Himeji Castle is the most famous castle in Japan and perhaps the largest one. It is located at the city of Himeji, which is West of Kyoto. It takes about an hour of Shinkensen train ride from Kyoto, but it is very accessible. The castle is directly off the JR train station and just 15 minutes of walking distance. There are also buses that go from the JR train station to the castle directly.
We went to Himeji castle by taking Shinkensen. While riding the Shinkensen, we also enjoyed bento boxes as our brunch on the train. Once we got off the train, instead of heading directly towards Himeji Castle, we went upstairs to the second floor platform that is just outside of the JR train station. From the platform, we could see all the way down the street and Himeji Castle is at the end of the street.
Afterwards, we walked 15 minutes to the castle. When we got to the castle, we were surprised to see that there is a zoo in there! We did not visit the zoo however. The entrance fee into the castle is 1000 Japanese Yen, but we think it is well worth it. We entered the castle and get to feel the interior design of the castle. We could tell the wood is old, but well maintained and clean. The wooden floor and the staircases were beautiful.
Once thing we found is that every door ways in the castle were so short. The height of each stair steps are also different. Most of the stair steps are quite high and hard to walk on. We recommend to hold onto the hand rails when walking on the stairs in case of tripping over. There were also beams going across the ceiling on top of the staircase, so we had to watch it for those too. At the top floor, there was a small shrine for people to make prayers.
After getting out of the castle, we visited the hallway rooms outside of the castle. In addition, we needed to take off our shoes before entering, just like entering the castle. The rooms seems to be for the servant to live in. Each room has different size, but it felt quite cozy in there. During the hot summer day, we did not feel much heat in there.
Overall, Himeji Castle is an amazing place to visit when visiting Japan. We highly recommend visiting this historical site to experience the Edo era of Japan.
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