We started with a Sake Brewery at 10am! Not to my liking, except for the lemon sake, which would be quite nice over ice, like Cointreau. I loved the wooden barrels and tools. Once we got to the stainless steel example it looked much less appealing. (I did have a few samples, and had that warm fuzzy feeling!)

Next stop was the Shinkansen, bullet train. 272Km/hour. Evidently they are in the process of developing even faster trains. Wouldn’t that be great between Melbourne and Sydney or Brisbane?

Air conditioning is a wonderful invention! It was so hot walking anywhere outside, the bus was a refuge after an hour or two in the heat. We walked from the bus car park up to Himeji Castle. The White Castle. We walked up six levels to reach the top, such a wonderful structure. It survived bombing in WWII because it was covered in black shade cloth and most of the bombing occurred at night. Thank goodness. It would have been such a shame to destroy this glorious palace.

We had a free day here, and Lionel and I rested up for the morning. (Not as young as we used to be!) In the afternoon we caught a taxi to Tomonoura Port. It was a real working port and had a lot of traditional houses up each alley. We caught a pirate ship out to Sensui Island and had a paddle and a wander around. Felt like a million miles away from the mainland (only 5 mins away).