The Egret Castle and the Nine Gardens of Himeji

On our last day in Japan we took the Hikari to the the city of Himeji, not too far from Osaka. Waiting for us at the station was Ms. Misako, a retired engineer that now works as a volunteer guide in her spare time. Ms. Misako carried a small binder with a ton of information about Himeji Castle. Unlike Nijô Castle in Kyoto, Himeji Castle is a real castle, which served as a defensive station during the war times before the shogunate was established. It also served as temporary residence for princess Sen, the granddaughter of the first shogun.

The castle was built in the 14th century and, unlike almost any other castle in Japan, it has never been burned down or otherwise destroyed. However, in the 20th century it was fully disassembled and rebuilt for restoration purposes. Some of the wood and stones were replaced, but it is mostly the original that you'll see standing. The whole restoration work seems even more amazing when you actually take in the castle's full size. To completely take it down and re-assemble it exactly as it was was truly an awesome feat.

The castle is commonly called the "Egret Castle" or "White Heron Castle" due to its elegant shape. However, when you start exploring it, you realize how its function had nothing to do with elegance. The castle grounds are a maze of walls and gates devised to confuse and trap any intruders. It was most definitely not meant as a luxury noble residence. Even on the inside, you can see how the doors have been built lower than the floors, so they can be easily blocked from the inside, and there are hole and slits everywhere from which can throw stones and shoot arrows to the outside. From the top floor you can enjoy a commanding view of the city.

We actually spent about three hours exploring very nook and cranny of the castle, with the help of our knowledgeable guide so, by the time we left, we were starving. We went to the nearby Koko-en gardens and had a local meal of noodles and barbecued conger-eel sushi. Even though I usually stay away from eel, I must admit everything was pretty much delicious.

After lunch our guide took us on a short tour of the gardens. They were built in the 1990's, on the site of some former noble houses. The old walls have been restored and serve as divisions to the nine different gardens. I'm sure the Japanese visitors will be able to find a lot more contrasts in each garden than we, who are anything but Japanese garden experts, did.

Still, it's clear even to us that each garden has its own theme and features. One is a bamboo-only garden, another is a Zen-style garden, yet another one is a tea appreciation garden and has its own teahouse, a fourth one is a pine tree garden and so on. You really need two full hours to be able to fully appreciate the gardens, and we only had one before we had to rush back to catch our train, so we sort of breezed through it, and had no time for tea.

When we arrived back at Kyoto, we made our way to Kitano Tenman-gû Shrine. Yes, we had had our share of shrines and temples, but this one had a monthly market going on on that day and we wanted to take a look. The market was mostly a flea market and not a reliable place to pick up antiques or anything of that sort. Still, it was a lot of fun browsing all sorts of wares, sampling some festival-type food and watching the children play a popular fishing game, in which one must try and catch as many goldfish as you can with a thin paper membrane. It looks hard, but those kids were doing a great job. Maybe they've been practicing for years.

From the Kitano Tenman-gû shrine we took the bus to the city center, and walked around the main shopping area, where I had the chance to eat a really good Portuguese egg tart. I had no idea those were popular in Japan! Then we walked back to Ponto-Chô for a final sushi dinner and later we had a few drinks at Garbo, a local little bar whose owner (who spoke no English) and assistant were kind enough to welcome two foreigners and even have us sample a few local snacks. We ended up staying later than anticipated, and when we finally got to the hotel, we packed our suitcases quickly and went to sleep.