Himeji Green Hotel Tatemachi

... this computer.　So far we did a bus tour of the main attractions in the city. Now we are looking for a place for fCub to have some Kobe beef. Tomorrow we will probably go to one of the famous shopping areas in Kobe. More to follow tomorrow. Sayonnara, Cubnelaine

... and we were off!<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>After a few hours at ...

... hall observatory, china town and the harbour district.<br><br>We started to walk and before long, found ourselves lost in a maze of covered shopping plazas. It was like Gintengai and Okaido ( the two covered malls in Matsuyama, which I'm not sure if I've mentioned ) but much bigger and glitzier.<br><br>After a few hours of shopping and having some lunch we finally made our to city hall. We decided we'd just kind of hang out ...

... written English more easily than spoken so he brought paper and pen with him. It turned out to be a good thing because I was a little surprised that Stephanie didn't speak as well as I thought she could, but maybe I was expecting too much. However, she discovered that the phone we rented had a Japanese-English translator and she used that. Meantime Takahiro and I used the analog method (paper and pen).<br><br>HIMEIJI ...

On Tuesday morning we left Kyoto to go to Hiroshima, on the way we made a stop at Himeji to see the castle which is widely considered as Japan's most spectacular castle. Unlike many other Japanese castles, Himeji Castle was never destroyed in wars, earthquakes or fires and survives in its original form. It is a Unesco Heritage site. Six walls and a moat protect it and then it is on a hill and 6 storeys ...

Last night we met up with Morgan's friend from college, Shiloh, at the Kyoto station to head to nearby Osaka where he and his wife Etsuko live. They were kind enough to let us stay with them for the next week or so. It was great to see them and we are looking forward to hanging out and going to some of their favorite spots in the city. Shiloh has been living in Osaka for a for a few years now teaching ...

... chicken mornay. With that done, we decided to wander back to the hotel. Back through the tunnel that leads under the train line, I made a very interesting discovery. It a very dark, dischevelled and delapidated restaurant, were signage for the venues signature dish, Fugu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu). If ever you wanted to dice with death for the sake of a meal and an adrenaline rush, this would ...

... would love it if she could come to Australia again so I could somehow repay the favor. Uneventful train rides. We switched trains at Fukuoka station, and boarded the Shinkansen. Even though we had 2 reserved seats, we lined up at the unreserved carriage door, to do our old trick of snagging 4 seats, which worked again, so we had a comfortable ride to Himeji. Checked into the Toyoko Inn without any problems, which is about ...

... opgeroepen door een klein ventje in een raar pak die met een te hoge stem de namen zingt. Ze hebben ook allemaal poetische namen als `zoon van de hoogste berg@` of zoiets raars. Dan stappen ze in de ring, buigen door de knieen, klappen in hun handen om te laten zien dat ze ongewapend zijn, strekken hun benen om ze vervolgens hard op de grond te stampen zodat de duivel wordt verdreven. De echte grote ...

... glass standing straight and... that's how you receive it. A quarter beer and three quarters head, maybe it wasn't that bad. We then headed north into an entertainment area of Osaka called Umeda (i think) and head for an Irish bar where we spent the next two hours playing darts, drinking Kilkenny and watching a band that James is the manager of. (Unfortunately, I stupidly managed to format my camera without downloading the photos first so no pics). After the hour ...