March 10 There is a Castle on a Cloud

March 10, 2019

Early Sunday morning had us on a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Himeji - the site of the most famous (or at least the most iconic) Japanese castle. 

It's called the White Heron Castle because the way the edges curl up makes it look like it is an elegant bird taking flight.  

Hey, it's way more understandable than some of the Greek constellations. 

The castle has, like so many things, been burned down a lot.  However, the current iteration has actually lasted for 400 years.  

We arrived just in time for the English tour!  It was cold and rainy, which meant the crowds were few.  Aside from us, there was another couple visiting from Iowa.  So, of course, the kids treated it like a private tour, peppering our guide with questions. 

Himeji Castle was built at the end of Japan's feudal period, the last and greatest castle built for defense.  It was tactically brilliant.

 

The various archery holes were in different shapes.  According to the tour guide, this was not only because certain weapons fitted better, but also because it was faster to count off when assigning stations.  

"Circle, Triangle, Rectangle! Go!  Circle, Square, Rectangle!  Go!!" 
Take that with however many grains of salt you wish. 

The paths inside the keep are straight outta Wonderland - some go this way, some go that way, some go both ways at once.  The goal was to so confuse an attacking army they would be unable to situate themselves. 

A favorite among some of us - the doorways were alternately short or skinny, requiring attackers to enter one by one, bending over, and having removed their weapons or their armor.  

Irene is 4'11" and had to duck.  She was so excited.

Within the castle itself are "Warrior Rooms"

The photo doesn't do justice to how small the space is. 

There is one mounted to the ceiling in each corner of the floor.  If an advancing army got through, a guard would hide in here and jump out to attack once the army was fully inside the floor. 

NB:  The lamp is about the size of a large Ikea desk lamp. 

And I am standing on tiptoe to see inside.

Once the hidden warriors jump out, the attackers are helpless because each floor is one giant room and getting up or down involves this. 

They would never be attacked by marauding Viking hordes.  

It was about this point that the other woman on the tour said,  

"So... do you homeschool?'  

(laughs) "Yeah.  How did you know?"

"They feel very... comfortable asking questions."

There are also hidden holes for pouring hot oil on invaders, stone pipes for pouring coals on invaders... the list of defensive and offensive additions to the castle is as long as your arm.

Seriously, the guy who designed this castle even created an entire hidden floor that can't be seen from the outside, just to mess with the minds of attackers.  

This castle was designed by the spirit ancestors of my brother James. 

And, since by the time it was finished the Warring Period had ended - it was never actually attacked.

Shachi - the mythical tiger-headed fish - were placed all over as protectors from fire damage. 

Shachi can also be translated to Killer Whale. 

I like this friendly guy better. 

Among the family crests, there is one random cross added that sticks out in the middle above the rest of the row.

It seems to be hotly debated among Japanese feudal historians whether one of the lords was a secret Christian or if someone put it up there as a talisman - just in case.

Since our kids are so comfortable asking questions - and since we had done a modicum of wikipedia research beforehand - we got a lot of the stories that the tour guide said she doesn't usually bother giving most of the time.

The castle was large enough that they used nearly every rock in the area.  They asked the local people for all their rocks, which they cold-heartedly refused to give.  A local miller's wife gave them her millstone, even though it was her very livelihood. 

The people then came from all over, giving of their excess rocks and stones, allowing the castle to be finished.  

And the millstone was given a place of honor, even to this day.

(if green mesh can be considered a notation of honor, that is.)

 

After this photo, our tour guide corrected Rebecca - in Japan, you always make the peace sign for photos.

 In a less Stone Soup and more Grimm Brothers way, they also raided the various cemeteries for stones.  Including the caskets themselves.    So any of the large square-ish stones in the walls (like on the left side of the photo) usually have writing on them.  And sometimes bones inside them.

At the end of the tour, you can pose with the overlook of the castle in "authentic shogunate garb." 

A very meta yin and yang.

The crowds being slim that day, the largest group was several busloads of students from the local school for the deaf.  Our entire day was filled with me trying not to eavesdrop to see how much I could understand. 

The answer: a surprising amount. Japanese Sign Language shares many basic signs with ASL because JSL was heavily influenced by OFSL at its inception.



It was still cold and getting more rainy, but we had already missed two opportunities for Japanese gardens and we weren't going to miss the gardens next door!  







 


Plus, they had free wheelchairs.

Koko-en Gardens is a replica of blahblahblah during the somethingsomethingsomething.  Oh, sorry. 
Ahem.  



You can read about the history of the gardens elsewhere.

The important thing is that they're beautiful.  

Raindrops falling across the water.

The view from inside the Tea House.

The aptly named "Garden With a Hill and a Pond"
I love having a photographer kid! 

These koi were huge.  Like, Godzilla mutant huge.

The Garden of the Pine Trees

The Garden of the Bamboo

Cherry Blossoms just beginning to bloom in the "Garden of Summer"











And, lest we be feeling slightly homesick, as we walked through the Garden of Flowers, we ran across a taste of Texas.








After a nice meander around the gardens, we headed back to the hotel in the drizzle.  




Everyone was tired at the end of the day (Seeing a trend?) so we ended up ordering pizza delivery from Dominos. 
It was far more than 30 minutes. 
Like ... 2 hours more than 30 minutes.
Japan is very different from the United States.

Final step count - 7 miles