16 November 2023
Over castled
Himeji castle and Engyoji shrine
That all took longer than I thought, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Today I did 2.5 activities in Himeji. First the castle which I somehow had never been to before, followed by the somewhat attached excellent Koko-en garden and then finally some distance away, the Engyoji shrine. All were excellent, getting to and from all of this from Kyoto required 6 trains and 2 buses.
I took a lot of photos, so I will explain all of that below, but the bus back from Engyoji shrine is worth discussing. The bus came down a one way street, where a car was parked illegally (nice late model Lexus), hazard lights on, guy sitting inside it. The bus waited for a couple of minutes before sounding his horn once. The driver roared off as fast as he could, got about 100m in front of the bus, then slammed on his brakes. The bus came to a sudden halt behind him again. Then the driver of the car repeats this. Then we turn onto a main road, and the car is cutting in front of the bus as close as he can, forcing the bus to stop again, and then he was along side the bus, leaning on the horn, and swerved at the side of the bus causing the bus to swerve onto the wrong side of the road. Finally we got to a bus stop, and the car stops sideways in front of the bus in the bus stop lane.
I considered getting off! The driver opened the door, some people got off, and we tried to go around the car.. the car goes in reverse, into traffic, and hits the side of a van. The van came to a stop and the Lexus driver got out and started yelling at the van driver, and the bus driver just casually drove off around it all. I have never really seen anything like it before.
Exiting Himeji station, and the castle is immediately in view. There are a lot of covered shopping streets either side of the main road, but I decided to walk up the road and enjoy the view.
There it is, a designated treasure and world heritage site and many other things. They are setting up a light show on the dead lawn.
Another angle. I have seen a lot of castles recently, so I did not go overboard today.
Confused blossoms. Actually there was a tour guide explaining these are a different kind of tree and they blossom several times per year.
Inside of the castle is very wooden. Yes you must take off your shoes. The ladders up the 6 levels were not as steep as Hikone castle from yesterday.
There is chicken wire! But it is not as fine as Hikone. This is turning into a Himeji vs Hikone thing. Himeji has better chicken wire for taking photos...
Because if I push my camera right up against it, I can take a photo that is not covered with wire. That is the view back down to the station. I read online that some people complain it is too far to walk from the station. Really! 15 minutes at most.
Inside of the top level, or keep as they call it. Everyone has their shoe bag, including me.
Last view shot from the castle. There will be more view later!
There were a lot of kids visiting. Probably 10 different school groups.
Next up, Koko-en garden. If you get a combined ticket it costs basically 50 cents extra on top of the $10 castle ticket.
First, a lot of green and a waterfall.
Then a pond, with fish, and a bit of colour.
A bridge.
And if I get down low, which I did, great light.
A really nice garden, sectioned off into different themed areas with a route to follow so you do not miss any of it.
Last garden pic!
I now boarded a bus and headed north west, the signs tell you how to get to the ropeway on the bus stops, but I will not be going to the ropeway. Instead I got off a stop early and followed these signs to the path to walk up. It is a bit west of the ropeway station.
The trail to the ropeway station is not too high, about 30 minutes up I think. Starts off with steps but gets better.
It became rocky like a Korean trail. More rocks on the way down.
Great view, with rocks, from half way up.
Actually despite being a short hike, this was a really nice trail, highly recommended.
Before very long, I arrived at the top ropeway station, and had the deck to myself. I took a photo as proof.
View from deck, nice cloud.
View of unshaved big fat head. I am shaving right now because I hate being unshaven.
There goes the cable car, I yelled various insults at them accusing them of being lazy.
About 30 minutes walk along the top of the small hill from the cable car station and you get to Engyoji shrine, which is actually a big complex of shrines, so big that there is a bus to take lazy people around.
This is probably the best bit, which is the first bit. A very big old building.
Really nice trees up here.
I waited a really long time for that woman to move, but no. She knew I was waiting. I could have yelled at her?
I probably should have taken some photos of the other buildings, instead, the graveyard. The bus was quite funny, I saw a bunch of people break into a full speed sprint to get to the bus that was about to leave. And yet they could not walk the few minutes between each location within the shrine theme park.
Tiny Buddha's (I think).
Time to head back down to the bus, here's the view.
And here is a nice shot of the rocky path down, ruined by the power poles and wires. Soon after I was in for the bus ride of a life time.