{"id":35916,"date":"2024-10-28T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T07:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=35916"},"modified":"2024-11-06T10:30:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T23:30:47","slug":"fukuyama-japan-%f0%9f%87%af%f0%9f%87%b5-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=35916","title":{"rendered":"Fukuyama (1), Japan \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 24th October 2024 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: Kyoto to Fukuyama  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Hakutsura Saki Brewery, The Shinkansen and Himeji Castle  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Vessel Hotel, Fukuyama  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another early walk before breakfast and a last minute Starbucks before jumping onto the bus once again. Most of our group are pretty good we make a point of changing spots on the bus each morning rather than hogging some particular seat or side of the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first stop of the day Hakutsuru Sake Brewery. It\u2019s a very old family run company that according to the blurb still use the traditional techniques. The museum is interesting and there are tastings and sake ice cream if your keen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May have enjoyed it more a little later in the day, sake for morning tea didn\u2019t work for us. The garden outside the museum was lovely to walk around as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our next stop is Shin-Kobe Railway Station about an hour further west. We have tickets for the Shinkansen to Himeji Station. The section of line has the fastest speed in Japan\u2019s Shinkansen network at 300kph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole gang is very exited as we follow Serena to the platform and run to jump on the train. The train doesn\u2019t dawdle so it\u2019s get on and sit asap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first 5 minutes of the trip the Shinkansen is in a tunnel so there is no concept of speed. Once it gets out in the open the speed becomes apparent. The train is amazingly smooth and whisper quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We arrive at Himeji Station about 15 minutes later. Perhaps a little underwhelmed but it\u2019s a \u2018been there done that\u2019 experience now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears to be a relatively short walk to the Himeji Castle but Serena has us on the bus for the short ride, then walk from the bus car-park instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Himeji Castle or the White Herron Castle<\/a> dates to 1333. It\u2019s the largest castle in Japan and the most visited, it was certainly busy during our visit. The castle has 5 levels but it\u2019s a steep climb just to get to the first level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then its shoes off and lots of stairs to the top of the castle. The many rooms are unfurnished and it\u2019s all very austere. The stairs are steep especially on the way down, the views are restrictive as you\u2019re looking through arrow slots. However its an amazing building standing proudly on this hill for 400 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The castle and the gardens are done and we make our way to the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a two plus hours drive on to Fukuyama and the hotel. It seems everyone is getting good at a catnap on the bus after a few hundred stairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 24th October 2024  Travelled: Kyoto to Fukuyama   Visited: Hakutsura Saki Brewery, The Shinkansen and Himeji Castle   Stayed: Vessel Hotel, Fukuyama   Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day Another early walk before breakfast and a last minute Starbucks before jumping onto the bus once again. Most of our group are pretty good we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":35933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan-","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35916"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36151,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35916\/revisions\/36151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}