After our garden tour, it was time to head for Himeji. We arrived in Himeji with our luggage, but weren't staying the night there. Conveniently, train stations have coin lockers and we found one relatively easily. The trick came with getting it to lock. The locker required 600 yen and it only accepted 100 yen coins. No problem. Ian put the 6 coins into the locker, closed, the door, and attempted to pull the key out. No dice. It didn't budge. Then I noticed that the meter read 300 yen. ??? It hadn't registered 3 of the coins we put in. We looked for another locker, but they were all full. We had to use our language skills to figure this out. There was no way we could carry three bags around with us. First we found a station worker, who pointed to the meter reading 300 yen and told us "600 yen". Yes, we understood. Ian even took another 100 yen coin and added it to the locker. Still read 300 yen. The station worker shrugged and told us we would have to call the telephone number above the lockers. Ok, call one to Ian. The employee who answered the phone said someone was coming. But, the employee didn't ask where in the station we were. ??? We waited 10 minutes and I called a second time. This time went a little better. I was able to give the locker number and an employee came to help us. He too pointed to the 300 yen on the meter and told us "600 yen". YES!! WE KNOW!! We might be gaijin (foreigners), but surely we understood the difference between 300 yen and 600 yen! Finally after some more conversation we got him to understand. Turns out someone before us had attempted to add a 50 yen coin to the locker. It won't take those and jammed. We were so happy to have solved a problem using our language skills!
The city of Himeji is as much a modern city as Tokyo, but they have one huge connection to the past - Himeji-jo (Castle). (Here comes another history lesson! From Japanguide.com) The need for castles arouse after the central government's authority had weakened in the 15th century and Japan had fallen into the chaotic era of warring states. During that era, Japan consisted of dozens of small independent states which were fighting each other and, for defense purposes, were building small castles on top of mountains.
What makes Himeji-jo so remarkable are a couple of factors. When power was returned to the Emperor in 1868 (the Meiji Restoration), castles were ordered to be destroyed. Himeji-jo escaped this fate. The other factor is that most of this castle is original. It is one of two that are mostly original and relatively complete castles in Japan (the other is Matsumoto Castle.) There are about a dozen feudal castles that remain. However, some of them are reconstructions. Himeji-jo was completed in 1609.
Sakuramon Bridge was rebuilt this year. It is built in the style of the Edo Period.
These two boys, Takuma and Yuma, introduced themselves to us in English. They also gave us meishi, or business cards. The cards have the boys names in English and Japanese along with their birth dates. The boys are 9 and 7.
The impressive 6-story castle tower.
A collection of the family crest tiles. Each family that built or made repairs to the castle added their family crest tiles to the eaves.
You can see the relative size of the castle tower here.
Of all the castle, only this area reminds us of inhabitants other than military personal. These mannequins represent Princess Sen, the granddaughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and her husband Tadatoki Honda.
To end day 5 we left Himeji for Hiroshima. While waiting for the shinkansen in Himeji station, we saw this portable shrine. It can be carried through the streets during festivals. It's one of the largest and most lavishly decorated portable shrines I've ever seen. Can you see Ian and Addison in the background?
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