Castles and Bikes - Clinton in Himeji

Well it's been a while, but I figure its now time to get this blog up and running again. Sophie may be back in Australia, but I'm still here and there's no sense wasting an opportunity to take yourself off to some part of the world you've never been to. In this case that part of the world was Himeji, a small-ish(?) city a little more than an hours train ride from Osaka. Himeji is famous for it's World Heritage listed castle that was built around 1580 and this was the reason that I made the journey out there.



Upon arrival in Himejii I put my guide-book to immediate use and set about tracking down the free bicycle hire place promised by Lonely Planet. I figured this would be a cool way to get myself from the station to the castle. But while I was indeed able to hire a bike at the station it turned out I needed to walk halfway to the castle to actually pick the bike up. Which kinda half-defeated the point of hiring a bike in the first place.

Never-the-less I was undaunted. Himeji City Hire Bike #14, or "Trusty" as I came to call him, was going to ferry me around town for the rest of the day regardless of the relatively short distance. Which was just as well for Trusty who was probably only a few weeks away from dropping the 'T' from his name altogether. The bald tires, the rear brakes that screamed liked a banshee and front brakes that kinda worked were not helping either. But then again I hadn't ridden a bike for a long time, and while it is true that you never really forget how to ride a bike you can get much worse at it.


My steed for the day, "Trusty" #14, together we made the streets of Himeji just that little bit less safe.

Himeji Castle is pretty much the best example of a Japanese castle I've come across. Sure, its only the second Japanes castle I've visited, but Osaka Castle is more like a fancy old building dropped in the middle of a public park. Himeji looks like the real deal, its just so... Castle-ly.

I mean just look at some of these pictures...


The rear entrance to the castle.



From the main courtyard, looking toward the front of the castle.



The view from the top of the castle looking down on Himeji.

I took about 112 photos that day, 95% of them were of this castle. There is just so much castle there and I don't think I even saw all of it! By the time I left I was starting to feel a little castle-ed out. So I sat myself down in the park nearby, drank some truly awful vending machine coffee before returning "Trusty" to the City of Himeji and hopping on a train back to Osaka. A day well spent.