e railway system in Kansai is realli complex.. one look at e railway map & my jaws fell.. but one good thing about it is that 90-95% of e station names were in Chinese characters!! tts when i know i wont get lost in japan shd i am alone.. =D
Upon reaching e hotel, we dumped our baggage and off we went to Himeiji which is a whopping 100 min journey!! u can complete a movie during e journey man!! most of us ended up slping in e train as none of us slept more than 3 hours on e plane.. when we reached Himeiji, we had our first taste of authentic Jap food & they are GREAT!! not that we went to restaurants, we jus went to some eateries in a department store.. e prices came as a little surprise to me too as i left spore with e impression that a decent meal will cost at least 1,000 yen but i onli paid 900 for a veri filling lunch (ramen + one bowl of coloured rice ?)..
walking on e streets of Himeiji, i took an instant liking to this city.. even though its a Sun, e streets were not crowded n e pace of life there is quite relaxed that i have difficulty believing that this is japan! to top it off, e weather is sooo comfortable.. cool wind + cloudy sky (perhaps due to e drizzle that went on & off)..
anyway Himeiji Castle is realli big and e scenery is simply beautiful!! there are families having picnic there.. how i wish there's such a venue in spore to go to for a picnic.. & tts where i first saw a Jap shuai ge.. haha.. he is e shuaier version of Hong Jun Yang but too bad he's attached..
okay i will e photos take centre stage for now.. type too much liao.. =D
the inside of e castle is mani level of exhibitions. we can onli wear e slippers provided to e inside due to e wooden flooring. & dunno why all of us blur blur and end up taking two pairs of slippers, n actuali wearing both pairs together until realisation dawn on us much later.. =P think its partly cos they 'stack' one pair such tt it looks like just one shoe n out of habit we just took two 'shoes'..
e one thing i cant stand in e design of e castle is e numerous ultra steep flight of stairs.. just by looking at e slope of e stairs alr give me e 'har' feeling.. actualli climbing up is not a prob for me cos i can simply focus on onli one step and make my way up..
e prob for me is on e way down.. due to psychological phobia since i sprained my ankle twice years ago while walking down e stairs, it sort of becomes a challenge for me.. & wat happens is that i put too much pressure on my right leg when going down e stairs such tt my right thigh aches for days to come.. stupid stairs..
aft visiting e castle, we took a leisure stroll in Himeiji and were rather reluctant to leave for Kobe.. so when we eventually reached Kobe, it is ard 7pm n too late to go anywhere.. so we decide to have dinner before engaging in some shopping.. for dinner, no i din hav e chance to eat Kobe beef but i have an equalli large serving for dinner (don + soba!!)
then came e 1st surprise/shock for us.. most of e shops, especially departmental stores closes at 8!!! so there's pretty nothing much for us to do after dinner so we just went back to Osaka..
not sure how others feel but this is one regret of this trip - din get to explore Kobe..
then another surprise when we are back in hotel.. e hotel did not provide room service! but e room is rather spacious, by japanese standard & e basic facilities such as TV, hairdryer n kettle are all branded eg National.. japan is realli japan.. =D
