Peter's Japan blog

I was getting very tired so I slept until 11h and only went to Himeji today. Originally I was also going to Okayama after Himeji but I abandoned that plan. So I could also be back early at the hotel.
So I took the shinkansen to Himeji, and walking out of the station, there was a big wide street leading up to Himeji Castle. After a 10 minutes stroll, I got to the entrance gate of the castle domain. Here already it was a magnificent view. The 600-yen entrance fee was well worth it for this beautiful castle, as you could also go inside the castle all the way to the top. Inside there were some small exhibits of historical pieces of that time. The road leading to the castle through all the castle walls is something very special. It uses many simple but effective tricks to defend the castle. The road goes all the way around and in many directions. Tricks like: the road going down at one time, letting the enemy think it's not the right way to the castle; when entering a gate you proceed forward, but the actually road is around the corner; when there are 2 paths to take, one of the paths seems to stop at a wall, but this is a visual trick, as the stairs actually go left, and around the corner. You see that many times the path is bending around and around, this has the other advantage that there is always one or two walls facing the path which have holes in them for shooting arrows and such, or low ceilings with trap door ceiling at gates.
Then the inside of the castle, there are 5 stories and 1 basement floor. Going higher and higher, the stairs get steeper and steeper. At the highest 2 floors, the you even have to watch your head because the ceiling is so close to the stairs. At the top the view is magnificent. There is also a shrine here, which originally stood on the ground where the castle was built. There is also a red stamp with which you could stamp your information pamphlet as proof that you made it to the top ;p. Going down is sometimes even harder because going down steep stairs is more difficult than going up them.
The castle was actually restored in the 1950s. They took apart many of the structures and huge wooden poles and rebuilt them using only original tools and techniques used when the castle was originally built. But this time also weak points in the overall structure were fixed. Truly a must when visiting Japan.

Himeji Castle:

Follow up:

Inside the castle:

Some of the steep stairs:

Himeji Castle (closer):