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June 1st Adventure to Himeji castle and Koraku-en

The day started like any other on this trip. The sun with its deadly heat raising upon the land nicknamed after the solar star, land of the raising sun, had given me a sight as I awoke from my bed. From my room I look to the ground and see many faces as they rush to work in a timely yet chaotic manner. This was to be the day I adventure to the White Harmon Castle and the gardens of Korakuen. The Shinkansen reside was enjoyable as I was able to zig zag my way through the country side of southern Japan. As I was heading to my destination, I had time to take in the beauty of Japans landscape and reflected about my stay here. Japan is not like the United Sates, the landscape here shows much more greenery in comparison to a place like Arizona. Getting a different vibe from places that are new or outside of the normal day to day can really help in calming the mind. Soon however, I was broken from this trance as my station was announced and started to pack up my personal belongings. I first traveled to Korakuen and the Castle that was adjacent to it. The garden was beautiful, I was able to further more relax and gain an understanding of the difference between western style gardens to the ones here in Japan. The gardens I’m use to have a more practical reasoning like growing food however the Korakuen was more of a indulgence rather than a practical use. Strolling along, I was able to get a sense of peace from those around me. The vibes were right and the weather was great. Later in the day I made my way to Himeji castle. As I exited from the station and started my journey towards the castle entrance I could tell this was an impressive peace of architecture and only could imagine when it was first constructed. During the time of Japans Tokugawa period I could only think how demanding its presence is to its surroundings. The size and height of this structure is crazy. The main purpose of this castle was for the local lords to oversee their region and give them a grand place to live. Before that it was a place for lords to house military and was a symbol for that regions capital. If another war lord wanted to take the neighboring provence, they would lay siege on that Provence's castle. I was walking around this behemoth of a house getting new information and learning about the past. The day ended with me going home with two new places that have been inspirational to me and gave me a new perspective on the history of Japan.








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