We wandered about the very spacious suite laughing about the amount of space and the amenities.
Everything was oversized, by Japanese standards.
The bath was big enough for someone my size to lay in, submerged.
The vanity was bigger than some of the entire bathrooms we had used in the past two weeks.
Alas, we had to leave as our Shinkansen was leaving for Himeji at 11:00.
The station was only a very short walk from the hotel and the sun shone like it hadn't since we had arrived in Japan.
A very speedy and comfortable one hour later we were in Himeji.
As you step out of the station you find yourself looking up a wide straight promenade and at its end, about 2km away, is the entrance to the Himeji Castle complex.
The Himeji Castle was on particularly large grounds and as we approached the entrance proper to the castle we realised that we hadn't given ourselves enough time to see it all properly.
We barely had enough time to see the gardens in the 3 hours we had before getting back on the Shinkansen to Tokyo.
Here are a few pics of the areas around the outside of the castle.
I've decided to start growing foliage from my head.
Do you like it?
We spent a few hours looking at flowers that Tiz could not recognise.
That's one department that I could not help in!
As we had caught the ¥100 (Yes, 100 Yen, which was so cheap it made us laugh) bus up to the castle we decided to walk back to the station.
It was a perfect spring day and the walk was one of leisurely strolls one has when in Himeji.
You know what I mean.
We took a little detour through an arcade and ended up in supermarket with the intention of buying my nieces, Angus & Emma some "weird Japanese lollies", as requested.
The only criteria we set ourselves was - no English writing explaining or hinting what their contents or flavour is, must be hard (which means they are made mainly of sugar) and preferably no pictures.
We bought quite a few.
It was time to head back to the station & get our luggage from the lockers.
This leads me to tell you about lockers at train stations.
From what we've seen and learnt in Japan, it's a "crap shoot" (aka - a gamble).
They can be in any and many parts of a station & even when you ask the Information Desk they may only know of some, and generally the major banks of them.
When you have found one they may be either IC card, which will be either Suica or Pasmo, or coin operated.
You can tell if a lockers is being used by either the red light on the card operated ones or lack of key in the lock on the coin operated ones.
BUT, sometimes attendant removes the keys from empty ones, in busy walkways, to avoid them bring accidentally snapped off.
You need to stand around looking lost and helpless, whilst staring at the lockers, which may/should attract the attention of an attendant. Once they have spotted you they are quick to help, even if it means taking you to spot with available lockers.
Take notes, preferably pictures, of where the locker is because some of these stations are HUUUUGE , and a lot of places in these stations look very similar.
Back to picking up our bags at Himeji. After we had retrieved the bags from the lockers we spotted a little shop making what you would describe as a 10cm round, 5cm thick light pancake batter filled with one of two filings. One was red bean, which had overtones of borlotti beans (sorry to sound like a foodie tosser, but one needs to be accurate about important things such as these) and the other filing looked like stewed apple but tasted like a blend of yam and chestnut.
It was time to board the last, and long, leg of our journey back to Tokyo.
Above is one of the sections in a platform kiosk on what could any train station in Japan.
The section on the left contains snacks and foodstuffs,
as do many of the other sections in these kiosks, along with sushi and the like.
The section on the left contains a broad range of alcohol.
From nihonshu to beer to whisky, and everything in between.
Perhaps it's their seemingly liberal attitude to alcohol purchase,
and consumption, I believe, that protect them from being the most alcoholic nation on earth.
Or maybe I just don't quite get it.
Below are a few pics of the country side between Himeji and Tokyo.
We took a cab.
We checked in at 19:30 to an economy room that, by comparison to "Hiroshima Presidential Suite" we had stayed in last night, felt like a capsule hotel.
We were only there for less than 12 hours so it was OK.
We are in the habit of going for a quick look at where we would need to embark the following morning, thus avoiding getting lost and missing a train, and decided we would have a final look around at all the wonderful Shinjuku sleaze at the same time.
We stopped off at a franchised pub called the Kirin City for dinner.
This place does weird stuff with beer. I mean, frozen beer! Really?
Just look at the menu.
It does some pretty nice, and cheap, cocktails though as well as what might best be described as Japanese inspired tapas.
For dinner we had a bowl of garlic shrimp, cooked in a LOT of butter and garlic,
a bowl of garlic octopus also cooked in a LOT of butter and garlic,
a plate of delicious bite size beef slices with a mirin/soy dipping sauce
& a dollop of real "nose rush" wasabi
AND a Caesar Salad. Sorry, no picture of anything as boring as lettuce, even if it does have bacon bits on it.
For liquid refreshments I had a "Half and Half" better known as a Black and Tan where I come from and Tiz had a beer and cassis. Another weird Japanese combo but she liked it, and she normally doesn't like beer at all.
The place below was a surprise!
To give you some context, Ladurée is the place, in Paris
that Tiz and Georgia had afternoon tea at a couple of years ago.
It was more like French high afternoon tea at THE French luxury bakery and sweets maker house created in 1862.
It is one of the top premier sellers of the double-decker macaron, fifteen thousand of which are sold every day.
It is one of the top premier sellers of the double-decker macaron, fifteen thousand of which are sold every day.
We took the long way back so we could observe and savour as much of the punk, sleaze, street, underbelly circus Shinjuku offers before laying down for our last rest in Japan.
Tiz, in one of the "darker" corners of Shinjuku
They have a different way of using the English language!
Or maybe it isn't their strange way of using English and actually one of those bizarre Japanese bars we so often hear about. Maybe ........
No comments:
Post a Comment