Our sleep last night was long and deep and only intermittently broken by the snorey monster. Even so, we were pretty late catching the train to Himeiji. We finally managed to get the half-one shinkansen (one of those Japanese words that takes as long - if not longer - to write in hiragana as it does in romanji) and met a couple of english girls catching the same train, but to Hiroshima. We (well, Fona, because she's been there) regaled them with tales of things to see and do and we got off the train at Himeiji 50 minutes later.
Here we are, five days into our holiday, and already my impoverished supply of superlatives is grinding to a halt. Suffice to say I could have used them all to describe the splendour of Himeiji-jo. The views from the castle were brilliant, the design of the donjon was cunning and altogether the only problem with the whole thing was trying to squish my huge gaijin feet into tiny slippers intended for slight Japanese.
After oohing and aahing for a bit we were kicked out at closing time to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" playing from speakers incongruously mounted on the castle walls and walked back to the station. Having some time to kill before our rail ride to the metrolops, we popped into a shopping arcade and spotted an intriguing auto-kinetic sculpture and a tastebud-tingling branch of MisDo...
We zipped back to Kyoto and made for an izakaya mentioned in the rough guide where we had - surprise, surprise - fantastic food, then returned to the Tani House for an experiment with Tani-san's rudimentary washing machine...
Here we are, five days into our holiday, and already my impoverished supply of superlatives is grinding to a halt. Suffice to say I could have used them all to describe the splendour of Himeiji-jo. The views from the castle were brilliant, the design of the donjon was cunning and altogether the only problem with the whole thing was trying to squish my huge gaijin feet into tiny slippers intended for slight Japanese.
After oohing and aahing for a bit we were kicked out at closing time to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" playing from speakers incongruously mounted on the castle walls and walked back to the station. Having some time to kill before our rail ride to the metrolops, we popped into a shopping arcade and spotted an intriguing auto-kinetic sculpture and a tastebud-tingling branch of MisDo...
We zipped back to Kyoto and made for an izakaya mentioned in the rough guide where we had - surprise, surprise - fantastic food, then returned to the Tani House for an experiment with Tani-san's rudimentary washing machine...
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