During the remainder of the time that mum was in Japan we did a couple of day trips out of Kobe. We went to Hiroshima, Osaka and Himeji.
It was nice walking through the park surrounding Osaka castle although most of the sakura blossoms had disappeared due to the typhoon the weekend prior. I didn't enjoy Osaka castle that much as the inside was more like a Japanese history museum.
 |
| Osaka Castle |
I enjoyed Himeji castle a lot more even though they were doing some restoration on the main building. They also have some free volunteer tour guides in English.
 |
| Dressed up guards at the entrance gate |
 |
| There were a lot of cats around castle grounds. |
In the picture above you can see two different windows in the wall. The one on the right had a long thin rectangle and the other a small square. The long thin rectangle was where they would shoot arrows from using the long bows. The square was used by guns with long barrels. It is larger on this side of the wall as it allowed more movement for those defending. From the other side of the wall the attackers would have a small target. On the right side of the photo behind the wooden fence looking thing, was an area where they could pour either stones or hot liquid onto those attacking the castle.
Due to the restoration of the main tower, they opened up another section of the castle and were having an exhibition of samurai helmets.
 |
| Fan curve of the castle base. |
Japanese castles were generally built on a mound or hill. These fan curved bases provided more strength than if it were straight as well as making it more stable during earthquakes.
 |
| Family crests used in the roofs. |
 |
| That stone on the right was tombstone that was dug up and used in the building of the castle base. |
 |
| Restoration in progress |
Not far from Himeji castle is Kokoen Garden. When you purchase the Himeji castle entrance ticket you can purchase a pass that allows you to visit the garden as well for a little extra. It was a pretty big and peaceful garden.
 |
| Just a random moon shot from the balcony. |
No comments:
Post a Comment