Himeji Castle: Himeji Castle is located in the town of Hemiji which is about 1 hour west of Osaka on the bullet train. The castle is about a 10 minute walk from Himeji station and can be seen as soon as you step outside the station. Click on the photo above for a panoramic view.


Himeji Castle: The castle is extremely extravagant surrounded by a moat and containing 32 separate buildings. The main tower is actually a keep originally used as a watch tower.

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Himeji Castle: The castle is heavily designed around defensive elements. This watch hole was used to fire arrows at enemies. The small lookout made it difficult for enemies to retaliate.


Himeji Castle: Like all sacred Japanese sites, shoes are not to be worn inside the building. You're required to remove your shoes before you enter the building and carry them inside plastic bags. The interior of the building is extremely tight with very low ceilings (if you're over 6 feet tall prepare to bump your head a few times on some low rise beams). With the hot humid weather you can imagine what the smell would have been like...


Himeji Castle: A cooling station was setup just outside the castle to help poor tourists such as myself combat the extremely hot and humid weather. I love how the Japanese shamelessly walk around with towels draped around their necks ready to wipe off their sweat.



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Shinkansen: If you're using the JR Pass than you're required to take the Hikari Super Express. The train in the top picture was actually my train. I was too busy taking pictures of it that I ended up missing it and had to wait 50 minutes for the next one.

Bullet train tickets can be just as expensive as domestic airplane tickets in Japan. However, travelling by train has its distinct advantages over air in Japan. First it saves you having to travel to and from and check in and out at the airport. In addition, because Japan is rail-centric transfers to other trains can be made really easily at the main train stations. Finally it's not as noisy and has a perfect safety record. The only disadvantage is that you must travel light as their are no separate compartments to store your large heavy luggage - only streamline overhead shelves.