We started our day bright and early at Himeji Castle which was a beautiful white castle built up on a hill with a moat surrounding it’s base. It was so pretty to walk up to.
We tried, haha!
Huge gate doors
This is what you get when you ask random strangers to take a pic for you. At least the castle is in focus.
Here’s my chipper girl skipping as we head to the castle for a tour. She’s such a free little spirit!
A rare picture of just me. Shocking, I know!
We let one of the kids take over the camera.
Getting closer
There’s always time for a selfie!
Isn’t it pretty?
Finally, a tourist that can take a good picture.
View from the inside of the castle.
The bones of the building.
Inside there were signs that talked about how the samurai warriors would have to run down narrow hallways in full armor and you could see scrapes on the walls from their swords. Didn’t get any pictures of that though.
The stairs were so steep.
After our tour we went to see the gardens.
We left Himeji Castle and started our drive to Nara park to see the deer, but first we needed to buy the deer some cookies.
There were a couple of cool buildings…
but what we all really came to see were the deer! Maya and Arabella didn’t hesitate to pet them but it took all of the courage Eva could muster to touch this deer’s ear.
Success!
So at first we saw a few scattered deer and we were so excited. Little did we know that there were hundreds up ahead!
They were mostly just lounging around, chillin’ at the bus stop…
Some were jaywalking
Others were waiting to use the crosswalk
This is where it got crazy. On the path that lead to the temple, Todaiji, there were lots of crowds and lots of deer.
This happened
We kept moving forward towards the temple stopping for a picture here and there.
We made it!
Inside- Pictures do not do the size of this thing justice! To put it into perspective it was just about the size of the building. It really was incredible!
Then there was this gigantic samurai carved out of wood. The detail on him was spectacular!
Replica of the buildings and grounds.
The columns inside this temple were solid and HUGE! Example of one of them.
We joked that this was Maya and Aidan.
Then, we came to everyone’s favorite part-crawling through a hole in one of the columns! It was so funny to see so many adults taking on the challenge.
Even Rich tried it but his shoulders were too broad.
Last was this interesting guy. The belief is that if you rub it on the place that ails you and then rub yourself there, it will heal you. I’m not a believer but Rich suggested I give it a rub on the ankle since I have the worst ankles in the world, haha!
That was a fun place.
We left and made our way to our lodging. We “enjoyed” a serenade from 4 very happy kiddos.
What an exciting day we had!
