Himeji Castle is one of the few (if not the only) castle left that is all original construction. Most of the castles were destroyed or so badly damaged during World War II that very little of the castles today are original. Of course the restorations have been carried out using traditional materials and techniques, but Himeji is almost completely original.
The castle is beautiful. The entire building is made of wood (cedar I believe.) It has a great open floorplan, which originally had sliding screens that could be used to make rooms. Being fortified, there are also areas for the troops to stay and openings in the walls for the troops to drop rocks or hot oil on the enemy.
There is a Japanese style garden there also, but unfortunately we didn't have time to see it.
After Hemeji, we went to Gion, which is where the geisha are trained. We went to Gion Corner which has a show of traditional arts of Kyoto. They had the tea ceremony, ikibana (flower arranging,) court music, a comic play (about servant stealing sake from their master,) traditional dance
(by maiko, geisha in training) and traditional puppets.
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