This morning we had to leave the lovely, lovely man; the lovely, lovely lady and the lovely, lovely Ryokan. We are all a bit sad. The lovely, lovely man gave us another lift to the port and stood waving by the car until we had gone into the building. He was possibly ensuring that we had actually gone, but it felt very friendly.
They had got up extra early to make our delicious breakfast and cool the car down for us. Keith did his packing trick again (my packing trick is to stay out of the way as much as possible and then demand things he has already hidden…) and we arranged for the bags to be sent straight to Tokyo.
So, we had done the car bit and the ferry bit. Next we hopped on the local train to the Shinkansen station at Hiroshima and caught our bullet train. This one felt a little tired inside but it went just as fast so we didn’t mind. It is a slightly different experience when you don’t have reserved seats, but within 1 stop we were all sitting together.
About a third of the way along the route, Keith drew my attention to a massive castle we could see out of the window. It transpired that this was Himeji Castle, the biggest in Japan – one we were not scheduled to visit. We continued to speed along, but it was niggling at Keith. We both had a look at the stuff to do in Osaka (sorry Osaka) and decided that we would prefer to see Himeji Castle.
We dropped off the bags at the hotel and then hopped back on the Shinkansen with a picnic lunch (can you guess which meal went to which person?) to Himeji. It was so humid today that an extra few hours in air conditioning was no punishment and the castle in a thunder storm was awesome!
[Keith edit: Jo misses out how we got from the hotel to the Shinkansen. To do this, you have to get on a local train at Osaka and then pick up the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka. We arrived at Osaka (not as much English signage as in other cities) and there was a train at one of the platforms. Nothing obvious to say it was the right train….so I shoved everyone on it. Much to Jo’s surprise we arrived at Shin-Osaka 5 minutes later. She was panicking. I was sure it would be the right train.]
It was very straightforward to get to the castle as there was an excellent lady in the tourist information who spoke excellent English and told us exactly which bus to get on and from where.
[Keith edit: Two note-worthy points about the castle. Firstly, ninjas did actually live here, unlike other places we’ve visited, like the Ninja Temple in Kanazawa, where locals pretend they lived there for tourists. Ninjas were a lower caste of warrior. Secondly, the ninja training camp scene in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice was filmed at Himeji Castle. If you’ve seen the film you’ll no doubt remember Sean Connery’s appalling rendition of a Japanese person, with hair black and slicked down, and some rather dodgy makeup.]
The sky had darkened by the time we got to the castle and the heat was oppressive. We had an impassioned discussion about whether or not it was hotter/ more humid than it had been in recent days.
Mila went to get Keith a melon soda on the way into the castle and managed to press the wrong button. We all shared the resulting peach stuff that came out and Keith didn’t sulk too much, he just muttered for a bit!
The castle was amazing and showed the 1.2 billion Yen that they have just spent on it was probably worth it. I read a hilarious review on TripAdvisor by an American gentleman that complained it was empty and they really ought to put some more stuff in it.
Keith took some great photos as we climbed the levels and looking out of the window on the 4th floor revealed that it was raining heavily. Mila completed the journey to the top at break neck speed and then went straight back down to stand in the rain. When the rest of us made it down, it was to a very dejected little face. The rain had stopped by the time she got out and she had missed it. Poor baby!!
The temperature had dropped massively when we came out and the air felt clearer. In actual fact the pressure had probably dropped as well. We got a few more fat drops of rain and then the thunder and lightning started. It was right behind the castle from our vantage point but Keith didn’t quite manage to catch it on camera. Disappointing really. The children screamed when the lightening flashed and got looked at by all the sensible tourists.
It was well worth the journey back the way we had come to see the castle and the reduced temperature for a few hours was a much appreciated bonus.
Not having seat reservations was no problem and our Shinkansen back to Osaka was even quicker (for some inexplicable reason). I found a restaurant with good reviews in the Dotonbori district and Google Maps took us there very efficiently. I cannot cope with walking the wrong way so Keith has to drive it, but I can plan the routes!!
The restaurant was only just open and no-one else was there yet but we bravely went in. The English spoken by the waiter was not excellent but the English menu seemed comprehensive…. until we started ordering and he kept saying old… no more… at us. Then we had to look at the new menu (only in Japanese) and try to match the pictures from the old one. A little cranial challenge just increased our appetites!
The food was good. Who knew there would be a cover charge for vegetables? I mean we were excited to see vegetables but we thought it was a dish we had ordered accidentally. My only concern was that the chicken wings were not chicken. The bones looked wrong somehow. No?
Keith and I had lemon sours. They had gin in them and were strong. Caroline would have liked it…
The area of Dotonbori is crazy. It is all lit up and is the essence of weird Japan. There was even a kind of Ferris wheel inside a building. Mila was desperate to go up but the rest of us thought she was crazy and wouldn’t join in.
We had a little wander about the craziness and found epic waffle cup icecreams for pudding. I am a bad person as I failed to read the sign IN ENGLISH that told me the server was visually impaired. I tried my usual trick of pointing to the menu and saying “are o kudasai” which didn’t work. Argh….. we worked it out eventually, got the ice creams and then we headed back to our trusty MyStay for a well earned rest.
My bruise… for posterity:
… which has been knocked with a camera, tapped, bumped into and generally abused all day. Grrr.