Today was a transfer day. We had 4 and a half hours on the bullet train from Hiroshima in the West, back to where we started in Tokyo.
We decided to visit Himeji Castle on the way to break the journey up a bit and get in later for our late AirBnB checkin.
Himeji castle was recently renovated (roof and other repairs) and reopened to the public in late March. It was built in the late 1400's and it is one of the few true relics of ancient Japan that was totally unaffected by the American bombing in World War II.
The crowds were out today. It was Saturday, a brand new tourist attraction and a beautiful day. Most of my group was pretty restless and hungry by the time we got to the top (7 steep, narrow stairways up!) So we kind of moved right through it. I really loved all of the wood post and beam construction (2 massive trees were used to support the structure from basement to roof and they still stand) and the all-wood original floors polished by hundreds of years of bare or socked feet.
Lunch, an hour of math, and we were back on our beloved Shinkansen - our last leg... sniff.... In no time we were passing Nagoya where we spent time with Koda-san, passing Mt Fuji quickly shedding it's snowy cap, passing through Shin Yokohama where Beth and I would spend weekends when we lived here, and finally to our final destination in Japan... Harajuku.
I will go into Harajuku a bit later, but basically it's the "hippest" area of the city that sits next to the "champs elysees" of Tokyo. We checked into our AirBnB near Takeshita Street (picture below), grabbed dinner and are watching the finale of Survivor - thanks Alex!
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