Himeji Castle

Today we left Kyoto early by Shinkansen to journey to Himeji (to see the castle), and then travel further on the Shinkansen to finish the day at Okayama. At Himeji station we really realised just how fast these trains travel, since a lot of them go express through the station. Each time the station rattled like it was in imminent danger of coming down!

From the station it’s a shortish walk down the boulevard straight to the castle.

The castle still has ramparts and a moat, although it’s not nearly as extensive as it once was as you can see from the models I saw.

On my way back to the station, I passed by some mounds on a cross street that were obviously once one of the outer walls.

Anyway, once you’ve entered the castle precinct, you cross an outer moat, 

an inner moat, and then you need to walk up a fairly steep path to get inside.

Like other castles, this was purely defensive. No living in this building! It had five floors from the exterior, and seven inside.

There were also sets of arrow and musket firing grills that were accessed from either above or below. You can see some of the musket racks in the second picture.

Today, the floors have no partitions, but in its heyday, the partitions were designed to add confusion for attackers. 

Like other castles, the steps were very far apart and difficult to go up or down.

Some years ago, the Japanese government decided to completely restore the castle. They took it completely apart, and repaired and replaced damaged timbers in the building. They built this model of the castle to help them put it back together.

After I’d gone to the top, I visited the ladies building. This was on the highest level of the fortifications, and was definitely defensive too.