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The Castle
Himeji, Japan
March 22, 2001
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| Shinkansen Coming
In.
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Japan Trip, 3/22
Sunny and very nice.
At breakfast, met a guy from Ballard, WA [how weird
is it?] and Shuuhei-san from Tokyo. Shuuhei will start attending
college majoring architecture next month [he failed
the previous year]. A fan of Andou Tadao [a
Japanese architect, I learned. He told me that he was going to Osaka
where they had several of his works.].
Kyoto-Himeji. Shinkansen.
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| Himeji-jo from the
Main Gate.
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Himejijou. [Most of this paragraph is from
Mitsuko-san.] Built by Tokugawa between other westward lords and
Osaka where Toyotomi resided in a huge castle. Main tower was never
used as a living quarter, only for final defense [the top most floor is visually hidden from outside.
The top floor had a small shrine and souvenir stamp station.].
Never been attacked. Walls [there used to be three
walls, but I think now there are only the inner walls are left
standing] are spirally structured (only the Tokyo's Tokugawa
castle shares this design). The whole architecture was geared toward
samurai battle. The roads leading up to the tower designed to
misguide people [actually, most tourist would
actually follow a fake road, which is a dead end, but for the
tourists, they made a passage way at the end. The real pathway
actually looked as if going down].
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| Himeji-jo from
Below.
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Guided tour (lucky!) by Mitsuko-san, a volunteer [indeed, I was extremely lucky. I just noticed the
sign "guided tour" in English and I followed it. She was sitting
inside, reading a book or something and she just came out with me.
She said there are sometimes two volunteers, but that day she was the
only one.]. Former English school teacher [fairly good spoken English]. Two sons, one a
college student in Osaka, the other working in Nagoya [basically, since all her children have grown up, she
was working as a volunteer guide]. Came to Himeji because of
marriage. [while walking from the castle to the
culture center, I noticed] Bikes are used a lot here as well.
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| Me with the Castle
Behind.
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| Himeji-jo, Just
Inside the Inner Walls.
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| Very "Good" Spot
According to Mitsuko-san.
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| The Main
Tower.
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| Himeji Bungakukan
from the Entrance.
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Himeji Bunkakkan. Andou Tadao's design. Took pictures only, for
Shuuhei. [It was interesting, relatively small
collection of buildings and landscaping. I don't know how old it was,
but it definitely felt like a late-80s work. But then what do I know
about architecture?]
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| Bungakukan from the
Other Side.
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| Ando Tadao's
Concrete Structure.
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| Toward
Kiyomizu-dera.
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Back to Kyoto. Took a bus to Kiyomizu-dera. A lot of small shops on
the way up [mostly gift shops selling similar
stuff, but some of them looked really nice]. Took pictures
mostly. Came down to Yasaka jinja through Sannenzaki & Ninenzaki.
Got really tired (the back started to hurt). Came back to the ryokan
early. Bought a drink for obaasan.
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| Roof Lines.
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| The Way to the Main
Hall.
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| Good Luck Charms,
for Lovers.
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| Dolls with "Clothes"
On.
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| The Main Hall of
Kiyomizu-dera.
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| Stone Steps Down.
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| People Lined Up for
Spring (?) Water.
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| Ninenzaka Toward
Yasaka Jinja.
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| Lanterns at Yasaka
Jinja.
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| Outside Hiraiwa
Ryokan.
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Things noticed... Women carry bags on [the smalls
or insides of] their elbows with them bent & the palms up. People
walk on the right side. On TV, a commercial for Cringle's potato chip
shows & stresses that it is already popular in Korea [which I thought was a bit interesting].
>> "Kyoto Night Adventure"...
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