himeji castle

Himeji was around an hour and half train ride out of Osaka but being the largest surviving castle in Japan; I didn't want to miss it. We thought Osaka was hot but Himeji was scorching and since the old thing didn't have air conditioning we had to suffer! Himeji is sometimes known as the white heron castle because it apparently resembles a bird? It is quite beautiful though and the mark of history is ingrained in every stone and beam. The current castle was begun in 1601 but different areas have been rebuilt a few times due to the Meiji Restoration and WWII.

Inner courtyard view

We had a little old lady, who still had a manual camera, take our picture and thus we are midgets dwarfed by the heron!

The castle had an amazing defensive system with three separate walls, three moats, 84 gates with confusing passages, numerous gun/ arrow holes and openings used for dropping rocks and boiling liquid as well as racks throughout the castle for guns, spears, and munitions. With all these armaments James and I were a bit confused why the histories of the castle never mentioned any battles... because there were never any battles at Himeji-jyo (I later discovered) and that is predictably why it is so well preserved. It seems a bit of a let down that the greatest castle left is the one where nothing happened but I suppose it is better than nothing.

It was well worth the trip out, though it may have been better viewed in spring or fall as some of the stairs were fairly steep and some of the buildings were stifling in the hot weather.