We had our free hearty breakfast at Toyoko Inn and walked to the Okayama Station as quickly as we could.
We caught the 8:05 train to Himeji.
We caught a taxi for a short ride to Himeji Castle passing hordes of people walking in the same direction we were going. Uh...oh!
We knew it was going to be crowded. Our taxi driver had warned us that people from all over Japan were coming to the castle.
And then we saw it!
Himeji castle is a World Cultural Heritage site and is representative of all the castles in Japan. This is one castle that was not destroyed in the war and has been preserved in its original form.
We thought we were early when we arrived at 9:30 or so, but was shocked by the line that appeared to have several thousand people waiting to buy tickets.HOWEVER, when the staff people saw mom in her wheelchair they told us to enter another way and moved us to the front of the line. We were totally blown away. Is that kind or what?
They told us that there were a lot of steps but she could try them if she was able to walk a little. They stored her wheelchair that would not have been good on the cobbled road and loaned her a cane.
OK... I know I wasn't going to post more sakura (cherry blossom) photos but I couldn't help myself. The castle was even more striking with all the cherry blossom trees in bloom.
And that's when we saw that there was ANOTHER line to enter the castle. Once you entered this line, it was hard to get out. Mom said she would walk as much as she could.
This line seemed to go on forever, but the cherry blossoms in bloom everywhere made our walk and wait bearable.
The blossoms were truly at their peak! After those cold days at the beginning of the trip and seeing nothing but tiny cherry blossom buds at least a couple of weeks away from blooming, this was incredible!
And still the line continued.
We saw these triangle, square and circle holes in the castle fortification. The triangles were used for guns, the squares for bows and arrows. I've no idea what the circles were used for... throwing stones maybe?
When we got into the castle itself, we saw that there were a number of impossible steps. I sent auntie on with Art to see the castle interior while I waited with mom. We waited for almost 45 minutes because of the crush of people going up the castle. Poor Art and auntie said most of the time they were smashed up against people.
Here's a display of what they saw. These are samurai armors.
At the top, Art took this photo of the scene below. You can barely see the ring of cherry blossom trees.
Here we are waiting for Art and auntie to come down. This is where people had to remove their shoes to enter the castle. The original plan was for me to go up and get a quick look after they came down. After seeing that crush of people for 45 minutes, I decided to forgo it.
Mom's leg was aching a bit so we took the trip down slowly.
We kept looking back to admire the castle and blossoms. The castle's construction began in the 1300's.
Someone was dressed as a lord and people were having their photos taken with him.
When we got to the bottom, we saw that hundreds and thousands of people had come for hanami (flower gazing). It is a custom in Japan to bring your lunch and eat it under the cherry blossoms. It seemed like everybody in Japan was there.
This made me think of lunch.
It was really gorgeous!
It wasn't just me taking a thousand and one photos of cherry blossoms.
After a while seeing all those people crammed together got a bit tiring and we decided to leave a little earlier than planned.
Passing the castle moat, we realized the line stretched even farther than when we came. How would they all get in?
Good grief!
It was such a treasure of a day... SUNNY and WARM.... warm enough for us to have some sakura (cherry) soft serve ice cream. We thought of my brother and wished he was with us. He happens to LOVE soft serve.
When we got to the train station, this panda was giving out free tissue packs. They do this all over Japan as advertisement.
We are still not comfortable using the yen. We keep getting confused by the coins but it is more efficient than paper money.
Mom's knee was hurting so auntie went with us to choose a boxed dinner for her. You'd think I'd know my mother well enough to know what she'd like to have for dinner. Well, auntie knows her sister even better than me. That was a revelation!