Himeji Castle

Another long bustrip! To Himeji Castle, and later: Kyoto. Did you know that in Japan, people drive on the left side of the road? I didn't. Anyway, Himeji Castle. Castle of the white.. egret. I really did not know about that word. In dutch we would say "Witte Reiger". Should mean the bird standing on one leg in a pond, in the hopes of catching fish. Anyway, this castle is famous! And if you didn't know before, you'd see it in the pictures. It's crowded beyond belief. I've never seen so many Japanese people in one place. Atleast I think they're Japanese.. Asian anyway. So we waited in line, and we were told it would take about an hour to get inside the castle. So we waited. And waited. We even waited some more. And for what? The view mainly. I really did not like the insides of this castle, I only liked the view. The outside of the castle was looking great too.

After a quick lunch, we went to the garden. Which I liked way more! Beautiful scenery. My picture skills are getting better as well I think. Plus the weather was a lot better.
When I'm going to buy a house later, I want a Japanese garden. And a gardener.

We left Himeji castle for Kyoto as that's where our hotel for the next 4 days would be. My hotel was near Gion, a place famous for its geishas, if we were lucky, we might be able to see one. As it happens.. I saw three. They come and go really quickly though, so I wasn't able to snap any good pictures...

After geisha spotting we went for traditional food once more. This time: Shabu Shabu. Which is a kind of hot pot. or fondue. The basic dish would consist of only beef. An unlimited amount of beef. All sliced really thin. And as I thought, I usually do not like beef, I'd go for pork as well. Though in the end, I liked the beef more.
Thing with Shabu Shabu is, you take turns in putting food in this boiling hot bowl of water. Put one slice of beef in, wait 5 seconds and voila. You're ready to eat. Once more, I ate a lot. Everyone was finished, but me and this other (skinny) guy. Not saying I'm skinny, but he definitely is. Who would've thought that, I, The smallest of the lot, and him, would eat that much. People were kind of begging us to stop eating!