A few days… months… (ok let’s be honest we have no idea when this article will be posted) have passed since our last blog post: the last hike in Hiroshima and the early start of that same day left us without energies to write anything.

We may be a little late, but we are back on track!

After leaving Hiroshima, we arrived in Kobe around 8pm, so we left our luggage in the tiiiiiny hotel room we’re lucky enough to find, and went for a quick walk on the city.

Kobe is an industrial city, so there is not much to see here, but we wanted to walk a little and grab some dinner. After a quick research, Kobe’s China town looked as a good option to spend the night.

Since it’s one of the most attractive parts of Kobe according to various websites, we expected it to be nice. Instead we found a lot of shops selling the exact same things. We took a random pair of cute buns, one sesame and one with meat.

We weren’t really satisfied but after all the hiking we needed some rest and went back to the hotel.
No alarms this time, we woke up smoothly 🙂 After the experience of the previous day, we didn’t want to go back to the city, so we took the first train to Animal Kingdom. Ok, this may seem like a waste of time. Why should we visit a zoo while in Japan? Well, first of all the reviews on TripAdvisors seemed so nice; as second point, little fluffy animals all around!
We had to go.

Animal Kingdom is located on Port Island, just in front of Kobe. It is mainly situated in and around a greenhouse and hosts mostly bird and small animals.
It is also house of the Shoebill Stork, the meanest looking bird on Earth.

All the animals living here are so accustomed to humans that they let you get closer and touch them, taking food from your hands.
Some of them are indeed acting a little weird…

No point in writing about the place anymore. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

After this stinky experience, we headed back to Kobe center to have lunch and fly away to our next stop. We are in Kobe, what shall we eat in your opinion? Meat of course!

We were afraid of using TripAdvisor also for this occasion, since we learned that most of the reviews are made by americans who have definitely a different taste from ours. During the short metro trip from the Zoo to the center we dived into a sea of traveller blogs to find some recommendation to find the authentic Kobe meat. We discovered that the real restaurants usually have a specific certificate on display:

There are many myths and rumours surrounding this kind of cattle: farmers are said to sing, massage and even serve the cows Japanese ice cold beer. While most of those rumours seem not to be true nowadays, there are still some farmers that use these techniques in order to relieve stress, which may toughen the meat. To obtain the certification however, there is no need to massage the animals!

As you already know this kind of beef is extremely expensive and, even though we knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, we were not willing to pay with our kidneys. We found what seemed to be a good compromise, Steak house Kobe. Described as a tourist conveyor belt where the waiters treat you as a bag of money, it serves the authentic meat in a fashionable way.

We waited for a very long 5 minutes interval (hunger cramps kicking in) and the waiter called our name and brought us to our table. Each table is basically a grill with seats all around, where the guests are served at the same time; a professional-personal chef is ready to explain the cooking process and cook in front of you!

The meal consist of a veggies side dish, various sauces, fried garlic and the mouth watering kobe beef.
This meat is amazing. The best cut is fat, but melt in your mouth as soon as you put it in.
Pointless to try describe it. You should taste it yourself to understand.

Despite not being a huge portion, the meal was more than enough to calm our appetite and leave us satisfied.

After this culinary experience we went back to the station to catch the train to our next destination, Himeji. This was the last Shinkansen we took during the trip.

The plan for Himeji was quite simple: as we didn’t have much time to spend around, we focused on the main attraction, which is the world famous castle, designated both as a national treasure and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

What is truly amazing about this castle, as well as its breath taking facade, is the fact that it is Japan’s best preserved feudal castle. One of the few castle that didn’t get destroyed by fires!

To better enjoy the visit we decided to take advantage of a free tour guide. This service is offered by Japanese who loves to meet international people and gives the chance to have a truly immersive experience visiting monuments and historical places.

We meet our guide right in front of the entrance of the castle. @@@@@@ looked extremely friendly and willing to share his passion for Japanese history and architecture.

Viewed from the outside, the castle keep appears to be five stories tall but the castle is actually six stories high (and has a basement), with the top floor housing a tiny Shintō shrine.
While showing us all the peculiarity of the park around the castle he explained its history, how it was built, why, who were the multiple owners. Even the military defensive architectural advantages, never used as the castle never got attacked, were part of the exhaustive explanation we got from our guide. The sharp curves after the first gates, the narrowing walls, hidden holes in the walls and ceilings (used to throw rocks and arrows), and steps with different dimensions, were all tricks made to slow down possible attackers while giving time to the defenders to hit back, and hit hard!
Walking us inside the castle @@@@ took a path which allowed us to admire better angles of this marvelous construction.

Starting from the roof, which tiles are painted with #######, he indicated us the statues positioned on top. The shachihoko decorations, which adorn the highest points of the castle towers, are on display. Shachi are imaginary beasts with the heads of lions and the bodies of fish.

Once inside is hard to believe to your own eyes. The entire building is made by wood. No iron pieces, no nails, only perfect woodworking joint. To make the idea better, in 2009 a huge 5 years restoration work started. The entire castle was dismantled and then reassembled. During this procedure every damaged or decaying piece was replaced to maintain the original design.
Carved in the logs parts of the great puzzle, are well visible patches of colors different from the original wood. These shapes are places where the workers removed ugly knots in the wood, replacing them with more aesthetic fruit or fish shapes.

Once out the castle we went right to the Kokoen Gardens
Treno per himeji
Himeji castle e guida
Kokoen gardens
Back to the station, weird groups performing.
Back to Osaka, airbnb and quick walk in namba