We got to wake up at our own pace this morning. Unfortunately that got interrupted by my phone beeping. It doesn’t check for email overnight but seems Facebook isn’t as good at controlling times to let you sleep.
After a shower we went to a cafe and I had french toast and orange juice for breakfast. We went back to the room and tidied up a bit, and left to start the day about 10.00. We started by going to the bus ticket office and bought a return ticket to Mt Shosha by bus, but also includes return on the ropeway. It was about a 20 minute bus ride and a 5 minute ropeway ride to the top. We had a good walk around and admired the numerous sites. This included a Buddah that is supposed to heal you if you pray correctly. We also had Udon noodles for lunch, along with an ice cream waffle sandwich.
Walking further around we saw all of the buildings. There was an area that has been used in many films, including The Last Samurai. It was a beautiful area, although very hilly and steep. Eventually we made our way back to the ropeway where a car was waiting for us (left about 30 seconds after we got on!). We had to wait about 20 minutes for the bus but eventually we were back in Himeji.
Our next destination was a Sake brewery Kaoru had found. The little map Kaoru had picked up at the Information Centre indicated it was quite close, but the level of detail was pretty poor. We found a city map and couldn’t map one to the other! Some locals saw us looking at the map and asked if they could help (again, really friendly people). We said (in English) that we wanted to go to the Sake Brewery and they didn’t know where it was. They spent a while looking at the map and scratching their heads, until I eventually said Daijobu (don’t worry about it) and took the map off them and we made our way. I punched “Sake Brewery” into Google Maps and it came straight up, so we were fine.
It took us about 20 minutes to get there, but it was nice seeing the other side of town. Eventually we found the brewery, which had a London double-decker bus out the front (no idea why). We walked around the brewery but were only allowed in 2 of the old (retired) buildings, and weren’t allowed in the working brewery. We then went to the gift shop to do some tastings. I didn’t find any that I really liked but it was interesting comparing the differences between them – especially as they had processed and un-processed sake’s there. They also had a liquor sake (37%) which was sweet, but again, not quite my thing. At the end we tasted some “amazake” which is the fermented koji with rice, so it was thick (and lumpy with bits of rice) but quite sweet (and non-alcoholic). Kaoru bought a few “care packages” of food to take to the family and we left, but not without stopping at an ice cream shop that was in the brewery, which poured mirin on the ice cream. We were able to taste some mirin from the bottle (using a spoon, of course!) which was nice and sweet, but you couldn’t taste it on the ice cream.
We walked back to town, and went to Uniqlo for some shopping. We then went to the Lawsons outside the hotel and bought a drink which we had back in our room before going to dinner. I wanted to have Anago, which is a type of eel which the area is famous for. Kaoru found a “dodgy” shop (down a lane way) that we could go to, and we ordered an assortment of food to try it. It was very nice – probably not covered in as thick a sauce as eel usually is.
We went back to Lawsons and bought some dessert (Huggen Daas, and a “cheap” ice cream Kaoru used to have as a child) and another drink, and back to our room. After dessert we had a bath, watched some TV and called it a night.