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After our shock in the cold yesterday we really layered up today in preparation for another cold day.
This morning we went to Himeji castle, which unfortunately was undergoing restoration work so we couldn't explore it in its entirety. We were able to observe the restoration works going on on the roof and walls which was interesting. We were able to go inside the west bailey which had been the premises of a princess, back in the day. The buildings were all constructed of heavy timber and it was pretty freezing inside the rooms. I wonder how they kept them warm back in the day.
After the castle we caught a bus to Mt. Shosa where you catch a cable car to the top and then walk around from temple to temple. The temples used to be, and some still are, occupied by monks. One collection of buildings were used in the filming of "The Last Samurai", a Tom Cruise movie, although I didn't really recognise them. It took about 2 hours to walk around the temples and then we headed back to the city centre.
For something a bit different, and very Japanese, we went to a cat cafe. Which is a cafe where you can buy drinks etc. and sit around in this little room where cats roam around. The cafe we went into had about 8 cats and we spent half an hour there patting the kitties and thinking of Oreo. The lady gave us some cat biscuits to hand feed to the cats and they were ravenous. The antisocial cats were suddenly very friendly and feisty. Silly kitties.
On the way back to the hostel we stopped for some taiyaki which is a grilled pastry filled with different fillings and shaped like a fish. I had a delicious chocolate filled one and Shannon had a potato type filling, it was sweet but we don't know exactly what it was. Yummy.
For dinner we had some Japanese curry and then we retired to the hostel and watched a movie. Quite a well rounded day.
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