5th Day Himeji

view from the Nishinomaru Garden (right side when you exit the castle)

Since we got 5day Kansai Hiro Pass, we took a Shinkansen to Himeji from Shin Osaka and travelled 40mins only. We left early from our accommodation at 6:30 AM, and ate breakfast at St Marc Cafe, just outside the Himeji station, upon our arrival (that was a little before 8am). It was the best breakfast we ever had, the pastries tasted so good. The castle does not open until 9am so we have ample time to explore the castle grounds first. 

The castle can be seen from Himeji Station. So you can never get lost here. It's just a pretty straightforward walk, no need to open Google Map. The early morning walk to the Castle is good, we passed by a market at the side but the stores are still closed.

 

market

watch out for this cute manhole showing himeji castle

Started walking 8:30 AM and arrived at the Sakuramon bridge 20mins after. That's walking time including photo ops..Lol

• Sakuramon Bridge

us trying to act natural..hahaha

• Himeji Castle

      📍68 Honmachi, Himeji, Hyogo 670-0012, Japan

       Hours :

9:00 to 17:00 (until 18:00 from late July to late August)
Admission ends one hour before closing

Admission

1000 yen (castle only)
1050 yen (castle and nearby Kokoen Garden)

Tickets can be purchased onsite. We availed the combo ticket for the Castle and the Garden, there's not much of a price difference anyway.

Himeji Castle is known as "White Heron Castle" due to its graceful façade and color. Some say this is more authentic than Osaka Castle. The castle is largely made of wood and stone.

my son trying to annoy me

feeling so cute, now we are finally able to have our picture taken in Japanese traditional outfit! This spot is so cool, they have a stand where you can put your phone and snap away. Perfect for people with no tripod or having no one to take their picture.

himeji with its reflection

cute flower just before the entrance to the castle

my son overdoing the reminder

We ought to enter the castle first but saw a lot of people coming from the right side.

So we turned right, then down to the exit. But i advise you to tour the Main Keep before heading down so you can save your feet from a few walking. 

you can use this for 100 yen , I think it's for a little over a minute and my son was complaining it's a rip off. He has not gotten to scorch the whole area yet. You can view the Himeji station from here.

 Inside the Main Keep. This structure has 6 stories with one basement. The floors are wood so upon entering the Main keep you are only to wear socks, you will be provided with a plastic bag where you can put your shoes and take it with you during your time inside. Had i known this, I would have worn thicker socks, the wood feels at your feet is just torture. 

the stairs inside the main keep, this is how you go about every floors of the building. See the plastic bag?

view from the inside of the Main keep, the Himeji station is at the end of the lined yellow and green trees.
The top level you see here is the one we went down earlier
next second level is where the well is, you will see it later
the ground level is where you come from the Sakuramon Bridge

view from another window

weapons rack

skeleton structure of Himeji, see how it was built. I took a picture of this and sent it to my friend who is a structural engineer.

Okiku's well- inspiration for the movie "The Ring"

when your son wants to ruin the picture

at NishinoMaru garden, this is already at 11:07 AM, we are trying to get a shade. 
This garden is prettier in Spring as there are lots of Cherry Trees here.

saw this giant ball of fur in Himeji Park

Passed by these tourists our way to Koko-en Garden 

Koko-en Garden

It was only when we are heading to the Garden when we found at that it's actually outside the castle. We ended in Nishinomaru Garden thinking it was the Kokoen Garden or probably we just had miscommunication with the one at the ticketing booth.

could not get a clean long exposure shot here, the platform is just too shaky with people moving around too

Finished the Koko-en Garden by 12Noon, we spent 20-30 mins there. Head out to try some Kobe Beef A1 at Kushiyaki, read some blogs saying the food here is yummy. True enough! I don't eat medium rare meat but this one just melts in your mouth. Totally savory. I swear I had little tears in my eyes upon eating this. It is just so good.

my son ordered their burger with Kobe beef AI as well.

We rested for a bit at the concrete benches near the road and bought ice cream before heading back to the Himeji Station. Next Stop is Osaka. Timecheck 

By 320 PM, we are already on our way to Umeda Building. For some reason, google took us to a long route, there was construction near Umeda and there is no other way but to go around the construction instead of just straight through to the Umeda Building.

I swear I thought this was me..lol

finally arrived at Umeda Sky Building after 20mins of walking. 

We just head back down. there was already a long line from the 2nd floor. 

 If we have only left Himeji at 12noon, we would be here by 2pm but we just enjoyed Himeji and lost track of time, or not really. We know of the time but we are just so consumed by it. For me, it's ok to pass this spot, the elevator shot is all we missed. There's always next time.

So we decided to go shopping instead and went back again to the long route. 

 

Spent 2 hours in Donki, and went to this mall to look for One Piece Book. My son's classmate had requested for him to buy one.

we found the book but just when I was about to pay, the cashier said no English. The book is in Japanese. Sad, we just returned it.

Finally finished with all the shopping at 6:30 PM. We head back to the nearest train station but was actually far. And my feet are just crying in pain. When we arrived at Shin Osaka, I was already dragging my feet. I could no longer walk!!!  I had I think 30K plus steps that day. 

So by 8:30 PM at the accommodation, I was totally wasted. I had my feet raised to the wall and rested. Tomorrow is Miyajima Day so I don't want to ruin my trip just because I can no longer walk. My friend offered me his magic spray and it indeed worked as magic.  Today was just another day. Tomorrow is another 20K+ steps.. Hahaha

6th Day Miyajima-Hiroshima

 

We left early again today to Visit Miyajima and Hiroshima. The bullet train ride from Shin Osaka takes about almost 1.5 hour covering 400kms. Usual itinerary is Hiroshima-Miyajima but we are taking it backwards. We always get to the furthest site first to avoid any unforeseen issues on going back.

Going to Miyajima, you get to Hiroshima first as this is the jumpoff point. After exiting the Shinkansen area, we took the JR San-yo Line from Hiroshima Station west to Miyajima-guchi Station (26 minutes, Y260) and then a ferry between Miyajima-guchi Pier and Miyajima (10 minutes, Y180). The ferry and train are covered by the JR Pass so we did not pay for anything.

From the the Miyajima-guchi  station to the Pier takes about 5mins in walking. Do not worry about getting lost, everyone is going at the same direction and it's just a straight through direction, there's just this part where you need to take the underpass. 

Visitors to Miyajima have to pay a 100 yen visitor tax, which is collected by the ferry operator. Since we are  rail pass holders we purchased a separate 100 yen ticket for the visitor tax at the ferry terminal. There's a ticketing machine there. In case of regular tickets and IC cards, the tax is included in the ticket cost, 

Itsukushima Shrine and Torii    picture taken from the ferry approaching Itsukushima island

Arriving at Itsukushima 

we are not sure if this is only available in this Island, but we checked every Vendos we see but did not find anything like this. My son loved this Cocoa drink. He purchased this to warm his hands and face but it turned out to be a delicious drink.

i don't mind walking with this view

you can see deers already just a short walk from the pier

be careful of this spot, it's so narrow it gives you the feeling of falling

We skipped going to the Shrine. the line is just outrageous. We continued working and went up to the hill to the 5-story pagoda.

Gojunoto pagoda

               

We went down again and headed to Our next stop. 

Momijidani Park

- is one of the most famous maple leaves valley parks in Japan. The park is located at the foot of Mt. Misen. We did not venture too far as we are tight with our schedule.

We were totally amazed with this deer, i took a picture of him not realizing that he was standing there letting people pass first. When the last person crossed the bridge, he followed suit. What a cutie!

Daishoin Temple

This temple is probably the most memorable to me. The location, the ambience is just giving me the vibes. I totally loved this place especially having seen this in its autumn peak.

bridge at near the entrance of Daishoin Temple

just across the bridge, us waiting for our time to have a solo moment with the bridge.  

stairs at the left side of the entrance

Entrance

Steep but a little less work than Chureito Pagoda
at the left side of the stairs, you will see the small jizo statues placed in a small garden

                                                          

Small Jizo Statues


Took a pic with some of them

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

what does it say?

Inside the dim-light Henjokutsu Ichigandaishi cave hangs a number of lanterns in the ceiling, a smell of a nearby incense and the silence make this experience surreal. I just felt goosebumps here. It's so spiritual.

this gives me Avatar vibes

view from the stairs

As it as almost lunch time, we headed back down to the beach where most of the stores and restaurants are.

saw a girl holding this and asked where she bought it, took a snap but never got the chance to buy one. It was totally out of way. 

Miyajima Omotesandō Shopping Street

we bought barbecued meat at the street and had to stop right at the stall. No walking while eating in Japan.

Momiji Manju

Some stores have glass at the front so you can see them while they are making this. I think this one is chocolate flavor.

After a little taste of the street food. we head out to the nearest restaurant we can find. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of cash in the island so we searched for souvenir shops that accepts credit card as payment. I did not bother taking a photo of the shop, I was busy choosing and buying! hahahahha.

We enjoyed this island so much it  already consumed some alloted time for Hiroshima. We arrived at the Miyajima pier past 2pm and arrived at the Atomic Bomb Dome by 3:22 PM.

So from Miyajima Pier we head back to Hiroshima Station and took the sightseeing bus. Funny thing was the Atomic Bomb Dome was not on the list for the Bus Stops on that parked Bus.  We asked the driver about it then suddenly he pulled the string like you would when opening or closing your blinds, then there the Atomic Bomb Dome is now part of the Bus Stops.

 Atomic Bomb Dome

Peace Memorial Park

 Pressed for time, we just enjoyed the view and took photos of the river.

Nagata-Ya

重石ビル １F 1 Chome-7-19 Otemachi, Naka Ward, Hiroshima, 730-0051, Japan

We crossed the bridge back to Atomic bomb Dome side and continued to Nagata-Ya. This is highly recommended restaurant for the infamous Okinomiyaki Hiroshima Style.  You don't get lost finding the restaurant as this is just near the port for the Hiroshima River Cruise and you will see an Italian Cafe as well. 

Took a cab to Shinkansen Station as it's already 5:10 PM . Target ride back to Shin Osaka  is 5:30 PM.