From Hiroshima to the white heron castle and Kyoto

The moment we arrived in Himeji from Hiroshima we could see the famous 14th century “white heron castle” also known as the “snow castle”, which is a Unesco Cultural Heritage site and regarded as a national treasure in Japan.

It is not very castle-like in the English tradition. It is more like a beautiful pagoda with elegant curving roofs and pristine white walls.

It is located high on a hilltop with a plinth-like setting with high stone walls all around and a wide moat.

The climb up the six floors to the top of the castle was gruelling with many steep wooden steps inside, taking you higher and higher.

The windows are rather unrewarding being more slats for shooting arrows rather than offering unimpeded, panoramic views. Nevertheless, the climb was worthwhile because we did get to see more closely the beautiful carpentry inside the castle with its massive beams and impressive floors and heavy doorways.

This castle was never attacked and therefore it was never actually tested as a fortification but it would certainly have been no easy task to seize it because of the steeps slopes and immense walls.

The weather was so warm in Himeji that we were forced to remove our jackets and walk in shirt-sleeves. This is November, yet it felt like a warm day in September.

The Koko-en garden at the foot of the garden was even more thrilling with its superb displays of maple trees in their full fall foliage colours and magnificent waterfalls and koi filled ponds.

The lovely thing about Koko-en is that it is now being used to showcase examples of top-notch Japanese landscaping and garden design.

You not only get to see beautiful ponds and waterfalls and elegant stone paths but superb walls and fences and gazebos and teahouse structures as well as lovely displays of fall flowering camellias and impressive stands of bamboo.

We loved our time in this series of gardens and found it difficult to stop taking photos as there were wonderful views and picture perfect scenes in all directions.

We reluctantly left the garden to find our way back to the train station where we boarded the bullet train for Kyoto.

On the train, we found we had the whole compartment to ourselves and decided to have our own little sake party.

When a young Japanese businessman boarded the train, we invited him to the party and he agreed with a smile and enthusiasm, but with a gentle, polite restraint and consideration that made us all feel again very appreciative of the Japanese way of showing respect and humility.

In Kyoto, we end the day with a walk through the Gion district where we saw three geishas going out for an event. We were also shown how to identify geisha houses as well as quality restaurants in the area where they indicate they are open by watering the ground in front of the restaurant and by putting out dishes of salt.

There are also red lanterns lit – a modern affectation – showing the restaurant is open for business.

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