Today was another rail day but we didn’t start quite as early as last time. This trip took us to Himeji. We had advice to go to other places besides but instead of programming anything beyond Himeji we decided to play it by ear. We left Tokyo Station at 7:36am and arrived on a direct train at Himeji at 11:16am. From there we immediately left the station and headed up the main road towards Himeji castle. On the way up we found a small roadside coffee shop that had a band of three girls playing music on keyboards, flute and a funky drum box thing. We bought some coffees and/or pastries and watched them until they took their break. They spoke to us because we were obviously gaijin but they didn’t speak English well.
After that we headed straight up for Himeji castle. On the big green below the castle they were setting up for a J-pop concert of some sort that was going to start at 8pm or so. We would have liked to see it but it was happening far too late for us to get back to Tokyo. The stage did sort of damage the view a little bit but there are so many good views of the castle I am not sure it made that much of a difference.
Where Marina told us it would probably be an hour and a half to get though the castle we were easily there for at least 4 hours. We scoured the place all over and I am sure there were still parts of the grounds we missed. I think the Japanese concept of visiting a site or museum is a bit more hurried than mine as their recommendations were also for a 90 minute tour. The castle was absolutely gorgeous and there was tons to see. There were views both inside and outside that were incredible. I loved every second of being there and would definitely go back again. There were a couple other attractions listed in Himeji but we really didn’t get a good chance to find or visit them. After we finished with the castle we pretty much walked around the town for a while, sort of in search of something to eat that was quick and snacky but that everyone would like. We found a place that was called Lotteria which was a kind of old school McDonald’s rip off but a bit better. I had a cheeseburger. They also had the deep fried apple pies that McDonald’s use to make. The kind that has molten apple lava inside them. We had some of those and burned our lips pretty well but it was worth it. As it goes the place stacked up favorably to American burger joints but we still liked Freshness Burger much more.
From there we headed back to the train station and got tickets back to Tokyo. We decided that a 9:30pm arrival to Tokyo would be better than trying anything else. They could not get us on a direct train to Tokyo that was green car and non-smoking all the way so they put us on a Kodama train to Shin-osaka where we joined an entire trainload of schoolchildren. The train sounded like it had a flock of chickens running around all over the place from all the chattering and running about of the kids. The poor teachers that were keeping handle of them looked like they were at the end of their patience but that ride for us was only 30 minutes long and then everyone had to offload. I am sure the teachers had more herding to go but we at least changed to our green car where we road much more quietly to Tokyo from Shin-osaka.
We returned to the hotel and it was about 9:30. The train rides seem to zonk you a bit plus we really haven’t been sleeping a full night’s sleep at all so we were sort of tired. We debated going out for real but only ended up going to a 7-11 and then running to a Mosburger which gave us the chance to compare it against the Freshness Burger and Lotteria. I didn’t have my camera with me so no pictures of the Mosburger from there. It’s right around the corner from our hotel so I will try to get another meal there so I can take a picture of one. I had a Spicy Cheesburger especially as a comprarison against Freshness Burger’s Salsa Burger and found the Freshness Burger to be superior. Their fries as well. We all agreed the Freshness Burger was the best choice. We were there right at closing time and just returned to the room to drink the can of beer we bought from the 7-11 and watch a teeny bit of Japanese TV. I will do some info about their TV later in the blog. I haven’t consumed enough yet. I will state directly that is very different from US TV though.
I should also add at some point that the blogspot website I'm posting from has magically changed to all Japanese characters for the icons and texts throughout it. Nowhere on it do I see a button to switch it English. I am very fortunate to have remembered which buttons to use when I started doing this or I would not have been able to post very easily.
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