A Brief Visit to Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle is an UNESCO World Heritage site that I would have never known about if it weren’t for my parents booking a stay here. Needless to say, I am so happy they did! I’ve been to a couple of castles, but none of them were as interesting and as spectacular as this one. The other ones I have been to were a bit lackluster because they either were burned down or were built just for tourism. Himeji castle was actually a massive fortress, but it was never used.

In Japan, cute (kawaii) mascots are created for many things like train stations, museums, and brands. Himeji’s mascot is named Shiromaru Hime, and she is sprinkled all throughout the city! By they way, “hime” means princess in Japanese. She is super cute and one of my favourite mascots I have seen so far. Usually, the mascots are animals or anime people. The school I interned at was in Togoshi-Ginza, which had a funny kawaii tiger mascot! (see previous post). Our tickets for Himeji castle and Ko-koen actually came with 800 yen vouchers, and I used one of them on a pink fluffy handt owel embroidered with Shiromaru Hime!