Himeji

The last and final day in Japan. We packed up our bags and took a train to Himeji to do some day time sight seeing before our flight that evening. Fortunately for us, in Japan at pretty much every rail station there are lockers of all different sizes available for rent, so we were able to leave our bags at the station while we walked around. Also, we needed exact change to use the lockers, so I ended up buying a hot coffee from a vending machine. It actually came in a can and was pretty hot. Didn't taste too bad either. Unfortunately it happened to be one of the hottest, muggiest days that we'd had in Japan so hot coffee was about as appealing as a shiatsu massage from a porcupine.

The main attraction in Himeji was the Himeji castle. Unfortunately we weren't able to go in the main castle as it was under construction until 2011, but we were still able to explore a lot of the grounds and go in some of the other buildings.



There were some cool stories about the castle that we heard. For example the picture below is something called Okiku's well. There had been a maidservant named Kiku who was the employee of Aoyama, the chief retainer of the lord of the Himeji Castle. Kiku was also the lover of Kinugasa, a loyal retainer of the lord. She found out that Aoyama was planning on having the lord killed and so she warned Montonobu and the plot was not carried out. However Aoyama was understandably a little PO'ed at Kiku for throwing a wrench in his plans and he falsely accused her of losing a valuable family dish. The appropriate punishment for this was death by torture and then they threw Kiku's body in the well. Sucks for Kiku. Sine then there have been rumors of her spirit still haunting the well and the castle.



We spent the rest of the day, wandering around, going into 100 Yen shops (like dollar stores) and we even decided to buy the equivalent of a Mike's hard lemonade from one of the street vending machines, just to say we did it.

Finally we collected our bags, took a train a few hours to Osaka and got ready to head back to Sydney.

Overall, I'd say this was one of the best trips that I've been on. Japan was so foreign, and it was very difficult to get around, but that much more rewarding because of it. I will say I would never want to do anything like this completely on my own, as there were full days that went by that we didn't see a single other white person. Sometimes as you would pass another white person on the street, you would meet eyes and just give them a knowing head nod. Like you're in the same club of not knowing what the eff is going on or what anyone is saying. It didn't matter that they might also be completely foreign to you and not even speak English. All that mattered was that you were acknowledging you were both way out of your element. Had I gone on a trip like this without Lindsey, it would have been incredibly lonely and isolating. Though I'm yet to see the movie 'Lost in Translation', I'm sure watching it now and having had the experience that I did, I will have a much greater appreciation for it.

Well that pretty much closes the books on my Japan trip. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! :)