姫路城 [Himeji Castle]

Though the posts from now forth are going to be "posted" on the date the event occurs, most it of it will be have been written at least one month afterwards. I didn't have the time to post my blogs immediately after our weekend excursions, because we played too much! However, hopefully, they are still accurate depictions of what we did (nothing too exaggerated such as 石さん jumping into 大阪 harbor and 桑原さん chasing after him, or something).

Early Saturday morning, we set out to 姫路市 [Himeji City] in 兵庫県 [Hyogo Prefecture] in hopes of finding ourselves a "real castle." 市川さん and 伊達先生 kept calling 大阪城 a fake, because the main structure burned down during World War II air raids. When we went through 姫路城 (Himeji Castle), the distinction was clear. The building was old, but still magnificent. Plus, there were no elevators and it didn't feel like a museum (which was much of what I felt while wandering thorugh 大阪城 with its nice informative televisions, models, and short skits about the history of the castle). I overheard (as I was shamelessly eavesdropping in someone else's conversation) that 姫路城 was havily damaged in a typhoon either last year or a couple years back. It was evident as a lot of the wooden support beams were heavily cracked probably due to the tension of the strong winds. However, it was very obviously that building something so tall may cause it to wear faster due to weather (considering how common typhoons are in Japan). Ah... I am glad I was able to see the castle though. :)

While we in 姫路, we crashed the お城祭 [o-shiro Festival] by accident. Because we weren't there for the 祭 (as we had a nice fireworks display to attend later that night that interested us more), we didn't stick around to take pictures or anything. There are nice pictures of the 祭 from someone else who was there though. The festival was pretty cool, because during the festival, everyone was granted free admission in 姫路城. *dances around happily for saving 600円*

Trying to pretend I am a resident of the nice castle:


How the castle corridors look:


This pictures shows the different family crests, also known as 家紋 [kamon], that can be found on the castle roof tiles. They mark the rulership of the castle and also gave an indication when parts of the castle was constructed or added. Obviously, everytime the castle exchanged rulership, it wasn't exactly prudent to spend a lot of energy to go around replacing these roof tiles, haha.


Me at the foot of 姫路城 (which is still considerably higher than the city):


The view of the city on the 8th floor of 姫路城:


The castle itself from my perspective (a feeble attempt at a camera trick):


Part of the お城祭 march:


Notice how the uniforms change with the years and change of rule of 姫路城:


We saw this guy with those chipmunk things/animals:


Look! It stands:


After we explored 姫路城, we went to the nice garden just west of the castle called 姫路城西尾屋敷跡公園 [Himeji Castle Nishi-Oyashiki-Ato Garden], also known as 古公園 [kokouen]:


Another scenic view of the beautiful garden:


The last I saw of the 祭 and basically of 姫路市 as we grabbed a quick bite to eat (yum, festival food!):