There it is! Check out the clear skies too, the weather was simply fabulous. Not too hot and there was a steady breeze all day long.

Getting a bit closer now. This castle is the real deal by the way, not a modern recreation of an older building. The main building (the "keep") is nearly 400 years old.

It took a lot of walking through narrow passages and steep steps to enter the keep. Apparently this was an intentional design feature to retard any invading forces.

Here are pictures taken from the top floor of the surrounding area. First, a look to the North. Notice that the leaves are just starting to change color here in Japan even though it's practically November already.

To the West, you can see the neighboring "Vanity Hall" where a princess lived because the castle was too plain. I didn't think her home was so hot although it did have a nice little garden.

To the South you can see all the way to the sea. Incredible!

To the East, well, it's mostly sprawl. Nice mountains in the distance though!

This shrine is the centerpiece of the top floor. Notice that there's no room for anything else up here; the room is quite small.

Here's Mako in a nearby garden, 好古園 (Kôkoen). Very small but quite pretty! And the garden wasn't too bad either. ^_^

After we left Himeji we returned to Kobe and took a cable car up Mt. Rokko for an incredible nighttime view of the city as well as Osaka. Really, I was blown away by this experience. I tried taking a picture but it didn't turn out very well at all. Hopefully this video clip will offer some manner of perspective (right click and save, be sure to listen to the audio).

Walking through Kobe I spotted this unusual display on the mountain. I know it's blurry but I hope you can make out the image of an anchor, a symbol of the city.

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