Day 4 - Osaka & Himegi

Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under Australia - The land down under, Japan, Holidays |

Himegi castle was one of the sites that was on the top of both Sandy’s and my list to see while in Japan. It is the oldest authentic (not restored) castle in Japan and is certainly a sight to behold.

It was well and truly worth the 2+ hours on the train to get there and Sandy and I thoroughly enjoyed climbing up and up through the keep and towers, looking at all of the family crests and tombs in the walls of the castle. At about the halfway point, you come to a landing where this is the view.

We continued to climb all the way to the top of the castle where we received a stamp to prove we’d done it. You’d be surprised how many places offer you a stamp! We of course, got them all!

View from the top

On our return to Osaka, we decided to pay a visit to Osaka Imperial Palace & Museum.

The bridge to Osaka


The Palace/Museum

It was getting a bit dark when we left and we got this shot of the palace.

After spending some time sitting at the fountain in the Palace park,
 

We tried mostly unsuccessfully to get some night shots and headed home for dinner and to send some flowers home for our Mother. It was her birthday the following day and we wanted it to be special seeing as both her daughters were halfway around the world.

On getting back to the hostel we met Fred and Lisa. Two Americal girls who were on virtually the same path through Japan that we were.

Lisa (Portland, Oregon)

Fred (Pheonix, Arizona)

In fact, we had actually booked the temple that they had wanted to stay in and were the reason they got turned down. We recommended Himegi as a great place to visit and marvelled over the fact that though we met in Kyoto, our paths would cross again in Mt Fuji-san and Tokyo!

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