(no subject)
(Prior entry edited and updated, instead of continuing it I'll just start a new entry)
Can't be said I'm not seeing Kansai. After checking in "hey - why not see yet another city today?". So on to another hour long train to Himeji - where they have the most famous castle in Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle). As it started to get dark it crossed my mind that 4 cities in one day might be bitting off more than I can chew. Anyway - Castle:
Gate was closed at 4pm - so denied regarding the tour.
Much respect for this exercise in Castle building - it has an outer wall with an outer moat (good luck getting siege equipment past that), then this hill, which you have to snake around. All of the walls are about 40 ft on a ridiculously steep grade. All the while there are towers and embattlements on both sides that would be shooting down at you. It takes about 5 gates to get to the keep. Note also that by the time this castle was in use, the Japanese had cannon technology. So - yeah - have fun with that.
Himeji was a nice little town. There wasn't much little about it, it was pretty built up actually. Of course it had the obligatory covered shopping street:
And this....thing, which I'm not going to hurt myself trying to explain (note the model of a wicked Himeji Castle rollercoaster):
Then back to Kobe proper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe). Apparently this was a foreigner amnesty zone in the past (otherwise you were executed on sight). It was one of the first cities to trade with the West so it became a very substantial port. You kind of feel that around the city - it has the Port feeling (if that makes any sense). I walked through what was alleged to be the old foreign district, but I didn't see anything taking a picture of. IT looked like a business district in any modern western city with the occasional old neoclassical late 19th century building (forgive me if I'm using terminology wrong, I mean marble and Corinthian columns and such) that I am very used to from Philly.
My walk took me to the port of Kobe:
And to a memorial for a HUGE earthquake they had in 1996. Part of the destroyed warf is.....uh...preserved:
Here's the memorial:
Then time to turn in (view from my hotel room):
Can't be said I'm not seeing Kansai. After checking in "hey - why not see yet another city today?". So on to another hour long train to Himeji - where they have the most famous castle in Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle). As it started to get dark it crossed my mind that 4 cities in one day might be bitting off more than I can chew. Anyway - Castle:
Gate was closed at 4pm - so denied regarding the tour.
Much respect for this exercise in Castle building - it has an outer wall with an outer moat (good luck getting siege equipment past that), then this hill, which you have to snake around. All of the walls are about 40 ft on a ridiculously steep grade. All the while there are towers and embattlements on both sides that would be shooting down at you. It takes about 5 gates to get to the keep. Note also that by the time this castle was in use, the Japanese had cannon technology. So - yeah - have fun with that.
Himeji was a nice little town. There wasn't much little about it, it was pretty built up actually. Of course it had the obligatory covered shopping street:
And this....thing, which I'm not going to hurt myself trying to explain (note the model of a wicked Himeji Castle rollercoaster):
Then back to Kobe proper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe). Apparently this was a foreigner amnesty zone in the past (otherwise you were executed on sight). It was one of the first cities to trade with the West so it became a very substantial port. You kind of feel that around the city - it has the Port feeling (if that makes any sense). I walked through what was alleged to be the old foreign district, but I didn't see anything taking a picture of. IT looked like a business district in any modern western city with the occasional old neoclassical late 19th century building (forgive me if I'm using terminology wrong, I mean marble and Corinthian columns and such) that I am very used to from Philly.
My walk took me to the port of Kobe:
And to a memorial for a HUGE earthquake they had in 1996. Part of the destroyed warf is.....uh...preserved:
Here's the memorial:
Then time to turn in (view from my hotel room):