From Osaka via Himeji to Hiroshima - Japan at Cherry Blossom 2023 - 13
28.03.2023 - From Osaka via Himeji to Hiroshima
Weather: sunny
Walking distance: 18 km
It's time for Takkyubin again, this time for two days. No problem, by now I know what to take with me and what I can leave in the big luggage. At 7am I bring the suitcase to the reception area and go to buy a coffee and something for breakfast. This time I have a free choice: 7/11, Family Mart, and Lawson are all around the corner. I go for Lawson because I had a really good coffee there in Kyoto. This time it's a standard coffee, which is still much more than one would expect from a tea-drinking country.
In Himeji [↗] we stop for more than 5.5 hours to visit the castle and the garden. That's quite a bit, but the trains earlier are all special Shinkansen variants that we are not allowed to use without an extra ticket. There would be the option to go to the nearby mountains, but that is quite time-consuming and you would have to rush to have enough time for the castle.
I'm at the castle [↗] at 10-something. Already from the outside, it's a pretty sight. When you enter the first gate, even before paying the entrance fee, you come to a huge garden area. People can use the greens to relax or play with their dogs. The paths are lined up with cherry trees, all in full bloom. From here you can probably take the best photos of the castle during the cherry blossom.
The fee is paid at a machine, but as you can switch it to English it's easy to handle. I'm the second in line, so next to no waiting time at all. Something that will change soon and shortly after noon, when I leave, the queue will be long enough that it might take half an hour or more just to get the ticket.
I walk straight to the central tower. As in Matsumoto, I have to take off my shoes and carry them in a plastic bag. This tower is bigger than the one in Matsumoto but without any interior. Also here you have to climb a steep staircase. The difference is that it is crowded. So crowded that they are starting to limit access. I'm in the middle of a queue, being pushed forward, up, and then down again. It feels a bit like being in line at airport security.
From the main tower, I go to the western gallery. Again I have to take off my shoes and climb up one floor. Here were the living rooms and the like, but no original furniture or so is left. Instead, there are some display boards about the history of the castle. Almost nobody reads them, though. But you can get some nice pictures of the main tower from here.
It is a few minutes after noon when I'm leaving for the Koko-en garden [↗]. It was highly recommended to visit it, so I bought a combo ticket at the castle entrance. The extra charge was minimal, only 50 yen, which is about 30 cents.
The garden is so-so. I can imagine it looking good later in the year and especially in the fall. Nevertheless, it still takes me half an hour to walk most of the paths.
Now I could go back to the castle and shoot some more cherry trees, but today I'm hungry early. So I decide to look for a restaurant first. Not so easy. In the street where I thought they are, are mainly shops, and the only restaurant I see is a super expensive teriyaki restaurant.
I look in the department stores and food aisles but only find takeaway food. That's quite common here especially if you go for a train ride with the Shinkansen. Finally, I'm successful and eat a lunch plate with salmon, rice, soup, and some other side dishes. Perfectly fine, especially for 10 Euro or so.
I get another coffee at the Family Mart and sit down in the sun writing on this travelogue.
At 3:15pm we meet to continue our travel to Hiroshima [↗] with two more Shinkansen rides. Nothing special anymore, you get used to the routine pretty easily.
Close to 5:30pm we check in to our hotel close to the train station. I have a headache since noon, but with the chance to photograph the Peace Park [↗] during sunset and blue hour, staying at the hotel is not an option.
The site is not too far away and I'm there within 30 minutes. The sun is just about to set (unfortunately in the "wrong" direction) and the light is good. I take photos of all the familiar subjects. Interestingly, there are not too many people there. It's not empty but they do not disturb. In fact, I wonder now if it is really necessary to be here the day after tomorrow as early as I had planned.
I'm still not feeling better and although I see some restaurants I'm interested in, I'm not in the mood to sit down and have dinner. So beer and chips in the hotel have to be good enough.
