Faster than a speeding bullet

It’s hard to take a“platypus” looking train seriously but the Shinkansen bullet train has set a world record speed of 581km/hr! Although, I doubt we hit those kinds of speeds on our short 30mintue ride between Osaka and Himeji, it still felt funny walking the aisle to our seat as it accelerated. Once up to speed it was smooth railing.

With only a few hours before having to head back to Osaka, we made our way to the Himeji Castle. However, we find hundreds of tourists and a 2 and a half hour queue to get through the fortress. Apparently, Japan celebrates the Vernal Equinox and since the Himeji castle will be closing in April for 4 years due to renovations everyone decided to visit it, Today. We hurriedly joined the queue of people as it winded all the way around the castle. Two hours later and barely in the door of the castle we had to head back to Osaka. It was a little disappointing; however, we did get to view the castle from the outside.

On the way back to the train station we found a scary samurai cutout.

Back in Osaka we decided to visit the Osaka castle…it seems as though every city has its own castle. Although not as impressive as the Himeji Castle, it was still a sight to behold. We didn’t tour the inside of the castle as we heard its best appreciated from the surrounding park.