Today, I left Osaka and journeyed to Okayama, visiting Himeji Castle and Kōraku-en Gardens en route.
When we left Osaka today, the coach first took us to travel to Mount Shosha, home to Engyo-ji Temple, where some of the film 'The Last Samurai' was shot. When we left Mount Shosha, we continued to Himeji, where we visited the castle that typifies Japanese castle architecture before having lunch locally. After lunch, we continued our journey to Okayama to take in the lakes, waterfalls and traditional tea houses in Korakuen, one of Japan's most beautiful gardens. We stopped overnight in Okayama.
Mount Shosha.
Mount Shosa steps.The Shoshazan Engyō-ji is a temple of the Tendai sect in Himeji, Hyōgo, Japan. It was founded by Shoku Shonin in 966. The complex of buildings is at the top of Mt Shosha. A one-mile hiking trail can reach the mountain summit where the temple is.
The coach parked near the entrance to the Temple Gardens, and we walked across to the entrance. Our guide had already told me that it was another very steep walk to a small temple and that it may be too much for me to walk to, so I sat at the entrance where he told me to wait while others in the group followed him up to the Engyo-ji Temple. I was joined by a couple who had also decided it would be too much for them to walk up.
We sat talking, waiting for the group to return, and we looked around the small shrine at the entrance to the Temple grounds. After we had sat waiting longer than expected, we started to wonder why the guide and the group hadn't returned. As we waited for the group to return, another guide appeared and told us that everyone was waiting for us on the coach. The guide who had told us where to wait had changed his mind, and he came down through a different entrance and had not bothered to come back to get us.
We walked with the second guide back to the coach, where everybody else was sitting waiting for us. It is the first time I have been late back from a visit to somewhere I didn't even go. Once we were all back on the coach the driver took us into Himeji, to a car park a short distance from the entrance to Himeji Castle.
Himeji Castle.
Himeji Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle complex situated in Himeji, a city in the Hyōgo Prefecture of Japan. The castle is regarded as the finest surviving example of prototypical Japanese castle architecture, comprising a network of 83 rooms with advanced defensive systems from the feudal period. The castle is frequently known as Hakuro-jō or Shirasagi-jō ("White Egret Castle" or "White Heron Castle") because of its brilliant white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight.
Himeji Castle dates to 1333, when Akamatsu Norimura built a fort on top of Himeyama Hill. The fort was dismantled and rebuilt as Himeyama Castle in 1346, and then it was remodelled into Himeji Castle two centuries later. It was then significantly remodelled in 1581 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who added a three-story castle keep. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded the castle to Ikeda Terumasa for his help in the Battle of Sekigahara. Ikeda completely rebuilt the castle from 1601 to 1609, expanding it into a large castle complex.
Several buildings were later added to the castle complex by Honda Tadamasa from 1617 to 1618. For almost 700 years, Himeji Castle has remained intact, even throughout the bombing of Himeji in World War II and natural disasters.
Himeji Castle was a place I wanted to see because I learnt about it in a simulation game I sometimes play, Civilization VI. Our coach parked across the road from the castle, and our guide walked us across the road, through the gateway and into the gardens in front of the castle. After he had collected our entrance tickets, we were led to the castle, and he told us about its history. Once again, he told me that the interior of the castle would probably be too much for me to walk up in the 40 minutes we had there. He said that the building was actually empty of any relics or furniture and was relatively uninteresting inside. He then led everyone off on a tour of the inside of the building.
I saw a path labelled as a disabled path that would take me up several levels to the keep of the castle and decided to take this route. I was annoyed that the guide hadn't bothered to point this out to me or any of the other less able people on the coach. I did manage to walk up several stories on this path, even though it was arduous work. The path marked as a disabled route was anything but. Even a motorized disability scooter would have had trouble getting up the steep slopes.
The view from the Keep over Himeji was worth the effort, and there were a few benches where I was able to sit and catch my breath after the walk. I took lots of photos before heading back down through the castle and back to the castle grounds. I walked back towards the car park and stopped in the gift shop to buy a T-shirt before walking to the coach and joining the rest of the people on the tour.
When we left the castle, we went to a local restaurant in Himeji. We were all sitting in one room at long benches with other coach loads of tourists. The food was okay, but nothing special.
Kōraku-en Gardens.
Kōraku-en is a Japanese garden located in Okayama. It is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan, along with Kenroku-en and Kairaku-en. Kōraku-en was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa, lord of Okayama.
We were driven to the gardens, and after collecting our tickets, the guide gave us 40 minutes to look around. It seemed on this trip that 40 minutes was the allotted time to look at anything. I would have spent a few hours looking around the gardens if I had made my way there on my own.
When we went into the gardens, I walked to the cages that housed Red Crowned Cranes. They were beautiful birds, and it is a shame they were not left to wander freely. After looking at the Cranes, I walked around a small part of the grounds and admired the gardens and some of the buildings there before I had to return to the coach.
After leaving the gardens, we were driven to and dropped at our hotel in Okayama. For my meal tonight, I walked a short distance to a 7-11 store, where I selected some different Japanese snacks and a Japanese Kirin beer and took them back to my room at the hotel to eat before going to bed. I spent some time watching CNN on TV, listening to Donald Trump's rants. I can't believe that America is probably going to return the idiot to power. God help the whole world.
Photos from Kōraku-en Gardens.
Ana Crowne Plaza, Okayama, Japan.
My hotel tonight was the Ana Crowne Plaza, Okayama, Japan.
Address: 15-1 Ekimoto-Machi, Okayama-shi, Okayama 700-0024, Japan