Look out Japan, here comes Ken!

After a long day of travel I arrived in Japan. I managed to stay up all night before I left so that I could sleep on the plane and try to get my internal clock on Japan time. I flew into the Kansai International Airport; after being processed through immigration and customs, I proceeded to swap my dollars for yen. I then went to find the Japan Railway office to redeem my voucher for my rail pass. The rail pass is only available for purchase outside of Japan and with it you can ride on any of the local trains, buses and even most of the bullet trains for no additional charge. I got my ticket for a reserved seat and waited for my first ride on a Japanese train.

With the information I got from Ginger (thanks baby!), I was planning on riding the train from Kansai station to Shin-Osaka then transferring to the local lines for the final leg to Kakogawa. I made it to the Shin-Osaka station without much hassle. Once there I disembarked in search of the transfer. Since I had a ticket for the first train I was thinking that I needed a ticket for the local train. I waited in line to talk to one of the agents at the ticket count so that I could get my next ticket. Once I reached the counter I found out that she didn't speak any English. After a few minutes of me repeating questions in English and her answering in Japanese, I gave up and decided to try to find the train. It turns out that to board the local trains you just show the gate attendants your rail pass and they wave you through.

Ginger had told me about her experience trying to find the train that went in the right direction, went far enough down the line and stopped at the proper stops. I spent a few minutes trying to read signs and translate kanji (Japanese characters) to find the right train. The Japanese have done a great job trying to label things in both kanji and romanji (Japanese words spelled out in English letters). I manged to find the rapid train (fewer stops) and boarded it for Kakogawa. I made it to the Kakogawa station and with the help of the GPS I found the hotel without any issues. It was great to see my wife after two weeks of absence.

The next morning I work up, sent my wife off to work, and had an authentic Japanese breakfast. This consisted of miso soup, cold tofu in broth, rice, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, bacon (I think they steam it instead of frying it), salad and fish fillets.

I spent a couple hours doing research for our journeys through Japan, which was scheduled after Ginger finished her work in Kakogawa. After this I decided to set out in search of some adventures. One of the people Ginger was working with told her about a UNESCO world heritage site near by. One stop away on the local rapid train was Himeji Castle.

This being the second day, I felt a little more comfortable negotiating the train station, finding the proper train and getting off at the right stop. After disembarking from the train I booted up the GPS and headed off in search of the castle. A block away from the train station I saw a sign saying "Club Sega" pointing down into a basement of a store front. Being a reformed video gamer I had to go investigate. Down there I found a pretty sweet arcade, I snapped a couple pictures for the folks back home.

The Tekken machine took me back to my college days.

A snapshot of the Street Fighter 4 game for my buddy Larry.

Ginger loves her some claw machines.

But there was no time for games, castles were to be found! About a half a mile up the road from the train station I found the object of my quest.

Himeji Castle looming in the distance.

The castle had a moat surrounding it, most impressive.

Front gate to the castle grounds. The little golf cart sized vehicle gives you some perspective on how large the gates are.

Me in the front courtyard of the castle. I found some girls from Australia who I was able to ask to take my picture.

All around the grounds surrounding the castle there appeared to be wild cats. Very strange.

Before entering the castle grounds I had to make a pit stop. Being the only one in the restroom I took the opportunity to take a picture of the Japanese style toilets. Apparently you are supposed to face the hooded part when making a deposit.

The front gate to the castle. All of the grounds were meticulously groomed.

This stone is a monument to Nakamura Shigeto. He is the Army Colonel that had the foresight to set motions in place that would preserve Himeji Castle in its original state.

In the center of the castle is the "Three Country Moat." There were koi in this pond and even a heron stalking among the reeds.

A picture of the heron that was at home in the majestic castle grounds.

You may have noticed a mechanical crane in some of the prior pictures. At the time of my visit the castle was undergoing some restoration work and the main tower was not open to the public. This picture was the closest I could get to the main tower.

A picture of me on one of the many winding pathways that lead up to the main tower. One of the defensive features of the castle was the tortuous path that attackers would have to take when laying siege to the castle. This would give the defenders ample opportunities to reduce the ranks of the attackers with arrows, stones, and boiling oil.

This is a picture of the Oil Wall at Himeji. This wall was built using sand, clay, and a glue derived from rice. The wall has stood for over 400 years and is reported to be windproof, waterproof and even bulletproof!

Every Japanese lord who occupied the castle over the years has left their crests. This is a column displaying the different crests.

This is the Widow's Stone. Legend has it that during the construction of the castle, the supply of stones was running low. One of the women who would grind up grains for the castle soldiers heard of the plight and offered up her mill stone to fill one of the gaps in the wall being constructed. I thought it looked a little out of place.

Even though the main tower was closed to visitors, I was still able to tour through the baileys. But before you can enter them they ask you to remove your shoes. They even had attendants preparing plastic sacks for you to carry your shoes with you. The trek through the outer bailey was over 300 meters in length.

One of the hallways in the outer bailey.

This hallway had bedrooms where the occupants of the castle would sleep.

This scene was supposed to represent the Princess Senhime along with one of her ladies in waiting. Princess Senhime was the oldest daughter of one of the Shoguns during the warring states period.

After wrapping up my tour of the castle and the grounds around it, I had some time left before I had to meet up with Ginger, so I decided to go in search of Geocaches. There were two geocaches within walking distance of the castle. The first one was just outside the castle walls, but I wasn't able to locate it, so I moved on to the second one. The GPS took me wandering though the residential area surrounding the castle. I wound up at the base of a large hill, looking up at a set of stairs.

This is the daunting set of stairs between me and finding my first Japanese geocache. Keep in mind that these stairs are over sized, each one is about twice the size of a normal step.

After reaching the top of the hill I spent about 45 minutes wondering around trying to get a good signal so that I could locate the cache. I actually hiked up and down the hill three times, in the Japanese heat and humidity. It was throwing me off because it kept pointing off into the bushes. I pulled up the information on the geocache and read some of the logs. I was apprehensive of going bushwhacking in a foreign country, but I was determined to find this geocache, so into the bushes I went. About 50 ft back into the underbrush I found it!

VICTORY!

The hill that the cache was on actually had three sets of stairs. The first set I went up was the back way I think. These steps were standard sized and I think they would be considered the front entrance to the hill.

With a castle and a geocache found I headed back to Kakogawa to meet up with Ginger. Oddly enough I ended up crashing on the bed about 8:30, it couldn't be because I was trekking all over Japanese hills and castles... must have been the jet lag.