Kansai Japan 日本關西

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We had an evening flight on our last day. In that morning, my wife went to have a hair cut and then shopping. My colleagues wanted to visit Kyoto as they had not been there before. Hence we split our group into 3, some went shopping direct, some went to shopping outlet at Rinku Town and I took the rest to Kyoto.

As we did not have much time, in terms of so many spots worth visiting, I took my colleagues to east side of Kyoto,  Kiyomizu (清水寺) and then walked to Gion (衹園). The second picture is Yasaka Jinja (八坂神社)

After that we only had little time to visit one more spot close to Kyoto Station, we went to Nishihonganji (西本願寺), which is shown on the third picture. Not much to see actually........unlike the Higashi Honganji (東本願寺) which I will tell more later.

We caught the night flight and were back to HK at almost 1 a.m. That concluded our company trip.

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Even I myself can't believe that I had gone to Kansai area three times within one year. November last year, February this year and last month. It just happened that my wife found a cheap ticket to Kansai and we can squeeze some time to take a break for a week.

This time I went to those areas that I had not been before. I am processing the pictures and will share in here later.

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We did more shopping and hanging around in the recent trip. We arrived Osaka in the afternoon and our schedule for the first day was shopping and hair-cutting. At night, we dined at a restaurant named 燦. They had a series of restaurant in Japan. This one was inside a high rise commercial building, overseeing the night scene. Food was above average, not excellent.

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On the second day, we went to Himeji Castle (姬路城), a castle of over 400 years. This is a good place for seeing maple in autumn and sakura in spring. The structure of the castle is still intact, unlike Osaka city which all of its internal area was renovated. This Castle still keeps the old structure and you need to walk up, or even climb up different floors.

Himeji City is about 1 hour train west from Osaka. The castle is about 2 km away from the JR Himeji station. The castle is huge so you can see it when you are still at the train station.

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This castle shows how the Japanese built a castle with strong defence line. You will see the high rock wall, and a technique to strengthen the castle wall called Oil Wall 油壁

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This inside is dark and old. No shoes was allowed. You need to climb a steep wooden ladder to reach the top floor.

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High keep and old structures. This castle was built next to the original site, i.e. the first keep 600 years ago was just next to it. Now you only see the wasteland there (last picture)

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The moat is wide and deep. The bridge also has over 400 years. This castle is kept much better than that in Osaka, maybe this is not the main target during war. There is a shogun's garden next to the castle but nothing is worth to see at the time we visited. However, I think there should be good for seeing maple and sakura in right time. All I can find was this:

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We headed to Kyoto on the third day. This time I would pick up those spots that I did not visited in my previous trips. This first spot was Path of Philosophy (哲學之道) Well, this is a walking path good for morning exercise, I would say. During winter time the scene should be nice......

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We walked from the south-end northward because the north end of the path leads us to Ginkakuji Temple (銀閣寺). This temple was built by 足利義政, who was the 8th generation of the Shogun at 室町時代. Compared it with Kinkajuji (金閣寺), which was built by the 3rd generation shogun, this temple is more subtle, tho both of them have a similar main building.