In December, right before Christmas vacation, we found out from a friend that Himeji Castle was scheduled to close for refurbishment for a lengthy but unspecified time, from an unspecified date at some stage in 2009. This kind of vague confusion is not uncommon for us here in Japan, where we're often left guessing and trying to fill in the pieces of a kind of puzzle. "Where is the station?" we may ask, in an attempt at Japanese; but in reply we may hear countless different phrases; leading Ross and I to 'powwow' shortly after speaking any Japanese to someone: 'Ok, did you catch that first part? Did he say go right and then walk straight and turn at the zoo or go turn left, go straight then turn right at the kindergarten? I guess we'll just walk for awhile and turn if we see a toddler or a tiger." Powwow successful. In any case, for a long time Ross and I had been intending to see Himeji Castle, a huge old castle about an hour from where we live. Based on the information that the closure would occur in 2009 sometime, we decided to go to the castle, with out friends Rachel and KJ on one of our last days off before 2008 ended. The day was cold but beautifully sunny and dry for winter, so we had chosen really a perfect day to explore the castle, the grounds, a garden nearby, and Himeji town itself. We arrived in the early afternoon, and walked from Himeji station toward the looming castle. The castle is huge and can apparently be seen from any part of Himeji city, so we didn't bother with a map and just headed towards it. The castle is known for being 'THE castle' to visit in Japan, because unlike the extremely boring Osaka Castle (rebuilt sometime in the seventies and featuring an outside elevator), this castle has maintained both the inside and outside to look as much like the original as possible. The castle was amazing from start to finish: lots of incredible architecture and artifacts to look at, opportunities to clumsily fall down stairs in Japanese slippers, and chances to pretend we were alive when women were thrown down wells because they revealed secret plots and were then framed for stealing dishware. Excellent. It took us a long time to explore the castle but I still insisted that we follow it up with a wander through the nearby Japanese Gardens. Despite everyone else offering that winter perhaps isn't the ideal time to viewing these gardens, I was adamant, having read in the handy tourist brochure that the gardens offered 'something in all seasons'. The brochure lied. Unless you count the dead twigs and leaves, floating (dead) carp fish and the men cleaning the gardens..... I guess we should have asked the crazy old man at the castle entrance his thoughts on the gardens. He hovered for a good ten minutes as we purchased our tickets and prepared to enter the castle; then approached us as we looked at the information board to get an idea about the castle from the outset. The man then kindly took us aside and pointed out important information about the castle's history, explaining carefully to us various intricate details about the castle. This was all very nice, but odd when you consider that he was simply reading aloud (and clumsily at that) the ENGLISH information board, and paraphrasing and defining ENGLISH words to us...my favourite was when he read some of the board aloud then modelled applying makeup to his face to explain the 'cosmetic' reconstruction of some of the buildings that was already explained in writing. Ah Japan. Full of elderly men with nothing better to do than amuse us. Enjoy the photos.
In December, right before Christmas vacation, we found out from a friend that Himeji Castle was scheduled to close for refurbishment for a lengthy but unspecified time, from an unspecified date at some stage in 2009. This kind of vague confusion is not uncommon for us here in Japan, where we're often left guessing and trying to fill in the pieces of a kind of puzzle. "Where is the station?" we may ask, in an attempt at Japanese; but in reply we may hear countless different phrases; leading Ross and I to 'powwow' shortly after speaking any Japanese to someone: 'Ok, did you catch that first part? Did he say go right and then walk straight and turn at the zoo or go turn left, go straight then turn right at the kindergarten? I guess we'll just walk for awhile and turn if we see a toddler or a tiger." Powwow successful. In any case, for a long time Ross and I had been intending to see Himeji Castle, a huge old castle about an hour from where we live. Based on the information that the closure would occur in 2009 sometime, we decided to go to the castle, with out friends Rachel and KJ on one of our last days off before 2008 ended. The day was cold but beautifully sunny and dry for winter, so we had chosen really a perfect day to explore the castle, the grounds, a garden nearby, and Himeji town itself. We arrived in the early afternoon, and walked from Himeji station toward the looming castle. The castle is huge and can apparently be seen from any part of Himeji city, so we didn't bother with a map and just headed towards it. The castle is known for being 'THE castle' to visit in Japan, because unlike the extremely boring Osaka Castle (rebuilt sometime in the seventies and featuring an outside elevator), this castle has maintained both the inside and outside to look as much like the original as possible. The castle was amazing from start to finish: lots of incredible architecture and artifacts to look at, opportunities to clumsily fall down stairs in Japanese slippers, and chances to pretend we were alive when women were thrown down wells because they revealed secret plots and were then framed for stealing dishware. Excellent. It took us a long time to explore the castle but I still insisted that we follow it up with a wander through the nearby Japanese Gardens. Despite everyone else offering that winter perhaps isn't the ideal time to viewing these gardens, I was adamant, having read in the handy tourist brochure that the gardens offered 'something in all seasons'. The brochure lied. Unless you count the dead twigs and leaves, floating (dead) carp fish and the men cleaning the gardens..... I guess we should have asked the crazy old man at the castle entrance his thoughts on the gardens. He hovered for a good ten minutes as we purchased our tickets and prepared to enter the castle; then approached us as we looked at the information board to get an idea about the castle from the outset. The man then kindly took us aside and pointed out important information about the castle's history, explaining carefully to us various intricate details about the castle. This was all very nice, but odd when you consider that he was simply reading aloud (and clumsily at that) the ENGLISH information board, and paraphrasing and defining ENGLISH words to us...my favourite was when he read some of the board aloud then modelled applying makeup to his face to explain the 'cosmetic' reconstruction of some of the buildings that was already explained in writing. Ah Japan. Full of elderly men with nothing better to do than amuse us. Enjoy the photos.
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