We're on the move again for Day 3 as we leave Sannomiya and head to Himeji. While Himeji is a shinkansen stop and Shin-Kobe isn't too far from Sannomiya, it was actually faster for us to use a rapid train, so that's what we did. Even got a seat for our whole ride while made it really comfortable.
The first thing we did after stashing our bags in a locker at the station was seek out rental bikes! My dad had sent me the pin for the one he used which allowed for free bike rental if you had certain JR passes. This is the name on Google Maps レンタサイクル駅リンくん姫路店.
Sure enough, we showed our JR passes and were able to rent for free. We filled out some paperwork and got a bit of instruction for returning them and then were on our way to Himeji Castle.
My parents had spoken very highly about the Himeji Castle guided tour (given in English) which is only at certain times of day. Since we wanted to follow their advice, we headed straight there and signed up but still had about 40 minutes before it started.
So we left the castle grounds and went to check out the Yamasa Kamaboko store which hadn't yet opened when we first passed but was now available! The popular local item here is a chiikama dog (cheese kamaboko on stick) and we also bought two other items from the case that looked appealing.
There's a couple of small tables outside, so we sat and tried it right away. This wasn't one of my favorites (I don't really appreciate fishcake all that much). I don't know why I was surprised for the items to be cold when in reality that just makes sense for this type of item lol.
Once we were finished with our snack, we biked back over to the castle. Good thing we had the bikes, because we probably wouldn't have made it back and forth with the time we had while walking but it was no problem cycling.
Stopped for a picture as well. It was drizzling on and off, and we weren't sure what the weather would be like when we were done with the tour.
Received our tour badges and bought our castle entry tickets and met up with the group (the guide and 2 other visitors from Belgium) to start the tour at 10:00.
I didn't end up taking as many photos during the tour as I would have if we were self-guided because I wanted to be sure to listen to the information, but we did stop for the most iconic photo spots.
And I caught a few when I could without slowing down the whole group.
During our visit, we had the opportunity to check out one of the east(? I think) wings at a small additional cost which hadn't previously been available to visitors for some time. To me it looked pretty much like the rest of the castle, but I know there were some things that made it have more signficance. My husband just remembers that it was very dusty lol.
It started raining for the last 15 or so minutes of the tour as we made our way outside. Our tour guide assisted with photos at another iconic photo spot.
And also took us to one more a little further away as well to conclude the tour and fill out a paper survey.
The tour was very informative but it also felt pretty long. It took over 2 hours (maybe even closer to 2.5 total since we started at 10:00 and we got back on the bikes at 12:30). My husband enjoys being able to take his time at the things he's interested in and read the plaques or sign boards but we wouldn't have taken that long on our own and still felt rushed through each space as it was. Reading the posted information wasn't really possible during the tour without holding everyone up, although I think some of it is the guide is supposed to be telling you what's important anyway. We did learn facts and observe things we wouldn't have otherwise noticed and it's relatively cheap, but we will probably do self-guided from now on.
We were pretty hungry by this time since the tour lasted a bit longer than we had anticipated. It was also still raining which was a bit of a bummer and made us not want to stay outside cover for longer than necessary. We made our way to the shopping street area and just ended up getting ramen at Tsurukameya 鶴亀家.
The reviews (which we didn't check beforehand) are right about this place lol. The owner is a bit gruff. I enjoyed my ramen though and the bowl was extremely full.
We hopped back on the bikes and made our way over to the Azuki Museum. This was a bit more of a spontaneous plan and about a 10 minute bike ride away from the shopping street.
We purchased our tickets which came with a guidebook in English. Photos generally aren't allowed in the museum except in designated areas which we observed. There's lots of interesting displays, but unfortunately you'll have to see for yourself. I will say most of it is in Japanese, but the English guidebook has translations.
We spent about 45 minutes in there and took our time for the most part but did skim some that were completely in Japanese.
The bigger feature near the museum is actually the Gozasora Factory Shop 御座候 工場ショップ that sells gozasoro which is like a red bean waffle cake. There was a lot of people waiting but not too much of a line when we got there and it seemed like they were constantly being made. We ordered just 1.
And waited over 30 minutes to get it lmao. My husband did say it was good though, so I guess it might be worth waiting for!
We had to book it a bit to get back to return the rental bikes, retrieve our bags and then get seats on the next shinkansen (without waiting another hour) but we made it by just a few minutes at the interior reserved seat window lol.
A quick ride to Okayama, a little over 20 minutes. We were lucky to find a large locker as someone was leaving it right next the tracks.
Figured out we needed to catch a streetcar and made our way over from the train station and caught it to the Shiroshita stop which is about a 11 minute walk away from Okayama Castle. IC cards are accepted on the Okayama streetcar which was very convenient for us.
Sun was starting to get low in the sky and casting some shadows but the clouds had cleared up and we now had a blue sky!
We had arrived not too much prior to the castle admission hours, so we opted to just stay outside and admire the aesthetics instead of rushing around inside. It is a really pretty castle! Black in contrast to the Himeji white.
Then we took a quite walk across Tsukimi Bridge. Korakuen Park was already closed by this time (it was 17:00+) so we couldn't enter, but did get a nice view on the bridge.
Easily jumped back on a streetcar to head back to the station and did a bunch of omiyage shopping in there. We weren't able to spend much time in Okayama, but did learn about the prevalence of peaches and Momotaro and also kibi dango based on what was available to buy!
There is a direct shuttle bus that goes to Okayama Airport that is timed based on departure flights. It takes about 30 minutes and costs 780yen per person, IC card payment accepted. There's lots of information on the website, so we had no trouble finding the bus stop and lining up in time to board.
Having already checked in online and not needing to check anything in, we got to the airport with plenty of time for our domestic flight and were able to look around for a bit. It's a cute, small airport without too many flights going in or out.
We didn't get to see all of what Okayama had to offer with just the afternoon, but we'll be back on a future trip, so I look forward to exploring more then!
And that was the end of our whirlwind 3-day trip to the Kansai area. I'm glad we were able to take advantage of the Kansai WIDE Area Pass through JR to get to a whole bunch of different areas we haven't been to before.
On this trip, we were able to check off Wakayama, Kyoto, Hyogo and Okayama! The pass made it really simple to reserve tickets which were essential for certain legs of our travel due to the types of trains we wanted to catch (aside from the shinkansen). This style of traveling isn't for everyone, but I am always happy to get done as much as I can without taking leave from work 😅. With our time counting down in Japan, I'm happy to explore when we can.
💛 Kansai WIDE Area Pass trip
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