Himeji (Otherwise known as “Freak’n awesome!)

Last school year I was looking through a Japanese/English dictionary that my students were using and I saw a picture of an amazing castle. I asked Nagaosa Sensei where the castle was and she said it was in Himeji which was by Kyoto. Of course once Andrea and I started planning this trip I (in my spoiled brat way) said that we were going to Himeji to see the castle and she had no say in the matter. Luckily Andrea can deal with me in that mood and said “fine”.

So we took the train ride to Himeji during which time I took pictures of Andrea sleeping and send them to Jana via cell phone. After we got off the train we stopped at the tourist center, got a map, and walked up to the castle. Words cannot describe how beautiful the castle was. Granted I have never seen a castle in person before but dang, I am sure it beats those European ones. I could not stop smiling or taking pictures. It was my favorite part of the trip.

The castle is known as the best example of Japanese Castle architecture and wow, I really don’t have words to describe it. Does the term freak’n amazing work? I guess I will have to let the pictures speak for themselves.

After the castle Andrea and I went to see a reconstructed garden. I will admit to being in a pretty bad mood during this (ok, Andrea I was in a horrible mood) I simply couldn’t stop coughing and then it started raining off and on, and then I started coughing more. However, even in my bad mood, I was amazed with the garden and my favorite part was the bamboo garden.