Shinkansen!

Riding the worlds fastest train for the first time, WOW. And I nearly missed it! You can never estimate correctly the time it takes to navigate a train station in a foreign land. The hotel clerk thought 20 minutes would be fine. I thought that sounded reasonable, but no! When I got to the station, I thought I knew where the underground tunnel was to the shinkasen side, but I got turned around. When I found the tunnel it was twice as long as it was when I arrived two days ago.( Have you noticed how that happens?) I got to the bullet train side with 10 minutes to departure. Dragging my heavy suitcase behind me I looked for the correct gate or platform but this was not immediately evident. After finding the gate, the ticket man said I needed all three of my tickets, not just the one that said Himeji on it, so I had to go fishing through my suitcase to find the other two that I had stored for safekeeping. By the time I got through the ticket gate it was 5 minutes to departure and I still had another escalator to ascend. As I reached the platform the train was pulling in. I had a reserved seat so was looking for car 7. Time was short so I entered in car 6 and by the time I got to my seat in car 7 the train had left the station!

I have a window seat but we’ve in a tunnel most of the time since leaving the station. You can tell this baby is going FAST! There are tantalizing glimpses of countryside between tunnels, less then a second to see the sites! As fate would have it I’m on the landward side and the best views are on the seaward side, or am I just thinking the grass is greener on the other side, as usual? Ah, a town, lots of blue tile roofs. Gone. More tunnel.

>>>>>>>
When I got to Himeji I wondered around a bit before I found my hotel. I couldn’t have my room until 2:00 so I left my bags and headed for the castle. I walked most of the way through a huge arcade filled with shops of all sorts and all lit up for the holidays. When I came out the castle loomed ahead of me, high, white and magnificent. I approached leisurely, savoring the expectation of seeing this legendary building. When I reached the moat and the Edo period gate I was confronted by a large sign in both Japanese and English. The castle is closed on December 29 and 30. The only two days that I will be here, they decide to close the place, for what I can only guess. From the faces on the crowds, I was not the only one surprised by this news. Not only the castle, but the nearby park and formal garden, the botanical gardens and just about everywhere else a tourist might go was closed. Well, on the bright side, the weather was great and until this evening my camera was working! Since there was little else to do, I walked all around the castle and took pictures from every angle. I also took pictures of the cats! Yes, cats. What a surprise to find that the parks around the castle are home to dozens of wild or at least un-owned cats who seem to be well fed by the visitors to the area. They are sort of like the deer on Miyajima, only you are allowed to feed them.
Forgive me for post so many pictures of the White Heron ( or Egret, depending on your translation, the word is the same in Japanese).

Himeji