Himeji &Kurashiki

Travelling back through Osaka and now heading into Western Honshu, our first stop was the smallish city of Himeji and it`s impressive castle, Himeji-jo. Himeji-jo is the number 1 castle in Japan and is a very impressive complex, much larger than other castles we`ve seen. Although Matsumoto-jo was more photogenic, we are glad we saw Himeji-jo after it, as we might not have been so enthusiastic about Matsumoto-jo!

Himeji-jo from the main entrance

 

Himeji-jo and blossoms in autumn!

 

The beautiful view over Himeji from the 6th floor

The next morning we got on a bus and travelled up through Himeji to the Shosa-zan ropeway and the mountain temple complex of Engyo-ji. This was well worth the visit and much better than we expected, not least becasue it was very quiet (although it did get busier later) and it was a really beautiful sunny day. The sun through the autumn leaves up here was stunning and the location of all the wooden temples in amongst the mountain top forest was really gorgeous.

 

Engyo-ji complex on Shosa-zan

 
Priest and Samurai training facility featured in the "Last Samurai"

Statues of Jizo - protector of children, travellers and the dead

Later that afternoon we headed west again to Kurashiki for the night. Kurashiki is one of our hometown Christchurch`s sister cities - chosen, I believe, because of the canals here. They were really beautiful in the evening light anyway and we enjoyed a nice stroll around the kura (japanese store houses, now converted into shops and galleries).

Kurashiki canals