18 March Himeji Castle and Hiroshima

On the 18th of March I sadly said goodbye to the lovely Hostel, and to the wonderful city of Kyoto. I gathered together all my luggage and set off for another few shinkansen trips to my next stop, Hiroshima. I decided that as I was going past Himeji (almost) that I should stop and see what is easily one of the most famous castles in Japan. Himeji turned out to be quite an interesting city, and I think I would go back and spend more than half a day there if I ever get the chance. The main tower of the castle was under repair, but creatively the scaffolding had a life sized image of what the tower looked like. The parts that I was able to explore were beautiful and the story of the castle is fascinating, particularly the love story of Princess Senhime who was born in 1597.

*The castle moat and high, sloping stone walls*

*The main tower covered by scaffolding*

*The front gate*

*One of the cats I shared my lunch with*

*View of the moat, looking towards the front gate*

 *An old map/illustration of the layout of Himeji castle, it was one of the best designs for defense (apparently)*

*Just in case you were thinking of scribbling*

*The beautiful corridors in Senhime's personal wing of the castle*

*The outside of the same corridor, Senhime's wing*

*Mannequins showing Senhime and her lady in waiting playing a card game. Not only did Senhime marry for love after her first husband killed himself while Osaka Castle burned, she also smoked and gambled, and really liked cats* 

*Proof that I was there and that it was freezing cold*

After eating my lunch in the castle grounds surrounded by cats, I went next door to a beautiful garden. It had various garden 'rooms' in different styles of Japanese gardening, with different 'moods'. It was so beautiful, and as usual I took hundreds of photos in an attempt to capture just a little of its beauty.

*Those Koi were HUGE, at least 50cm or more*

*My favourite flower in the whole garden, I wish I knew the name!*

On the way back to the station I spotted this oddity: A statue of a naked man playing the saxaphone...

When I finally arrived at my hotel in Hiroshima it was almost dark, the view was wonderful, as you can see below. I then set off to have the local specialty, Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki. In the restaurant I sat alone (as usual) but the lady who owned the restaurant sat another lone traveller beside me, and that is how I made a new friend, Yuichi.

*Yuichi and Me*