Himeji - November 2009
Himeji is home of one of Japan's best preserved castles. It's known as the White Herring Castle. Construction of the castle, in its current form, began in 1601 under Ikeda Terumasa. It is Japan's most visited castle. From Kyoto, it's roughly a one hour ride by the fastest (most expensive) bullet train.
Be warned that if you're planning to visit, they're planning to repair the plaster walls on the outside of the main keep starting in April 2010. The walls will be hidden by scaffolding and they expect the repairs to take a few years.
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A natural fence made out of the branches.
After visiting the Koko-en Garden, we went to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History. Earlier, Yan flipped through the tour book and noticed a free kimono fitting at the museum at 3:30. We rushed from the garden and arrived at 3:29. For the demonstration, the museum personnel will put one person in a kimono or armor. If there was more than one volunteer, the volunteers would draw for the privilege. Of course, our heroine triumphed over the other volunteer, a Japanese man.
This was the first layer of the twelve-layer (Jyuni-hitoe) kimono. This special type of kimono is worn by the women at court and weighs about 20kg!
