The Fins
On Thursday afternoon, after Yashiro, I went home, cleaned up the apartment, and in short order set out to go to Kobe to meet Maria and Hanna. Maria is a friend of mine from Finland whom I met in France at my YWAM school. She recently took up a job with Fin Air which gives her and a friend the exciting privilege of free travel. The two of them came to Japan with their mothers and had been staying at a relatives house who lived in-between Osaka and Kyoto.
I met Maria and Hanna at Sannomiya station (the hub of Kobe) and we mostly just walked around Kobe for a while. We walked through China town and went on to the harbor lands were there are a few interesting things to photograph. After a long day, which followed a long week, we went back to my apartment. They slept in my living room and I slept in the bedroom (without air-conditioning) so I didn’t get the full night of sleep I had been hoping for.
The next day, we took the train 30 minutes West to Himeji. Himeji is a city of about 500,000 with it’s most noticeable feature being Himeji Castle- the greatest castle in Japan and a Unesco world heritage site. I haven’t sat down and read the pamphlet I bought about the castle so I’m not sure about all the history at the moment. Most importantly: it is the biggest castle in Japan; it survived most of the W.W.II bombing and has been impeccably maintained for around 400 years; and it has been lived in my many of the most famous daimyo (feudal lords).
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History aside, it was an amazing structure to explore- inside and out. For all of those who plan to visit me, expect a trip to Himeji castle because you have to see it once, and I will be happy to see it again and again.
On the same block of land is a large Japanese garden. By the time we were finished with the castle we were short on time, but we had already paid the castle and garden ticket, so we went for a quick look. In our jog through the garden the highlight was definitely the ponds and the pictures of Koi below speak for themselves.
posted by Benjamin ベンジャミン @ 11:06 AM
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