Today it was off to Himeji Castle (one of Japan's oldest and most famous castles).
The weather turned out to be absolutely beautiful! Not too hot, not too windy, and not very many clouds at all.
We headed toward the castle, and right as we got to the park in front of the castle grounds, you could see a ton of sakura trees. It was really beautiful.
After walking past the park in front of the castle, we came upon the front entrance of the castle grounds and went inside. The interior of the castle grounds also had quite a few sakura trees as well. The whole time we were walking around the grounds, I was taking pictures. There's really not too much to describe, as the pictures pretty much show everything.
The inside of the castle was pretty cool too. They had a different display cases showing everything from weapons and armor to other items used in daily life within the castle. Here are a few pictures of the various weapons racks and armor that was on display.
Also there were some models and other layouts of what the castle looked like during it's heyday.
The view from the top of the castle was beautiful. Especially when you could look down and see all the sakura trees blooming on the castle grounds. Here are the pictures I took from the top, including a panoramic.
After climbing down from the top of the castle, we continued to walking around the rest of the castle grounds. One of the places we came upon was the "suicide quarter" (It's pretty easy to guess where the name came from.)
After taking our time and seeing the rest of the of the castle and it's grounds, we started to head behind the castle where there was a small history museum Ted wanted to see. But, not before I got a bunch more pictures.
I make a good samurai, don't I? Don't I ?!? >_< (stop laughing)
On the way to the museum, we came across this small shrine.
In the park behind the castle where the history museum was, I got a few more really good pictures of Himeji Castle from a different angle.
Then it was into the museum. Overall it was pretty small, but it had a few neat things inside of it (the crystal version of Himeji castle was really neat).
After we were finished with that, we headed back to Kobe. Since it was still light out, we went up on the ropeway they had there. It afforded us a great view of the city.
In the evening we just wandered around Kobe again, had some okonomiyake, and checked out a few arcades and other places around there. It was a nice and relaxing way to spend the evening. Tomorrow, we head off to Osaka.
