Himeji

As many of you know, Jonathan and I planned a week long vacation traveling around Japan before we settle down for his internship in Tokyo. This is really exciting considering we didn’t really take a “honeymoon” when we got married. We are kind of justifying the expense of this trip with that thought in mind. Jonathan did most of the planning for our Japanese adventure. He served his mission here, so there are a lot of things/people that he would really like to revisit during our trip. I’m just really excited to spend a whole week together, without any stresses or weighing obligations exploring a new place together. Since Jonathan finished up his conference on Sunday, we began our week of freedom bright an early Monday morning (May 20).

I don’t think that you would call what we have “jet-lag” per se, but right now, our timing in a bit off. We (mostly me) get drop-dead exhausted around 8 or 9 o’clock. I have been going to sleep around that time, because no matter how I fight it, I simply pass out. This also means that I wake up fresh and ready to go around 4:30am. To Jonathan’s great pain, I woke up at this time on Monday morning, and although I “tried” to be quiet, somehow Jonathan couldn’t sleep through my singing in the shower and banging around the room to find this or that on his side of the bed. I get really lonely.

So, with the early start we packed up our suitcases and said goodbye to our four star room in Kobe. On the way out we realized that Jonathan left the camera charger in one of the suitcases that we sent to Tokyo earlier that week. For those of you who are unaware, Jonathan can usually be described as “diligent beyond all reason” (he doesn’t like it when I use the word anal) when it comes to taking care of his “stuff.” He still has a wooden train set from his childhood that is in perfect condition because after he played with it, he cleaned it and returned it to the box that it was originally packed in...every time. I won’t go into details, but this camera has undone this reputation several times over. Because I was unwilling to start our week long Japan Summer of Love 2007 without a way to document it photographically for future posterity, we spent the morning and a lot of money buying a new camera in the beautiful city of Himeji.

Himeji is a smaller city in Japan. It is well groomed and pretty compared to the concrete functionality of Kobe. This is probably because Himeji is a host to thousands and thousands of tourists each year in their trek to see the famous Himeji-jo Castle. This castle is constructed completely out of wood, tile, rocks, and some iron work (no concrete) and has been standing in its original form since 1580. The most striking thing about this temple is how huge it is, how well planned the structure was (it has sinks and bathroom areas that can be used on several floors as well as intense fortressing capabilities that made it impossible to conquer) and how intricately beautiful it is. Jonathan and I walked around the castle and surrounding areas for a couple of hours and took lots of pictures with our cool new Japanese camera.

I'm not one to make fun, but this sign was hanging every where in the really nice department store where we bought our camera.

Himeji-jo castle.

We're posing as priests...
View from the top.
A little Japanese woman demanded that she take our picture by this archway. By the train station a woman was selling these huge Beatles for $30-$50. Her main customers are little kids who are desperate for a pet. I tried to get Jonathan to hold it, but he was afraid. Haha.