Himeji
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Our day trip to Himeji from Kyoto was really on the spur of the moment; I only decided to go there after  reading one morning in the Lonely Planet Guide to Japan that if you see only one castle in Japan it should be Himeji.   There is a really excellent on-line virtual tour of Himeji Castle which you can visit by clicking HERE.

We took our first bullet train ride to get to Himeji.  Riding the bullet train itself is a highlight of traveling in Japan, and a kind of special privilege for foreign tourists with rail passes (it is quite expensive otherwise).

The day we traveled was our first really nice day of weather in Japan, cool with nice, only partly cloudy skies.  Up until then we considered ourselves lucky if we did not get soaked at least once in the day.  The town of Himeji does not itself offer much (not even a video game parlor that I recall). 

We were lucky to catch up with a group of three Australians who were starting a tour of the castle with an English-speaking guide.  Our guide spent about 2 hours showing us the castle.   If you follow the online VIRTUAL TOUR you will get a very good idea of exactly what we saw at Himeji Castle.  The Japanese appear to be justifiably proud of Himeji.  Like many of the attractions we saw in Japan it is registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

One of the Australians in our group was a Middle School teacher who suggested to Tony that he count the number of steps from the top of the Castle.  So he did.  Tony counted 219 steps.  Here below are some shots taken from the top of the Castle showing the town of Himeji and the countryside.

At the end of our tour, our guide, who taught English at a local public school, explained to us that it was because of the hospitality he had received on a visit to Boston that he had decided to volunteer to give tours of the Castle.  Incidentally, our guide took the picture of Tony and me standing in front of the Castle on the home page of this report.