Himeji Trip

Today I went to Himeji. I'm completely wiped out from the strenuous day, but if I don't write about it now before I go to bed, it'll never get done.

I woke up at 8:30 this morning and met Jessica C., another Witt student, outside my dorm. We walked to the bus station, took the bus to Hirakatashi-eki, grabbed some snacks at the convenience store there, and met up with the rest of our group. Well, sort of. We never did find William. He's kind of chronically late, and we waited long enough to just barely make our train. I'm still not sure what happened. Anyway, it was me, Jessica C., Jacinthe, Phuong, and Nicole. I had never met Phuong or Nicole before, but they seem to be nice girls. A girl named Kim was originally going to come, too, but she uses a wheelchair to get around, and the castle is by no means wheelchair accessable. That was really lousy. ;_;

We rode a double-decker train to Osaka, where we had to change railway lines. After a quick ride on a local train, we got on a super duper special express train, or something like that, that would take us to Himeji. That ride took an hour, and it was very beautiful. The train was very crowded at first, so I had to stand for about fifteen minutes, but it eventually cleared out and I got to sit and see out the window. The land was beautiful. I like living so close between Osaka and Kyoto, but it means that everything I see is metropolis, basically, or suburb at best. But we rode through areas today that were a bit more rustic, which was nice for a change.

I loved looking at Kobe; I'd really like to visit there. The train went right along next to the sea, which was beautiful. There were some sailboats, big ships, and fishing vessels out and about, and many people fishing from docks. There were also considerably more palm trees in Kobe than there are in Osaka, so that was kinda cool too. Also, the homes were farther spread apart, and there were more free-standing businesses than the highrises I'm used to in Osaka. It was very nice; it reminded me more of the layout of mid-size American cities than the other Japanese cities I've visited. Actually, the seaside part of Kobe was rather like being in Destin, with souvenir shops, rental houses, and freestanding restaraunts all along the way. It was pretty cool.

Near Kobe we passed the longest suspension bridge in the world, the Akashi-Kaikyou Bridge. It connects the main island of Honshu to Awaji Island across the Naruto Strait. Turns out that the Naruto Strait is famous for whirlpools that happen there. Ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige actually made a famous woodblock print showing the phenomenon. Pretty sweet, although I didn't know about the whirlpools at the time, or I would have looked. Probably couldn't have seen anything anyway, though.

After an hour of looking out the window and eating a small breakfast of Chokochippu, my favorite little snack food here (teeny tiny chocolate chip cookies!) we arrived in Himeji. The one-way trip cost almost 2000yen (about US$20), which is kind of a lot, except when you think about how far we traveled it really isn't so bad. We had some trouble finding our way out of the station, but soon we were on the path to Himeji.

Also, at Himeji-eki I used my first squat toilet. It went well.

We walked for several blocks toward Himeji Castle, stopping at a little noodle shop on the way for lunch. Here I had my first zaru udon, or cold udon noodles served with soy sauce for dipping. It was very good.

When we arrived at the castle we were already tired and hot, but in good spirits. We payed the 720yen admission fee for both the castle and the adjoining gardens and went inside. I'll post pictures later when I'm not falling asleep, but we'll say that the castle is quite impressive. It really does look like a white heron in flight, in a way. We weren't part of an organized tour group, so I really know very little about the history of it all; if you want to know, do some research on your own time. :)

The first part we toured was called the West Bailey, and what struck me about it was not the building itself, but the procedure for entering. Like many buildings in Japan, you could only enter it with bare feet. There was a place outside the entrance to remove your shoes and place them in a small plastic bag to tote along with you. So now I have walked through a 400 year old building in my silly green tabi socks that Mom says make me look like a Ninja Turtle. The building was pretty cool, I suppose. Actually, for as warm as the day was, it was literally surprisingly cool. But also very interesting. There were these small holes covered by flaps that the sign said were for dropping rocks on enemies trying to scale the walls. Also, there seems to have been an elaborate drainage system for rainwater, with bamboo pipes diverting it away from the building. We saw lots of store rooms, as well as some of the living quarters for the women who worked in the castle. All the rooms were bare, so it wasn't terribly exciting, although I really did like the austerity of it all.

One interesting place in the West Bailey was the Vanity Tower, apparently so called because it was built as a show of wealth for Sen-hime, the important princess who lived there with her husband. This tower was neat because they had reconstructed a room to look livable, and there were mannequins of people in there. It was pretty cool; I'll put up a picture later. In any case, all the signage seemed to say that Sen-hime and her husband got along very well and really liked living there.

From there we went into the main building of the castle, climbing up, what?, seven levels to reach the top, I think. The castle, like the West Bailey, was very comfortably cool inside. It had that nice old wood smell that I like so much, too. Again, it was very plain, but really cool. The base level had been kept pretty much like it was in the original, so I got to see how dark some of the store rooms were. But as you worked your way up, it became more of a museum, with some artifacts like old scrolls, weaponry, and statues behind glass cases. It was neat. We climbed and climbed, and since the stairs were really steep I rather regreted wearing a skirt, although luckily I was wearing nice panties. (Too much information, I know, but it is something that happened in my day, and surely you want to know everything about me, right?) By the time we reached the top floor, which was crowded, small, and had a small shrine featuring what seemed to be a bunch of sake bottles, we were exhausted. But we picked our way carefully downstairs, and somehow survived.

The last place we visited in the main grounds was something called Harakiri-maru. The harakiri in question is the famous samurai practice of seppuku, or ritual suicide. No one seems to be sure why this building is called that, though. The signs say that it could have been a place where bodies were prepared for rites after seppuku, but that there's really no evidence of this, and it was probably just used as a nice area to store weapons or quarter soldiers or do whatever it is you do in a castle. I think it's just a place with a funny name, personally. Oh, and I found a really fat caterpillar with big bulgy eyes there, too. It looked like something Timon and Pumbaa would eat.

On the way out of the castle grounds, we stopped at the obligatory souvenir shop, where I purchased a couple of things that some of you can expect to receive when I return. :) By the way, if you didn't know, souvenirs are a big deal in Japan. They're called omiyage, and you HAVE to buy something for everyone you know if you go somewhere. Jessica, for example, bought several things for Kim, the girl who couldn't come. The homestay kids bought things for their host families, etc. So anyhow, there are lots of souvenir shops everywhere around big tourist places in Japan. Oh, we also got ice cream out of a vending machine, and it was pretty good.

Then, although I think everyone was actually ready to go home, we went next door to the gardens. Really, I think we only went because we had already paid our admission, we were all so tired at this point. But the garden, Kokoen, ended up being my favorite part of the day, by far. Jacinthe had to be back to her host family by 6PM, so she, Phuong, and Nicole left basically as soon as we got there, although Jessica and I, having taken Kuri-sensei's class on Japanese gardens, decided to stay and explore some more. There were about nine different garden types, I guess, including a tea garden and a nice bamboo garden. We really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately I've forgotten most of what I once knew about Japanese gardens, but still I appreciated it. This being the first day of fall, the leaves have just started to turn here, and in the late afternoon light the grounds were beautiful. I wanted to take so many picutres, but my camera battery was dying, so I don't have as many as I'd like. Still, it was a place that I definitely want to return to some day. Very, very cool.

After the garden, Jessica and I headed back to Himeji-eki to go home. On the way, we stopped at a shop so she could buy a few more souvenirs. Then we stopped at a little stand and I got some chocolate soft serve ice cream, and she got a really big snowcone, basically. We walked with the food and ate, which is a bit of a no-no here in Japan, but it was such a tourist spot that even the Nihonjin were doing it. But as we got farther away from the castle, this one traffic cop actually laughed at Jessica for eating and walking at the same time, so she finished the snowcone quickly and threw away the trash.

The hour-long train ride back to Osaka was fun, actually. It was soooo nice to sit after spending all day walking up and down stairs. Also, there were these four boys, probably about ages 12-14, obviously coming home from school, and they sat down on the train across from us. They were hilarious, joking around with each other and all. Then one of them took the tennis racket out of his bag and playfully bonked his friend on the head with it, which was really funny. Then the friend whipped out a roll of tape from his bag and started to tape together an empty water bottle and an empty juice container, which sounds really stupid, although we were laughing so hard! Everything they did was hilarious. I'm sure it didn't help matters that there were two gaijin girls giggling at their goofiness, but in any case most of the train ended up laughing at their shenanigans. It was pretty funny. Right before they got off the train, I even gave Bottle Boy my empty Coke bottle. I hope he was able to tape it to the bits of trash and hit Tennis Racket Boy upside the head with it in retaliation. :)

When we arrived at Osaka, the stations had become very crowded. People were getting home from work or heading out for the evening, I think. Anyhow, I we found ourselves on a really packed train. There were none of the "train crammers" that people have been asking about, shoving as many people as possible onto rush hour trains, although I'm sure they could have been of use.

Walking from one train station to another, also, was very crowded. And the hosts were out in full force, too, looking for business. They were so gorgeous. I've never seen so many well-tailored suits and excellent haircuts in my life. But it seems so awkward to me, the concept of hosting. I dunno. I guess some of it's cultural, and a lot of it is that I'm just shy, especially about flirting.

Jessica and I arrived back at Hirakatashi-eki around 7:30, I suppose, and we had to wait forever to get a bus home. But we got back okay, and as we were walking through the park to Sachi, the little okonomiyaki place I eat at all the time, we chanced to run into Momoko, the friend I made in the park my first weekend here. She had written me a nice little note, and she gave me tickets to her school's festival in October. She's such a sweetheart! It was a really nice surprise. Anyway, Jessica and I continued on and had delicious moudan-yaki (okonomiyaki with noodles in it) for supper. I was soooo hungry; I actually ate the whole thing, which I had thought was nigh impossible. And then I came home, showered, and wrote this update. And that is that. And now I am going to bed.