Toyoko Inn Himeji

Recently I visited the Tajima region in Hyogo Prefecture to see Tajima cattle, the breeding cattle of Kobe beef.

After reading some articles from abroad on Kobe beef, I felt motivated to clear up the myth that surrounds this famous and revered meat from Japan.

Or, it just may be that I wanted to see the Tajima cattle…

It took me about two-and-a-half hours by train and bus to reach the Ota cattle ranch. The train I took is called the "Matsukaze" express ...

Here we are in Kobe. We will be here until tomorrow night at midnight.　We　will　 be　here　until　tomo rrow　night　at　midn ight.　　Unfortunately, 288;we　cannot　uploadz 88;pix ...

... 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.

... since our friend's from Matsuyama were going to be arriving shortly.

After they arrived and we took some photos overlooking Kobe, we all set off for Kobe's Chinatown. It was quite interesting, but honestly the Chinatown in Vancouver is a lot bigger and I think more Chinese. There was still a lot of Japanese restaurants and signage in Kobe's Chinatown.

After that, came the most interesting part of Kobe, the harbour ...

... or thereabouts. In any case, the Himeji Castle is well worth visiting come rain or humidity. Some photographs follow ...







Helpful advice for tourists ...












and finally, cute Japanese toilet door signs...

... trains! Upon arrival in Himeji, it was about a 15-minute walk up to the castle. Himeji is a city and has plenty of shops and restaurants and all the rest, but it's easy to get the feeling that most people were there to see the castle. Maybe all the people walking in the same direction down the same road provided a clue. A maze and a tower Walking through the castle is like walking ...

... stalls. It was not hard to imagine what went on in the very courtyard I was standing in hundreds of years ago. Another interesting piece of information I discovered on the journey to the exit, was that due to the lack of stones in the region when the stone walls were being constructed, stone coffins from the ancient tomb on the hills behind Himeji were transported to the castle, and used in the ...

... down the tarmac rally stage hill, and back to the hotel to collect the bags. Taxi driver attempted to lift my pack into the car, and nearly had a hernia. I don't think he was expecting it to be quite as heavy as it was. We eventually loaded it all into the boot off the poor taxi, and took off for the train station (which was only an easy 10 minutes walk away, but it seems the taxi was instructed to take us to the station ...

... by the classic Simpson's episode were Homer thinks he only has 24 hours to live. I really don't know why you would want to eat something that if prepared wrongly has a 50% chance of killing you but having eating at plenty of take-away kebab shops back in Scotland I doubt the risk is much different. In order to serve Fugu the chef must be qualified to do so with only a 30% pass rate, I don't know if that is a comfort or not. I choose a small dish of Fugu partly to ...

... prep for hopefully catching the third in HK. Funnily enough that wasn't to be so it will have to be Oz. And if the Ozzies aren't showing it, well then i'm just gonna cry i think. Friday night was out with Simon and Dave having a major pool sesh, the last of many. Saturday was spent chilling around and then out for an early one at 6pm to meet up with Neil who i'd not seen since Hattoji, Dave and another Simon and his wife. Went to the local ...