Himeji Castle and waterfalls, stairs after stairs

We left Takayama early (bye bye mountains) and headed to Nagoya.
Last breakfast at the hotel. Better that the day before.

Two and a half hours sitting in the train, waiting at Nagoya station, 1 hour in train and again waiting in Kobe station and then sitting in train.. Our destination was Himeji!

We left our luggages at Kobe station's coin lockers and while waiting for shinkansen to Himeji we ate ekiben (=eki bento=station bento/lunch)

 

Aand in Himeji our destination was Himeji Castle! 'The castle is both a national treasure and a world heritage site. Unlike many other Japanese castles, it was never destroyed by war, earthquake or fire and survives to this day as one of the country's twelve original castles.'

The day was really hot and I was feeling sleepy (even though I slept in the trains) and sore from all the sitting. Well no sitting for a while! Because once we arrived at Himeji it was just walking and climbing stairs. So many stairs.. But the castle and the surrounding area were really pretty. We bought tickets to the castle and the garden.

After the castle we went to see the Koko-en Japanese Garden. It was so beautiful!

Our paln for the day was to take a look at the castle and the garden and then head back to Kobe and take a quick look around the city. And tomorrow before leaving, go and see the waterfalls and garden. BUT since tomorrow was gonna be rainy day we decided to take a quick look at the waerfalls right after Himeji. So yes, after walking through the castle and the garden at Himeji we headed back to Kobe. Gladly the waterfalls are right behind the station so we didn't need to go far. But sadly there were millions of stairs we had to climb before getting to there.. But boy was it worth it!! The view was breathtaking!

We thought this was the main waterfall.

But after climbing higher..

We reached the main waterfall!

We climbed higher and then there was a sign, 150m up and you can see the city view.. Well damn, we've come this far, let's just climb all the way up xD And the view again..!

We came back down, took our luggages and headed to our hotel, a capsule hotel, yay!

 This was really nice place!

My feet are killing me. The day has been so long and sitting and climbing stairs and sitting and climbing stair again, lol. But then it's a week in Tokyo, in the familiar surroundings and no more carrying luggages, what a bless.

~Aura