Today I went with Melanie and her friend Mary to the train station, and from there we rode the train into Himeji. The ride is only about 25 minutes – really not that bad at all. Himeji is famous for it’s castle, and we were there to explore the castle and the town.
In Himeji we met up with Melanie’s friends Elena, Jenny, and Kate. The six of us traveled through town towards the castle, but in a very enterprising fashion, they have built shopping malls all along the way, so the only way to get there on foot from train station to castle is to pass through a huge shopping center.
This led to all sorts of delays, as everyone had to slow down or stop to check something out. I didn’t mind, actually, as the stores were air conditioned, and it was very hot outside.
Once we arrived at the castle, we faced a long climb. The 500 year old castle is on a hill, and was designed to make it tough for invaders to penetrate. The first barrier is a 600 yen fee to get in, but in one of the change slots I discovered 9000 yen (about $75) that someone had forgotten. After a few minutes of looking around, we declared the money mine, and I was actually in positive cash flow for the day. We marched up the fairly steep mountainside, and then through the corridors in slippers, as shoes were not allowed. Once we got inside the main part of the castle, then we climbed very steep staircases to the top floor, about seven floors in all. It sure is difficult to do all that climbing in slippers.
The view from the top was spectacular, and it was amazing to think that you are in a building that has seen so much. The signs and information were in both Japanese and English, so that helped a lot. After resting at the top, we went back into Himeji to do some shopping. Kate and Elena live in a pretty remote place, and so they had to buy quite a bit of gear while they were in the big city. Finally, we all got on board the train and went back to Futami. Melanie is hosting the group for the weekend, so I offered the use of my shower while they are here – Melanie only has a bathtub and a bucket.
At about eight o’clock we went into Akashi and got some dinner in a great Japanese restaurant. I’ve found that restaurants are rated good and bad not based on food quality or service, but rather by whether their menus have pictures or printed English. The format was very interesting – we ordered a bunch of small appetizer sized portions and drinks, and they kind of trickled in all night. We met up with two more JETs at the dinner table, and then left from there. I plunked down the 9000 yen to knock down the bill significantly, and that worked out great. Easy come, easy go!
Afterwards, we spent two hours in a private karaoke room, singing badly to old music. It was actually fairly fun, and the group was a good sport about all the Beatles songs I kept picking. While we were there, it was all-you-can-drink, so it got pretty out of hand. I can’t imagine an all-you-can-drink situation working in the U.S., but it worked great here in Japan. You just pick up a phone, and a guy runs the drinks down to you.
The final stop was an Irish pub that Melanie had been telling me about for a while. It’s run by an Irish guy, who really enjoyed having some foreigners in the bar. The best news was that they have Murphy’s Irish Stout on tap. We stayed there for two or three hours, and then finally got a taxi home around four a.m.
