Himeji Castle
This the castle to see in Japan. Dismantled in the 1950's and rebuilt to the
original design, any suspect parts were replaced, but it's essentially the original. The castle is in the city of
Himeji, which is between Osaka and Hiroshima, and it is built on a small hill on the surrounding plains
and it dominates the surroundings. A World Heritage Site, and very well set up for tourists.
There is a suggested tour path, which takes you though the entire castle grounds
and gives an excellent presentation of the structure. Here we enter the perimeter gaurd buildings, which
are narrow, and surrround the main buildings in a defensive position.
Then as the perimeter buildings get closer to the main buildings, the living quarters for the
non-military staff begin, and more stairs to more long hallways.
Until we reached the living quarters of the royal occupant, a very spacious building
added to the inside of the defense hallways. Several mannequins are set to depict the princess on a quiet afternoon playing a
game where you had to guess the location of objects hidden under the shells (a memory game).
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