Going up and down six floors of the massive Himeji Castle of Japan

Main Keep (right) of Himeji or White Egret Castle.

The cold spring weather was just fit for the climbing. It was not tiresome though because going up and down six stories of the Main Keep of Himeji Castle was rather slow: there were waiting queues at every up or down staircase.

We were awed by the many visitors, predominantly young and old Japanese, to the centuries-old massive wooden structure that towers 91.4 meters above sea level. We saw similar huge crowds in historical Buddhist temples and shrines.

School boys trooping to the Castle.

According to the information guide, the Main Keep is covered with white plaster made from slaked lime, shell ash, hemp fiber and seaweed using Japanese traditional method. The structure is described as resembling a white egret in flight; thus, Himeji Castle is also known as White Egret Castle.

In 1931, Japan designated the Main Keep as National Treasure. The other keeps were designated National Treasures twenty years later. In 1952, the premises within the inner moat were declared Special Historic Sites.

In 1993, Himeji Castle made it to the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, the first for Japan.

Another view of the Main Keep.

The east and west large wooden pillars of the Main Keep makes the climb awesome. They are 24.6 meters long, extending from the basement up to the 5th floor beam. In the castle's history, in 1950, the upper part of the west large pillar was replaced with a 650-year-old cypress and the lower part with a 765-year-old cypress. The east large pillar of fir is largely intact although the base was changed to cypress.

The windows and shooting holes were intriguing. The latticed windows prevented enemy intrusions and entry of arrows and bullets. The warriors inside the castle shot their arrows and guns through the shooting holes of various shapes: oblong for bows, and round, triangular and square for guns.

Wooden beams of the castle.

The present Himeji Castle dates back to 1601 when the 5-story, 7-floor Main Keep was completed. It was one of 56 castles that Japan decided to retain and preserve in 1873.

Since then, the Castle has undergone three restorations: Meiji Era Restoration (1910-1911), Showa Era  Restoration (1934-1950) and the recent Heisei Era Restoration (2009-2015).  The Main Keep was dismantled and repaired during the period 1956-1964. 

Rear view of Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle is located in the Hyogo Prefecture in the western part of Japan.  Foreign visitors can easily access it from Osaka City. 

Add fun to a vacation in Japan - look for beautiful manhole covers

These manhole covers in Himeji City feature cranes/egrets in flight.

In our first vacation in the western part of Japan recently, we found something novel that added more fun to our tour of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites there:  looking for manhole covers!

Saijo City: sake brewery chimneys.

The fun came in the discovery that each city we visited had distinctive manhole covers. These have artful images that convey the spirit of a city to the walking tourist. They detract from the fact that they cover entries to the city's underbelly comprising sewage tunnels, water pipes, networks of telephone and power cables.

Our first find was in Saijo City in the Hiroshima Prefecture. While we were listening to our kimono-dressed English-speaking lady guide to one of the city's iconic sake breweries, we passed by this beautiful manhole cover.  We later learned that this cover can only be found on the city's Sakagura-dori street.

It features the typical red-brick brewery chimneys and familiar shapes of sake containers in color. Saijo is considered the 'City of Sake' of Japan.  Some of the finest brands are made here, one of which has been nicknamed 'Obama sake' because the American president enjoyed it.

Symbolic flowers of Matsuyama City.

The colorful manhole cover of Matsuyama in the Ehime Prefecture bears the city's symbol: camellia flowers in white and red. We found this while we were walking to the Dogo Onsen Honsan, a wooden public bathhouse that dates back to 1894 during the Meiji period. The waters are from Dogo Onsen, one of the oldest and most famous hot springs of the country.

Egrets are the theme of the round and rectangular manhole covers of Himeji City in the Hyogo Prefecture. We walked past them on our way to the fully restored Himeji Castle, a wooden national treasure with a 600-year history.  Its Main Keep, painted in white, appears to have five stories. It resembles a bird about to fly. The castle is also known as Hakuro-jo ('White Egret') or Shirasagi-jo ('White Heron') castle.

Deer is the symbol of Nara.

A deer occupies a prominent place in the manhole cover of Nara City in the Nara Prefecture. The deer is the symbol of the city. Hundreds of deer roam around Nara Park, and visitors are cautioned to take care of paper and food they carry on their way to the heritage shrines and temples there:  a deer may suddenly grab them to munch.

A visitor to Kobe City in the Osaka Prefecture may likely get a welcome greeting from a manhole cover.  "Welcome to Kobe!," the cover proclaims in English and shows the visitor the modern features of the city: tall building, tower, modes of transport, etc.

We found out that these covers have caught the interest of visitors to Japan. In fact, there's a webpage that features a hundred of them already.  Only one of our six discoveries are in that list: the Matsuyama with the camellia flowers.

A metallic voice of welcome from Kobe City.

There was a time that manhole covers in Manila were stolen because apparently there was a profitable market for metals intended for export to mainland China. We wonder if they were artistic like those of Japan; would they be collector's items in the art world?