Himeji: A Fairytale Castle and Ten Thousand Cherry Blossoms

Aug 27

Aug 27 Himeji: A Fairytale Castle and Ten Thousand Cherry Blossoms

A small city easily accessed by bullet train, Himeji has one big-ticket tourist attraction: Himeji Castle. I had seen it in a book as a kid, and it was both so perfectly castle-like and so unlike the European castles I was more familiar with that it stuck in my mind for decades. Built in the 1300s and expanded several times over the next few centuries, it remains one of the best-preserved feudal-era castles in Japan.

Also, it is really pretty.

Known as the White Egret Castle for its graceful lines and sparklingly white exterior, it sits on a hilltop and dominates the skyline, despite encroaching apartment buildings and offices.

It was cloudy when I got to Himeji - not at all conducive to my plan to take photos of a white castle against a blue sky with pink flowers. But clouds are no barrier to touring the inside of the castle. It isn’t furnished, but there are some interesting displays detailing the techniques used to build the castle as well as its restoration. The interior can get crowded, especially on holidays and weekends, as visitors are funneled to the tiny top floor of the castle via a series of steep staircases. The top floor has the best views over the castle grounds, so everyone wants to go up, but drags their feet coming down.

Still pretty, even without the blue sky...

The castle grounds are lovely and well worth including in your visit. You can walk along the most that surrounds the castle complex, or opt for a boat ride. I was there in April, slightly past the peak of the cherry blossom season, and there were still an impressive amount of blossoms on the trees.

If you visit: I spent about 5 hours on my visit. Some of that was just hanging out waiting for the clouds to clear so I could get the blue-sky photo I wanted - if the weather was clearer or you are less picky about your photos, you could spend even less time and still get a sense of the site. It is easy to reach the city from either Tokyo or Kyoto by train and the bullet trains make it so quick that you could do it as a day trip. The castle is an flat 1km walk from the train station - you can’t miss it.