Castles, Cherry Blossoms and Kobe Beef

April 18^th, 2006

This might be one of my favorite days of the trip. Well, the first part anyway. We started the day with a train to Himeji which is home to Japan’s greatest castle. On the way we stopped for Tonkatsu which is friend pork. Gross. The castle, however, was beautiful and the cherry blossoms were in nearly full bloom. The pictures are incredible. On the way back to Kyoto, we stopped in Kobe for some Kobe beef. We then tried to go to a mountain top to watch the sunset, but they aren’t open at night during the week. Damn Lonely Planet let me down again. You would think a restaurant that serves Kobe beef could come up with a decent glass of red wine, but you would be mistaken. Think spoiled grape juice. Our final stop of the night was in Osaka – aka “Where the streets have no names.” After walking past the same point about 324 times, we stopped in some random place and then headed back on the train to Kyoto. All in all, we spent the majority of the afternoon lost, and little did I know, this would continue into the next day.