Himeji Castle and Park

After a tight month, we finally got paid on the 15th, and two of my coworkers (Jonathan and Scott) and I decided to go to Himeji castle. Regardless of the money situation, I'm not passing up the opportunity to explore Japan while I'm here, so I decided to do one event a month like this.

So we worked the graveyard shift last night and took off right afterwards this morning. It was about an hour away by train and well worth our time. It's one of the largest castles in Japan and is called the "White Heron" due to it's color. it was built around the year 1600 and was never destroyed through fire or war, so it is still in it's original shape and has been declared a World Cultural heritage Site. It was also featured in You Only Live Twice (a James Bond movie from 1967), the TV miniseries Shogun, and more recently The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise.

We first walked through all nine gardens around it and were able to partake in a traditional Tea Ceremony, eating a Japanese sweet snack and drinking matcha, both served by women wearing kimonos which was one of those unforgettable moments in life. The gardens were stunning, and I took a lot of photos. It was good to get into nature a bit.


The castle itself was crazy to climb, due to its eight stories of steep steps, but the inside was fascinating. We even looked at the well where a woman was killed during samurai times. Her ghost is said to be haunting the well, though there are some discrepancies as to the exact story.

All in all, it was great to get out of my region and see something new (to me!), soaking up another experience here. if you want to see photos, click HERE, and remember you can click on them to make them bigger. The last one is of me pretending to climb into the well.

I've now been awake since I woke up for work last night (27 hours ago!), so I'm going to sign off for now...