Himeji & Osaka Jo
Tuesday, June 22nd

OK, so this is one of my major blunders. Last week I had researched some fun activities going on in our area while Bill and Nola were going to be here. There was a Yukata Matsuri Festival happening on this day and i circled it in my Kansai Time-Out English language magazine. The bold print at the top of the article said something about Osaka Jinga (shrine). The article described people parading up and down the boulevard close to Himeji Castle. They would be displaying their summer yukata (light kimono) and there would be 800 food and entertainment booths set up. That sounds like fun! Still thinking Osaka because that was in bold letters, i planned a morning trip to Himeji Castle and then over to Osaka to see Osaka Castle and then we could eat and enjoy the Festival that evening.

You'd think i would have gotten a clue when we arrived at Himeji and saw a ton of booths being set up along the street leading to the castle. Dave and Connie joined us for a very impressive tour of the inside of the castle. I would highly recommend this one. All the explanations were in English and were very informative. The view from the top of the castle is really impressive. It's hard to imagine how large an area this castle complex encompassed way back when. On our way back to the train station we had a great yakitori from one of the booths for our lunch break but most of the booths were still being constructed. Ah, well, we thought, we'll hit the REAL festival when we get to Osaka. WRONG. We didn't figure out till we got to Osaka that we had just left the festival in Himeji and that Osaka Jinga is in Himeji. Oops. Duh. Phooey.

We got to Osaka-jo too late to get inside but enjoyed the grounds and took some cool photos of the cat lady and ate a not so good okonomiyaki at a booth close to the castle mote. I could just kick myself. We would have enjoyed watching the "fashion show" and sampling food from all those booths and probably seen Himeji lit up at night but it was too late and too expensive to get back on the train and travel an hour back there to enjoy it. Luckily, everyone was happy with our day anyway and i think that i was the most disappointed. Resolved: I WILL read the directions better next time.