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With the 0959 Shinkansen I left Osaka for Himeji, where Chikako has been waiting to show me the famous Himeji castle. Unfortunatley it has been raining (more or less) for the whole day, so the pictures turned out rather bleak.
The castle has been recently renovated. It is entirely constructed of wood, 2 main (wooden !) pillars carry the entire structure.
The sequencing of the trains is amazing: within just 8 minutes 3 Shinkansen trains are leaving Shin-Osaka going in the same direction; but all stopping at different places: some at all stations, some at just a few...
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| Himeji Castle |
The castle has been recently renovated. It is entirely constructed of wood, 2 main (wooden !) pillars carry the entire structure.
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| main pillar |
But I don't think it would have been a very pleasant place to live: cold and windy with little heating, long and steep stairs to get to the top floor...
I much more liked the gardens (which at the time have been also part of the castle).
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| Bonsai |
As it continued to rain, we visited a local onsen and after a quick dinner of Unagi (= eel) returned to the JR station for my train departure at 1750.
But here my faith in/ praise for the Japanese train system has been quite shattered:
'my' train did not show up on the announcement panels and after inquiring it turned out that it had been cancelled (as well as the next one :-(( I used this time to do some shopping for enxt day's breakfast, as by the time I'd be arriving the shops would have been closed.
Finally arriving in Kumamoto at 2239 (iso 2042), where Yuko has been waiting, driving me (and the luggage that had arrived earlier at her place) to my accommodation.
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