Via Inn Himeji

... 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

... 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.<br><br>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.

... eat and stopped to watch the dancers for a bit while we at.<br><br>Finally, even though we were all having a great time, decided we'd have to get moving if we were going to get to our hostel, by check-in ( which ended at 9pm ).<br><br>We had all planned to come back after checking in, but by the time we got settled we were all so tired we just decided to go to bed.<br><br>I will continue our Kansai adventure in the next post.<br>

... enemy). Just when you think you've reached the top, there was another staircase. At the very top is a small shrine. I made an offering and said a prayer.<br><br>The view from the top is a study of old and new Japan at once. I really didn't want to mix the two in my photos, but it was hard to ignore the cityscape beyond the fortress gate. In the end I began to appreciate the dichotomy.<br><br>There are 2 interesting things at ...

... for the white castle. The sights across the city were good too. Thankfully the rain moved on whilst I was in the castle, when I came out it was back to beautiful blue skies. I took a walk through the Koko-en Gardens. Koko-en Japanese garden was constructed in 1992 on a site next to Himeji Castle. It is about 3.5 hectares and has nine different gardens. In the winter it is perhaps not as pretty ...

... with samurai swords like Andy Garcia in Black Rain. Do they still do that or was that just in the 80s? You'll be pleased to know we tried the tokayaki last night and the good news is that they're octopus tentacles not testicles. The even better news is that they taste like prawn cocktail flavour skips. That may be because they were cold by the time we'd run for the train and got back ...

Awoken at 7am by a couple of young girls who seemed to have little interest in the fact that we were awake packing bags until after 2am. Oh well, 5 hours sleep is more than enough. I walked down to the mall to get us some breakfast, while Veronica finalised things in the room. One other thing I have noticed in Sasebo is they have some world class bakeries. All of the different types of bread and pastries you could imagine ...

... for the 1.5hr journey but we made the mistake of not paying enough attention and ended up getting off at Himeji Bessho (2 stops before Himeji). Der! However, this must happen all the time as one of the station guards held up a sign in English telling us we had got off the wrong stop and we had to get off in two stops time instead. We only had minutes to wait for the next train and luckily we had purchased a JR West pass which lasted all day. These have to be purchased ...

... hele middag. Absoluut een onvergetelijke ervaring en een inside in de Japanse cultuur. It was an early rise for this on, taking the train from Kyoto to Osaka to queue at 08.00 for tickets to see the Sumo match! When the ticket sales started there were 200 tickets available and we made it! We had an entire box, meaning we had to sit on a tatami mat, about 1m2 with 4 pillows to sit on. It was meant for 4 ...

... angel fish, whale (of a) shark, bow faced guitarfish, a monster of a manta ray, loads of other rays, leopard shark, sun fish, conger eel, penguins and jelly fish to name but a lot. Very interesting stuff but very packed as it was still the holiday season. Loads of pics attached, some not very good as my Sanyo brick doesn't like taking photo's without a flash and obviously being stood in front of glass for every pic, this proved difficult. Anyhow, see what ya stink!