Himeji-jo wa kirei yo

Today we headed out for Himeji Castle in Kobe prefecture. It was Michelle's first trip in the shinkansen. We don't know how fast we were going, but it was a great way to travel. We both enjoyed the trip.

A 15 minute walk from the train station puts you at the front gate of the castle. It was a beautiful day, and we hope the pictures do some justice, but probably not. The sheer scale was incredible. Parts of the castle have been destroyed, but it has been continuously built/expanded from about 750 AD through 1900, when they switched to restoring it. We spent about 4 hours exploring. We discovered the Hara-kiri court, which still has an (creepy) aura in it. We stopped off for lunch (Eric had anago-don- marinated sea eel over rice, and Michelle had katsu-kuri, curried pork) and soft-serve. Michelle had black sesame, which was strong, but quite addicting. Then we headed off for the gardens. The gardens were quite nice, although none of the cherry blossoms were in bloom yet. There were some plum trees blossoming, some nice waterfalls, some monstrous carp, and some peaceful settings.

After a quick return trip on the shinkansen, we arrived in Osaka, tuckered out from all the stair-climbing. For dinner we went to the basement of a nearby department store, where one can typically find all manner of restaurants spanning a wide range of cuisine. (That's where we also had sushi the first night.) We found a good yakitori place, apparently owned by a former sumo rikishi, judging by the décor. Yakitori consists of things grilled on skewers, mostly different parts of the chicken (tori = chicken, yaki = burn or grill). We had chicken meatballs, chicken with leeks, Japanese peppers, chicken hearts, chicken livers (and more chicken livers, mmm). A tasty bowl of chazuke finished off the meal.