Himeji Castle is a historical site that shows up in all manner of travel brochures, and also probably the singularly most popular attraction in the city of Himeji. In fact, it’s not uncommon to read travel advisories encouraging tourists who are in the cities of Osaka or Kyoto to take a fast train westwards just to see the castle. We considered including a visit to the famed Himeji Castle 12 years ago during our 2010 trip, but ended up dropping it as we read that there was some sort of restoration work going on back then.
The castle is super easy to find: you exit the JR train station, and the castle – about a kilometre walk away – is the first thing you see down the boulevard. In fact, I got the sense that the city planners wanted visitors and residents to have a vantage view of this majestic structure, and that the castle’s defenders in turn had, all those centuries ago, an unimpeded view of the city around it.
The castle is famed for its white heron-like exterior. It’s one of Japan’s 12 original castles, and considered to be one of the most spectacular in the country – certainly from the outside. The castle – or maybe rather the city – was not targeted during the Allied bombing campaign in World War II, presumably because it wasn’t a major population centre back then (or now) and was also of no military significance. The information booths note that a good number of buildings in the compound have gone through restoration.
There are six floors in the castle that visitors can follow in a sort of self-guided pathway. The staircases are very steep, but there are railings at each one that you’ll want to hold onto, and really climb up and down these staircases gingerly! The entrance into the Main Keep also has a stop area where visitors are required to take off their footwear. I’m assuming this is in order to protect the wood flooring and to keep the area clean, but it does make navigating the pathway that little bit more tricky: visitors were each carrying their own plastic bag of footwear. If you have little ones, you’d be wishing you had more than one pair of hands LOL.
One might be wondering why there’s a lack of photos of the castle’s interior. The reason for that is because while the castle exterior and facade are gorgeous, I didn’t find the interior all that special. The other castles I’ve visited in Japan include floors of historical artefacts or replicas of items, weaponry, costumes, and armour from the era. And you can basically free-roam around from floor to floor too. Not so for Himeji Castle: there really isn’t that much on each floor, though I read that there’s an app that adds augmented reality perspectives to your visit. You’re really climbing your way to the top floor just to get a look at Himeji city from the castle’s highest floor accessible to visitors – before the continuing crowd nudges you to start climbing down those very steep staircases again. And mind your head: some of the supporting beams are really low!
We spent just about 45 minutes exploring the Main Keep, but the actual path is fairly long if you follow the recommended walking route. I reckon you’d likely spend 90 minutes if you do that.
In short: it’s worth a visit just for how good the castle looks from the outside and up close, but manage your expectations once you’re inside the main building itself. The combo ticket includes a visit to Koko-en Garden next door though – which was a much, much better experience.
Continued in the next post!
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