Himeji- what a lovely little town (city) about 800k south of Tokyo. So you jump on the fantastic Shinkansen -3 hours and you are there. The stations are a city hub so it appears, as they converge with the local trains and buses at each major stop. And they are very busy trains. Hundreds of them running across Japan but a better option than flying.. 

Himeji has the most amazing castle. Yes there are lots of castles in Japan, but this is supposed to be no 1 on the list and it has just been beautifully restored not too many years ago. The photos show how impressive it is. You climb from the base up into the main 'keep' and then up steep wooden internal stairs much like on a ship right to the very top. Of course a magnificent view and I was lucky today as the weather was quite fine. In fact it was hot and steamy and a climb to the top proved challenging with hundreds of fellow tourists. The amazing thing about this castle is that the town was completely flattened during WW2 but the castle was miraculously left standing. I did wonder how many beautiful historic buildings were lost though.

​If you are passing through Himeji, it really is worth the stop over even if it's just for the castle, but there are other lovely attractions here as well I have read about but I have to admit I only stopped for the castle due to time constraints. Search for Koko-en Garden, Himeji Central Park (a safari park with an arrangement to a safari park in Kenya) and Shoshazan Engyo-ji Temple as these all seem to to be rated fairly highly and I will certainly try and visit these when in the vicinity next time.