11/6 - Himeji Castle

If you can only visit one castle in Japan, then it should be Himeji Castle.  It's a little out of the way, but it's well worth the trip.  This is the Japanese castle.  When I came back, my coworkers asked me if it was a real castle. Well, yes, it's a real castle.  Some of them also asked if anyone actually lived in there.  Then I realized that they were thinking of castle from a European perspective.  Castles in Europe were often where royalty and nobility lived.  I don't think a Japanese castle falls under exactly the same category.

Himeji Castle was the centre of activity and power in the area.  Japanese castles are more famous for their defensive and architectural elements.  From the many signs around the castle site, it explained how the castle would be last defense if the area were attacked.  They could huddle all the soldiers into the castle and form an impressive defense against any attackers.  The main tower itself was more of a storage and keep than a living quarter.  So in this way, it's very different from a European castle which were often residences.

We walked up the main street from the train station to Himeji Castle.  The giant white building can be easily seen from the end of the main road.  It is an impressive structure as you get closer.  There were also many other tourists in town - Japanese and non-Japanese.  It was a beautiful and sunny fall day.  We spent most of the time holding our jackets in our arms as we went around the castle grounds.

The castle grounds are made up of many buildings, but we were only really interested in the main tower.  The very front of the castle grounds are free to the public.  It's only when you approach closer to the main keep, that you must pay for admission.  Once past the admission gate, we started a series of twists and turns that took us further up towards the main tower.  It was like spiralling around the main tower to get up to the top.  There are many beautiful examples of roof tiles at Himeji Castle. In fact, there is a whole collection of different roof tiles on the buildings.

We finally reached an expansive, flat, upper area where you could look out over the town around the castle.  That's also where the main entry to the main tower was.  We went in, but there were no lights anywhere in the castle.  It looks like the Japanese were looking to preserve Himeji Castle in its original state as much as possible.  The only sign of modernity in the castle was the emergency fire equipment that was placed all around the building. 

Upon entry, we had to take our shoes off.  The ladies at the door gave us all a plastic bag so we could carry our shoes with us as we trekked upwards through the tower.  The main tower was six stories of steep stairs and large empty spaces.  The empty spaces were meant to house food and weapons in case of an attack on the castle.  Each floor was quite wide.  Again, there were no artificial lights.  So we were lucky that it was sunny outside; otherwise, we'd have a lot of trouble seeing inside the castle.  Because of the lack of lights, it was also very hard to take pictures inside the castle.  My best inside picture would be of a rack of rifles displayed on the weapons storage floor.

Once on the top floor, the natural light really pours in with the larger windows.  There's a little shrine built on this floor.  I'm not sure what the shrine was about because I didn't want to lose my spot in line for going back down.  However, many Japanese took the time to pay repsects at the shrine.

Also, there was a great view of the surrounding castle grounds.  To the west, there was another building on the castle grounds known as the West Bailey.  Then eastwards, on the way down, you could see the roofs of some of the adjacent castle buildings.

After a couple hours in the castle, we were really hungry.  It was already 2pm, so we had missed most of the lunch rush outside the castle.  There are a few restaurants directly across the road from the castle grounds.  We grabbed a quick bite and drink for lunch.  Then when we were on our way again back to Kobe.

11/6 - Arima Onsen to Kobe to Himeji

We knew today would be the day that we'd be in transit a lot.  First, we had to get from Arima Onsen to Kobe.  We were lead to believe that the bus would accept our Kansai Thru Pass.  However, after the somewhat twisty ride down the mountain and a long journey through a tunnel to the seaside metropolis, we found out from the driver that our cards wouldn't work.  We had to fork out about ¥2400 out of our own pockets.  Thank goodness Japanese buses give change!

After leaving the bus, we had to walk a while to find the correct train station. We were in the Sannomiya area of Kobe which is the central train hub for the city.  However, there are like 3 or 4 different Sannomiya stations, so we had to figure out where the Hanshin Railway station was.  When we finally found it, we unloaded our extra bags into a coin locker for the day.  That way, we didn't have to lug around too much stuff while we visited Himeji for the afternoon. 


We entered the Hanshin Sannomiya station and boarded an express train to Himeji.  Himeji is 60km west of Kobe and a one-hour journey by train. So we were very happy that we caught the express instead of the milk run that would stop at every single stop between Kobe and Himeji.  The Seaside Express was a wonderful ride.  It didn't really start that way because we were underground at first, then the train passes through the outer suburbs of Kobe.  However, once you get out of the burbs, the sky opens up and the sea is in full view to the left of the train.  It was a beautiful and clear day.  The rays of sunshine glistened off the waves and whitecaps of the ocean.  I think N may have missed most of it as she nodded off beside me.  Even the couple across from us were pretty sleepy.  For whatever reason, I didn't take my camera out at that moment, but just took in the whole view.

We passed the very imposing Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge that connects the main Honshu island to the much smaller Awaji Island.  For those who are into bridges, I'm sure that they would want to make a pilgrimage to this bridge that spans a pretty wide strait.  I didn't get a picture of the bridge on the way to Himeji, but I did get this shot on the way back.

After an hour, we arrived in Himeji.  I also eventually caught a little bit of shut eye along with N.  We exited the Sanyo Himeji Station and walked up the main road to Himeji to our destination - Himeji Castle.

11/6 - Mochi Pounding

Taketoritei Maruyama has a special treat every morning.  They set up the lobby with a few tables and a giant hollowed tree stump and a taiko drum.  It seems like a strange set up until everyone takes their places and the glutinous mound is placed in the tree stump.  It's a mochi pounding.

Every morning, the ryokan's staff put on this performance of a mochi pounding.  The older gentleman bangs the taiko drums and gives the pounders and mixers a beat to work with.  On one beat the pounder wails down upon the formless mound of glutinous rice.  The next beat, the mixer puts their hand in the stump to move the mochi.  The pounding is definitely as much about the cooking as it is about the performance.  Beat and hammer, beat and hand, beat and hammer, beat and hand.

You're always worried that the mixer may mess up the timing and accidentally stick her hand in the wrong moment or just leave it for a little too long.  I wonder if they practice to get it all right.

After all the beating and pounding and mixing, they take the mochi to a table and portion out two little mochi balls per dish.  Then they roll some of the balls in a powder that was sweet.  Some of the balls and add sauce to the mochi balls.  Then there was some sort of other sauce or dressing that was actually quite sour and bitter to me and I really did not enjoy that mochi.

However, the whole experience of watching the pounding of the mochi and eating it fresh right after, that was quite special.  The mochi pounding was the last of our events at Taketoritei Maruyama.  We went back up to our room, packed our bags, and checked out.  We cleared our tab and we were sent back into the middle of town.

We had quite a while to wait for our bus into Kobe, so we wandered and came across the Kinnoyu Onsen.  By its name, I imagine it takes advantage of Arima's natural kinsen water, the milky and silky golden bath.  Outside Kinnoyu, N decided to partake in the free foot onsen.  As she sat down, she was about to sit down at the bench furthest to the right.  An old man was there and said something, but we weren't sure what he said.  Once N dipped her feet in, I think she kind of put together what the old man said.  The part of the foot onsen furthest to the right was the hottest section of the foot onsen.  Oh and did she feel it.  She quickly scooted to the next section to the left.  It was hot, but just not quite as hot.

After the quick dip of N's feet and me just wandering and taking pictures, we went back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus to Kobe's central Sannomiya area in order to make a connection to a train bound for Himeji. 

11/5 - 11/6 - Ryokan Meals

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese accommodation where you sleep on a tatami floor and also get your meals provided.  Taketoritei Maruyama had two huge meals in store for us.  I didn't quite realize how extensive the meals would be.

We partook in our evening meal shortly after our private onsen session.  We stepped into the special dining area.  Every group or couple had their own private dining room.  We were in room number 4 as far as I could tell from the Kanji character.  There was already some items on the table including our menu.  I was absolutely floored.  We had a 12 course meal in store for us.  I know N had mentioned that the meal was included and that it was fancy, but I was still caught off guard.  Already set on the table were two small drinks of strawberry wine perched on miniature carts.  There were also two plates of sashimi with 3 tiny pieces each.

We also had our choice of drinks.  I had seen a bottle of a local beverage out in the lobby and I was curious how it would taste.  It was called Arima Teppo Cider Water.  It didn't look alchoholic, but I was curious.  It turned out to taste exactly the same as Ramu Bottle pop.  If you've ever had Ramu Pop, it tastes like sugar water.  Both Ramu and the Cider Water were neat to try for the bottle, but it tasted syrupy and sugary.


N did the sensible thing and ordered an alcholic drink.  Many of the alcohol served was of the fruity variety.  There was a lot of choice, but N eventually settled on Peach Sake.

Our courses came one at a time.  There was the rice rolled in bean curd, the crab dumpling soup, and the beef pie.  All of them were really good, except the beef pie reminded me of a sausage roll.  I don't think this particular fusion dish worked, but everything else was good.

 

Then the our server in her exquisite kimono brought out a giant green plastic steamer shaped like a hollowed out stick of bamboo.  Inside was a steamed food dish, which I believe was fish.  However, by this time, my fatigue was truly setting in and I could barely enjoy the meal after this point.  I was so tired that I was no longer hungry.  I just wanted to sleep.  However, I managed to trek on and snap more shots of this 12-course meal.

  

We were ending the meal with smaller dishes including red miso soup, rice, and a small pickled dish.  The final dish was the raspberry mousse served in a pretty dessert bowl.  The dinner was as much for our eyes as it was for our stomachs.

 

The next morning, we also had breakfast in the same room.  This time, instead of the dishes coming out one at a time, most of it was already spread out on the table for us.  I was also feeling fully rested after sleeping through the night.  At least 6 or 7 little individual dishes were already out on the table.  However, there was no menu this morning to figure out what we were eating.  So you're guess is as good as mine.  I can safely say, though, that this is the most decadent breakfast that I have ever had.

There was also another steamer on the table today.  It was also a bamboo looking like container, but the steam hadn't started yet.  The server gestured to us that we would have to pull the string to get the steamer going.  What a neat little contraption.  I wonder what they do to get instant steam boiling.  I was tempted to play with the steamer, but thought better of it.

Overall, both meals were truly luxurious and decadent.  It's not the kind of meal that I would typically have.  N suspects that these two meals would have cost at least CAD$200 if we were to have the meals out in some fancy Japanese restaurant.  Of course, our stay included these meals and the cost packaged into the grand total.  But what a meal and what an experience.

11/5 - the baths at Taketoritei Maruyama

After settling into our hotel room, we decided to wander around Taketoritei Maruyama.  The ryokan was only 6 stories tall and each floor only had a handful of rooms.  We went back into the lobby to see what was happening.  However, we soon discovered that everyone had changed into the yukata provided by the hotel.  Meanwhile, we, the newbie visitors to a ryokan onsen, were still in our shirts and jeans.  Oh did we ever stick out of the crowd.  We quickly went back up to our room and got changed into the clothing provided.

First order of the day after familiarizing ourselves with our room and exploring the hotel lobby, it was time to try out the many baths of Taketoritei Maruyama.  The baths at the onsen could basically be divided into two types of spring water spread across many different locations.  The two types were Ginsen (silver spring) and Kinsen (gold spring).  The Ginsen is a clear spring water that is purportedly rich with radium and carbonate.  Kinsen is a rich milky and silky looking water that is almost gold in colour.  Your hand literally disappears once it's an inch below the surface of the water.  Both have their reported health benefits for a variety of chronic ailments.

We tried the "public bath" in the hotel first.  The public bath is not really open to the outside public, but is accessible to all hotel guests at almost any time of the day.  This bath is set up like a sento that you would find outside, but it was fancier inside.  Like a sento, the baths were split between men and women.  There was a washing area to cleanse your body before dipping oneself in the very, very hot water.  There were two indoor bathing pools - one Ginsen and one Kinsen.  Then there was one outdoor pool - a Ginsen pool.  When I went into my side, I was initially by myself.  So I just enjoyed the whole place to myself.  Eventually, a large group of men joined me and it wasn't so quiet anymore.  That's roughly when I decided to go back to our room.

N was still enjoying her side of the "public bath" when I had gone back to our room.  I think this was the day I could really feel the jet lag set in.  It didn't matter that I had taken the melatonin to help the previous nights.  I was really exhausted now.  I tried to crash and rest before going to our designated time for our "private onsen."

I had to run back down to the lobby and get the key for our private onsen time.  Taketoritei Maruyama has four of these private onsens.  We were a little disappointed with our onsen only because the baths were the same as the ones in the public area, but the tubs were smaller to accommodate couples or small groups.  However, it was still very comfortable to soak in the oh-so-hot baths.  N couldn't help but take a few pot shots at me after I immersed myself in the Kinsen and the water overflowed over the side.

Then there was our personal onsen attached to our hotel room.  I didn't get to enjoy it until early the next morning.  I was just so exhausted and jet lagged at night that I didn't want to bathe.  N was definitely not happy that I passed on the personal onsen at night because she didn't want to go out there alone.  The personal onsen was Ginsen water, but was also very, very hot and oh-so-comfy.  You just had to watch out when stepping out because there were some pine needles scattered on the ground.  Poke!

11/5 - Taketoritei Maruyama

We were warmly greeted upon our arrival at the hotel lobby of Taketoritei Maruyama. I was expecting that we would check in and get our room keys and that would be it. However, we were asked to leave all our bags at the desk and were ushered to a sitting room. We weren't entirely sure what was going on because only 1 or 2 of the staff were comfortable speaking a little English with us. What really surprised me was the cup of tea that they brought out to us. This was no ordinary cup of tea. It was a cup of plum tea with gold leaf sprinkled in the drink. It was so luxurious that I wasn't quite sure how to react. As we sat and drank our tea, we could look out the window and see the view. If you looked really hard, you could make out buildings far off in the distance and even possibly the ocean.

We weren't finished our tea, when our personal bell hop came and greeted us. Poor guy. His English wasn't all that good and he had a heavy accent. However, he gave it an admirable attempt to convey his welcome and explain how our stay would be like at Taketoritei Maruyama. He helped us to book our private session in one of the four special private onsen baths. He also helped to book our personal dinner time.

Our bell hop took us over to a table where all women got to choose a yukata to wear as part of their stay at Taketoritei Maruyama. N picked a very feminine pink yukata with purple flowers. It also came with a purple sash used to tie the yukata together. We both got a cloth bag with traditional Japanese designs as a gift from the hotel to us as a part of our stay.

Then it was time to take us up to our room. Part of the experience of one's stay at Taketoritei Maruyama, is that the lady guests can be carted in a beautiful wooden wagon. In The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the Moon Princess was returned to the moon in an ox-drawn wagon. So all women can feel like a princess. At least from the lobby to the elevator. So N was the lucky passenger as this beautiful wagon was pulled down the hallway to the elevator.

Our bellhop took us up to our room on the 4th floor. He opened the room for us and introduced all the different parts of the room to us. We left our shoes by the door and put on our slippers. The bell hop told us that we should write our name or draw something on our slippers so that we can identify them when we go into the public baths. It was a huge room for just the two of us to stay in, but it was simply decadent feeling. There was first the large tatami (sitting/sleeping) room. When we arrived, the room was set up with a table in the middle with a beautifully decorated plate of fresh fruit on it. One wall had a typically minimalist zen-like painting with a singular vase of flora directly below it. The window was almost floor to ceiling and was definitely wall to wall. It looked out onto a small yard that was really meant for viewing and not so much for walking in.

Next to the tatami room was another sitting room. There was a table that had a large blanket skirting the sides. I had a Japanese friend when I was young who had a similar table in his home. It was very comfortable to sit at, especially if your feet were cold. We didn't end up using this room very much except for the large closet to keep our belongings. I also found my men's yukata in the closet.

Just outside our room in the yard was a small, but segregated private bathtub. This was our own private onsen tub that we could access just outside our room. I guess that's what we paid a little extra for. It was a large green ceramic tub that could easily fit two adults. Water flowed down into the tub from a hollowed out piece of wood. It was all so decadent.

The bell hop also showed us the toilet room, washroom, and shower. The toilet was literally in a separate room and across the hall from the washroom and shower. There were two sinks and a selection of fine Japanese toiletries for the guests to use. The shower was small, but most Japanese showers are. It was set up so that you could take a bath in the tradtional Japanese style of sitting on a stool and using a wash basin. You could shower like most North Americans do if you wanted to, though.

Introduced to our room, I felt like we had landed in the lap of luxurious experience way beyond our usual circumstances.  The stay at Takitoritei Maruyama was definitely our one big splurge of the trip.

11/5 - Arima Onsen - Arriving at the hot springs

We arrived in Takarazuka to begin our bus ride up the mountains to Arima Onsen.  We were way early for the next bus by a half hour.  So we hung around the Hankyu Department Store for most of that time.  We used their facilities (always use the facilities when you get a chance) and checked out their food floor.  Every Japanese department store has these large food floors.

On the bus, we quickly noticed that there weren't many other young folk on the bus.  There was maybe one or two.  I remember for sure that a young lady was sitting right in front of us and busy texting on her flip phone.  Everyone else were seniors travelling to the onsen.  I suspect that they wanted to take advantage of the health benefits of the natural hot springs.

The bus journey up the mountain was definitely not quick.  It must have been roughly an hour's ride winding up the small mountain road.  It wasn't overly twisty like some mountain roads that I've been on.  When we started in Takarazuka, I was hoping the bus would take the highway onramp, but no such luck.  In any case, we got to see a much more rural part of Japan than what I'm used to seeing.  Yes, that's right.  Japan is not one giant urban metropolis.  There are farms and little townships in Japan too.

Pretty soon, you could tell we were arriving in a touristy area when the bus stops were closer together and the shops looked neater.  We got off in the middle of town where the bus terminus is.  The bus basically dropped us off in front of the town's info centre and proceeded to back into its parking spot. 

We wandered off to what looks like possibly an artificial river in the Arima River.  There was a classic red Japanese bridge crossing over it.  We took a few pictures from over the bridge.  It looked like you could go down to this concrete river bed and get closer, but we weren't in the mood for that. As usual, we are always interested in food stuff and found a shop selling some buns of some sort.  We definitely needed to try some of those hot steamy buns. 

It was time for us to contact the hotel and get our ride to the hotel.  We were staying at a hotel called Taketoritei Maruyama.  It's an upscale ryokan that specializes in giving you a traditional Japanese sleeping experience in addition to their many onsen baths.  The Japanese size minivan picked us up and drove us up the hill past the town centre to the hotel. 

11/5 - Instant Ramen Museum (Ikeda)

Full day number 3.  We've stayed 2 nights in Osaka, but we really haven't explored it yet.  This morning, we were off to Ikeda just northwest of Osaka.  It's still in Osaka prefecture, but is a little ways out from the Osaka city limits.

We had to take the Hankyu Takarazuka line out to Ikeda.  If you ever find yourself in Osaka and ride a Hankyu train, you will find that the whole fleet of trains is a distinctive maroon colour.  It looked impressive with all the Hankyu trains loading and unloading in Hankyu Umeda station.

This day, we were in search of the Instant Ramen Museum.  It's formally known as the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum.  Mr. Ando is the founder of the first ever instant ramen in Japan, known as Chikin Ramen. We initially had some trouble find the museum.  There were some signs at Ikeda station pointing to which exit to go, but they were all in Japanese.  If you don't read Japanese, you could very easily miss these signs.

Just outside Ikeda Station, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a small Western style restaurant.  N just grabbed a quick bite of pizza toast and I had a slightly larger American style breakfast.  It was actually really quiet in the restaurant.  We weren't sure if we beat the rush or just missed the rush.

We then walked quickly down to the Museum.  N booked us for an Making Instant Noodle session on the museum's website.  So we had to arrive early in the morning at a certain time.  Apparently we had booked spots 47 and 48 out of 48.  So who were the other 46 persons? We arrived at the museum to join a 46 upper elementary school children in making instant ramen.  I was definitely the oldest in the room.  I may have even been older than their teacher.

The process of making the instant ramen noodles was very similar to making pasta.  We had to mix the flour and oil together to create the noodle material.  We also had a special hand-crank machine to flatten the mixture.  Then we used the same machine to cut the noodles into its stringy form.  We didn't actually get to do the frying, though.  They had a whole team of workers gather our soft, stringy noodles and put them into the giant deep fryer in their kitchen.  Then at the end, we get to keep the final product.  We even had to design our own instant ramen package.  Oh poor unartistic me.

After the noodle making session was done, we wandered the museum a little. There was the great historic timeline of instant noodles all starting with Chikin Ramen many decades ago.  There was also a replica of Momofuku Ando's humble shack where he started creating Chikin Ramen many years ago.

Then, we realized we made a slight mistake.  Instead of wandering the few exhibits in the museum, we should have really made a B-line for the Cup Noodle area.  In the Cup Noodle area, you can design your own Cup Noodle cup and get it filled with freshly made noodles and flavouring.  Unfortunately, our 46 noodle making accomplices had beat us out and got to the Cup Noodle area already.  Which meant what is normally a 10-15 minute activity, took about an hour.  In any case, it was pretty neat to see the giant set up for putting noodles and flavouring into your own personal Cup Noodle cup.  It was quite the assembly line production complete with inflatable see-through bag to protect your precious creation.

After all that creating noodles, we needed to consume some noodles for lunch.  In the back of the museum is a selection of instant noodle and drink vending machines.  No need for a restaurant in a place that is built upon the word instant.  We each purchased an instant noodle.  N had a Wakayama style instant noodle complete with one real piece of dehydrated meat included.  I got a duck flavoured noodle of some sort.  We also got some drinks - a green tea for N and a Cafe au Lait for myself (for some reason, I was craving coffee a lot while in Japan).

We downed our instant lunch quickly because we wanted to get to Arima Onsen quickly.  The more time we spent in Arima Onsen, the more worth our stay there would be.  Arima was going to be our big splurge of the trip.