Kobe Day 2 - White Castle, no, not that one - Himeji Castle

March 3^rd, 2024

Kobe Day 2

Himeji Castle and Gardens 

Today was our second day in Kobe, and we visited Himeji Castle, one of the first designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in Japan.  It is the largest and most visited castle in all of Japan, and about an hour outside of Kobe.  Funny thing, we really haven’t seen much of Kobe.  Both days’ excursions were outside of the city.

 

Himeji Castle is comprised of 83 rooms and was built in the early 1300’s and has been expanded and upgraded several times, but never destroyed.  It is surrounded by a deep moat and very tall rock walls.  It was built with advanced defensive systems for the day which proved to be valuable as it is the only castle that was never overtaken in battle, never burnt down and survived WWII without being bombed.  It is called “White Heron Castle” because it is brilliant white.  (Again, not White Castle!)

When we entered the castle, we took our shoes off once again.  Each of the six floors showed incredible construction ... triangle windows for guns and rectangle windows for bows and arrow, rows of racks for weapons, and decorative brass fittings to cover nails.   In our sock-feet, we climbed those 6 floors of very narrow, very short, very steep stairs up to the top floor where there is a small shrine. (Glad we’ve been taking the stairs on the ship every day … Vi makes me!)  Once at the top, the views were incredible.  It was a clear, cold, crisp day, and afforded beautiful vistas!  The castle and grounds cover a 576-acre area.   It is very large.  AND, as we all know, what goes up, must come down.  It was quite a sight to see ... all our American sized, khaki-clad, sock-footed shipmates traverse back down the narrow stairs!  I'm sure the locals were amused!  

Attached to the castle property, the Koko-En garden area was one of the best that we’ve seen in Japan.  The waterfalls and reflective ponds were very picturesque.  The coy carp were huge, but I didn’t think they would want me to drop a line in.  We could tell that the cherry tree season was getting close.  While we saw many trees beginning to blossom, the vast majority of them were still not ready.  It would have been a treat to have been there a week or two later to see the riot of blossoming trees. (we were promised a “riot” of cherry trees!)  The locals look forward to it as much as the visitors.  

Day 2 in Kobe was good, but short and sweet.  Our "sail-away" today was witnessed by many of the locals as it was Zuiderdam's first call in this port.  They braved the cold as a brass band played "Anchors Away" and the people released lots of pink, white and green balloons as we sailed away.  Farewell, Kobe!

  

We are now on our way to our last Japanese stop at Fukuoka.

LeRoy & Vialula