes. This was probably a mistake though since we had to get off it and get on another train on the loop line just to go two more stops. Then, we had to get on another train to go another two stops until we got to Namba. Luckily, Maruzen is right in Namba station, so we just had to take an elevator up to the 5th floor to find it. Being the ‘largest bookstore chain in Japan’, I had high hopes for this place. Sadly, it turned out to be a fairly small (think smaller than Waldenbooks or any other mall bookstore), and the English book section was all of 2 racks, which held mostly movie adaptations (yes, I’d really like to read the novelization of Constantine…..not), and English translations of works by famous Japanese authors. They also had imported Japanese manga translated into English….which I think is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen (the fact that it was imported….not the manga itself). So, I ended up with a 1100yen softcover copy of The Davinci Code (yes, I’m the only person left who hasn’t read it), and a copy of Newsweek. Got to use a giftcard for 1000yen off so I ended up only paying about 800yen for the magazine and book. I also got a bookcover, which basically every Japanese person has on their books. I’m not sure if they use them to actually protect their books, or to make sure no one knows what they are reading so intently on the train. After leaving the book part of the store, we wandered to the stationary + other part, where they had some really awesome stickers (perfect for scrapbooking), crazy greeting cards and a bajillion of those ‘gel gem’ things which seem to have become very popular lately. After buying even more stuff, we left with our stuff to get back on the train and head to the Osaka HRC.

Riding back to Osaka station, we had to walk to Umeda station, which is basically right next to and under JR Osaka station. 2 stops later, we were at Honmachi, where we had to walk through a mini-maze of stores underground to get to the right exit to find the Osaka HRC. We sat down and enjoyed another good meal at a Hard Rock Cafe, surrounded by familiar music and lots of foreigners (there was a guy in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, cowboy shirt, the works….I want to know where the heck he came from). I keep saying I’ll eat something other than a cheeseburger but they’re just so darn good and I can’t get a burger as good (or with a bun) anywhere else. After eating we made the obligatory stop at the giftshop, where they still have the Guitar Case pin in stock (score!) but were out of the Fashion Statement pin (sadness…). So instead I picked up a pin with a dog on it, since 2006 is the year of the dog. I was a good doobie and didn’t buy any more shirts…… (I almost regret now not getting one from the Tokyo Ueno Eki HRC…I mean, I have one from every other one…oh well). Traveling back to Osaka station once more, we wandered for a bit where I found a bakery and picked up a few items since I was short on breakfasty food back at the dorm, and then we caught our train. The next 1.5 hours or so was spent first standing, doing my usual hawk routine for scouting out seats (I take no prisoners when it comes to grabbing a seat on a train….if you can move faster than me then I’ll be impressed), and once we had secured a set of seats, half reading some things in the textbook that I had dragged with me all day. Getting back to Hikone around 9:15pm, we were happy to find our bikes still parked in front of Al Plaza (the free bike parking lot wasn’t open at 9am…so we took a risk and parked somewhere else), and got back to JCMU around 9:30pm, where I spent the rest of the night chatting and studying for class.

Himeji castle: