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Category: Japan

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A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Himeji, Japan by TravelPod blogger Astralcars titled "Four Foreign Ninja's Raid Himeji!". TravelPod is a company of TripAdvisor™. Astralcars's travel blog entry: "The four of us ( Me, Jess, Saffiya and Nichelle ) all made our way bright and early to Tarumi station ( near our hostel ) to catch a train to the main event of our little trip...or at least the inspiration for it: Himeji Castle. You see Himeji Castle is one of the oldest and largest and definately most famous castles in Japan and it was soon going to be closing for 4-6 years for restoration. Last week was what is called her "Silver Week" which means all the ALT's get Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off, so Jess decided to take Thursday and Friday off as well to get a whole week off! Nichelle and Saffiya opted not to, so they were going to be heading home later that day. Anyway, so we took the train to Himeji City and crossed the main street right outside the station and there it was, at the top of a hill at the end of major thoroughfare, Himeji Castle in all its glory. We stopped at this really cute basement garden cafe for breakfast and we were off! There is not much to tell about the castle ( you really need to see the pictures ) but it is an old castle, originally built in 1346, but destroyed and rebuilt many times. The current keep dates back to 1601 and many of the other buildings around are even older. If you want to find our more, there is A LOT of info out there, just google it! But for me I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. After a few hours at Himeji, we caught the train back to Sannomiya and bid farewell to our comrades Saffiya and Nichelle. Since we only had one more night in Kobe, Jess and I decided to retrace familiar territory. So we headed back down to the harbour and had a fantastic night. It started out with the Maritime museum, which to be honest, wasn't the most amazing place I've ever been. It was interesting, but not great. I was mostly drawn in by the amazing building it's in! By the time we were finished in there we were quite hungry and so headed over to this massive shopping center called "Mosaic" we saw the night before. We ate the most amazing buffet. It was a little pricey for what we have become accustomed to here, but pretty good deal for what you could get back home. It was 2500 yen each ( so about 29 CAD ) and you could eat as much as you wanted...and there was a lot. There was fresh crab legs, pasta, thin crust pizza, cakes, ice cream a chocolate waterfall, fresh fruit salads, boubibase, paella and more. So considering there is no tipping in Japan. ( and I don't mean it's optional, I mean you don't do it ) it's a pretty good deal for 30 bucks each. After stuffing ourselves silly at the buffet, we spent the rest of the night hanging around the market, the harbour or the beautiful neighborhood surrounding. An interesting thing in Japan, is that they make shopping ( even if you don't buy anything ) an experience in itself. It really is something just to go in the many flavors of establishments and browse the goods and check out the culture and people around. Consumerism is huge in Japan, but they pull it off in a much more enjoyable fashion then back home. It is entertaining to go shopping here. Anyway, after a beautiful night down by the sea, we headed back to our hotel for one more night. The remainder of our adventure, would take place in Osaka." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/astralcars/2/1253699802/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "A Roof Ornament" 2. "The Castle1" 3. "The Castle 2" 4. "Peep Hole" 5. "Castle 3" 6. "Castle 4" 7. "Samurai Swords" 8. "Gun!" 9. "Samurai Armour!" 10. "Samurai Sword!" 11. "Looking out from the top floor." 12. "Castle 5" 13. "Castle 6" 14. "Castle 7" 15. "Castle 8" 16. "Maritime Museum 1" 17. "Maritime Museum 4" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-012c-8f36-4bdf?ytv4=1

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