Momijidani Park wasn't really a park as such it was more like a nature trail and included bridges, waterfalls and more deer. It winds it's way up through a wooded area up to the ropeway and Mt Misen climbing trail where we turned around as the weather defeated us this time! I'll get you need time Gadget!!! (I mean weather).
We decided to make a stop in Himeji on the way to Osaka as we'd read good things about the castle and the weather still wasn't particularly great. We boarded the ferry, back to the mainland, a little after 10am and arrived into Himeji via a local service back to Hiroshima and a Shinkansen to Himeji about 1pm.
We found a local pizza restaurant for lunch not too far from the station as it was just over 1km to the castle and the current queue estimate to enter the main keep was 2 hours!
When we arrived at the castle grounds there was indeed a lot of tourists even at 3pm. We admired the castle from just inside the walls (it's free to go into the outer part) and took a few photos before the heavens opened again!!! This time we'd just purchased our tickets, about £7 each, to enter the main keep. The website still seem to suggest a couple of hours wait....we got very wet but on the plus side it did only take about 45 minutes to get into the castle.
It was an impressive building and has survived wars, earthquakes and fires so is orginal* The main keep is a wooden structure that contain 6 stories but there isn't anything to see on the various level until you reach the 6th floor. This floor contains a small shrine and has a multitude of windows facing all directions allowing us to see the sights of Himeji city and the castle grounds.
After re-tracing our steps back to the station we got on a JR train bound for the third largest city in Japan, Osaka. We were staying in the Kita Ward so reasonably close to Osaka station (in fact only one stop on the JR loop train). It was one of those evening where you just want to get a takeaway and watch a movie but as we don't really know Japanese, didn't know of any local takeaways and we were in a new city we braved the outside once again!
We headed to the food and entertainment district of Kitashinchi and found a quante Japanese restaurant that had a fish I'd never tried before called bonito, tastes and looks a little like tuna. After food we searched for a bar near by and we found one called Captain Kangaroo... We had to go!! It was a fun bar serving over 50 beers (most bottled including Newcastle Brown Ale) and had more of a western vibe to it.
