Day 9: Himeji (Otemaedori)

Himeji is located at south western part of Hyogo, and is the second largest city in Hyogo (with population of 530,000). It is sandwiched between the Chugoku Mountains on the north, and the Inland Sea of Japan on the south.

Today we are doing a day trip to Himeji, which is famous for the UNESCO World Heritage Himeji Castle. There is a view of the castle from the station itself.

We saw a scale model of the castle and a carrying chair at the station. I also saw a cardboard standup poster celebrating the 500 Type EVA Project, a JR Shinkansen decorated with Neon Genesis Evangelion motifs.

There are artistic statues, manholes, street art located in Otemaedori, the road leading from the station to the castle. Some of the statues depict Shachi, a mythical fish with a tiger face, and used as an ornament on the castle roof.

Himeji is also famous for food, and we certainly saw a lot of restaurants on the way to the castle. One of them is a Hello Kitty cafe, which we hope to visit later.

One attraction that we didn’t have time to visit is the Shoshazan Engyo-ji Temple. This is the location where the Tom Cruise movie Last Samurai was partially filmed.

There is a tourist bus that takes you to the castle and back. We found it easy enough to just walk.

For more information, the Himeji City website has some pages auto-translated to English. The tourism site also has an English section.