ARRIVAL KOBE

The Zuiderdam arrived in Kobe around 7:30 am, greeted by local fireboats. You can check out our arrival from the Port’s webcam below.

The ship moored at the Kobe Cruise Port across from the Portliner Cruise Port subway station. Taxis are available outside the cruise terminal. The ship offered a free shuttle bus to the Daimaru Department Store near Kobe Chinatown and the covered Kobe Motomachi outdoor mall. Walking out is possible, but we’re unsure if there are sidewalks along the way or if you must walk along a road’s shoulder.

Inside the cruise terminal, you will find a helpful tourist Information desk staffed with English speakers who can help you plan your day.

The Portliner subway is easy to use and operates like all the trains in Japan. Watch YouTube for videos to help you learn how to buy tickets.

HIMEJI CASTLE

Our plan for today was to visit Himeji Castle, about 35 miles west of Kobe, with two other couples.

Himeji Castle is also known as White Heron Castle due to its pristine white walls and resemblance to a bird in flight. This UNESCO World Heritage site is a marvel of traditional Japanese architecture, with its defensive walls, elegant towers, and intricate wooden interiors.

Several options are available to visit the Castle: Do it yourself, HAL tour, Viator, or other private tour companies. Only the HAL tour includes transportation as part of the tour. The others require you to get to Himeji on your own, taking about 1 hour using local trains.

HAL offered a 5 1/4-hour tour from the ship to the castle for $139.95 pp, and you travel the 35 miles to Himeji by bus. Lunch is not included. The HAL tour is the simplest option, as everything is provided—door to door. While using local transportation is more complicated than going to the World Stage to get your dot, I look at this as part of the experience, contributing to learning more about Japan and immersing yourself in the local culture.

HERE is the Himeji Castle Website. Tickets cost ¥1050, which includes admission to the adjacent Koko-en garden. You can’t buy tickets in advance or online.

HIMEJI CASTLE ENGLISH SPEAKING GUIDES

I was going to use Viator, which only provided a local guide – until I discovered the Himeji Castle English Speaking Guide Group. Details on their website HERE.

To get a free Himeji Castle English-speaking guide, you fill out a form on their website with the details of your proposed visit. Once your application is in the system, you should be assigned a guide within 8-48 hours. It’s possible no guides may be available, so keep that in mind. The guides are all volunteers; no tips are expected, but you are expected to buy them lunch if you choose to go with them to a restaurant.

Our guide, Hitomi Tanaka, emailed me to introduce herself, and we exchanged phone numbers. The rest of our conversations took place over WhatsApp. We asked her to suggest an itinerary and a restaurant, and she gave us suggestions, which we followed. We arranged to meet at the ’Otemon’’, the main entrance of the Castle. The maximum number of people per guide is five, but Hitomi accommodated our group of six.

GETTING TO HIMEJI

We decided to take the Bullet Train to Himeji and treat this as an additional experience. Once the Bullet Train leaves the station, it will reach speeds of 180 mph and arrive in Himeji in 15 minutes. However, from the standpoint of the fastest way to get to Himeji – door to door – you could take local trains, which take about 45 minutes to an hour en route. Still, you avoid going to the further Shin Kobe station and can leave directly from the Sannomiya Station and save yourself a second subway ride. The local trains have more frequent service so you will have less waiting before the train leaves.

BULLET TRAIN – SHINKANSEN

If you want to take the Bullet Train, buy your tickets HERE using the JR West website. We bought First Class tickets, giving you reserved seats in a car with two seats on each side rather than three. On longer trips, First Class gives you extra perks, but for such a short ride, you won’t have time to take advantage of anything extra.

First Class was an extra $12 or so each way – but with a non-reserved ticket, you can take any train other than the one you reserved initially. This will give you more flexibility for your trip. I would buy a non-reserved seat ticket for such a short trip if I made this trip again for the added flexibility.

The Bullet Train leaves from the Shin Kobe train station, which requires a transfer from the Sannomiya Station, where the Portliner subway from the ship ends. Taking a taxi to the Bullet Train station from the Cruise Terminal would be faster and not much more money – but we wanted to experience riding the subway – so we considered the subway rides part of our experience.

Once in the Shin-Kobe Station, follow the signs to the Shinkansen line, where you will retrieve the tickets you bought online from a machine. To retrieve your tickets, you need the same credit card you used to book them and remember the PIN you entered during the purchase process. The machine will then display all the tickets available for printing. You will be able to print your return tickets at the same time.

You can also buy your tickets from staff at nearby ticket windows. The machine will print out two tickets for each passenger: a basic fare ticket and a Bullet Train express service ticket. You will insert both tickets simultaneously into the ticket machine, with one lying flush over the other. Research how to ride the Bullet Train online before your trip to better understand the process. If you are unsure, stand near the entrance and look confused; someone will help you.

We made our way to the platform. Check to ensure you take the stairs leading to the platform on the correct side of the tracks—westbound, in our case.

Our train arrived on time and left the station quickly. We found our seats and marveled at the smooth, quiet ride with speeds over 175 mph. There wasn’t any cabin service on such a short trip. We arrived in Himeji in 15 minutes. The trains don’t spend much time at each station, so gather your things and be ready to get off before the train arrives.

HIMEJI STATION

We arrived at Himeji Station at 11 am. You must insert your tickets into the machines as you exit the station. We put both tickets in simultaneously, as before. This time, the machine kept one, and we retrieved the other. We would need this ticket to pass through another exit.

After a bathroom break in the clean restrooms in the station, we left the station at 11:15 am and arrived at the Castle at 11:40.

Himeji Castle is about 3/4 of a mile from the train station, a straight walk over flat ground. We saw something called the Himeji Castle Shuttle drive-by, but I never could find any information about how this worked. You may ask at the station about this shuttle if you don’t feel like walking. Taxis are available outside the station.

HIMEJI CASTLE

Hitomi met us at the Otemon gate, holding a sign with our names. This is the closest entrance as you approach the castle from the train station and is easy to find. We bought our tickets and were on our way. Credit cards are accepted. The Castle offers a free audio guide HERE —you can listen to it before you leave and judge if you think it would be worthwhile to listen as you tour.

Coincidently, the HAL tour arrived shortly after we bought our tickets, and they quickly passed us by as they were moving quickly with much less commentary along the paths leading to the Castle. Note: The HAL tour was scheduled to leave the ship at 10:15 am and arrive at the Castle around Noon.

There are about 50 steps along the path leading to the base of the Castle, and then another 135 very steep steps once inside to get to the top of the Castle’s interior on the 6th floor. If you don’t want to go inside, you can bypass the Castle and only view the exterior and the grounds.

NOTE: You have to remove your shoes at the Castle entrance and carry them in a plastic grocery bag they provided. Judy brought some slippers, which she wore over her socks. The floor can be cold in the winter, so keep that in mind.

There isn’t any furniture inside the castle, and each floor is similar to the next. If you don’t choose to climb the steps and don’t go into the Castle, visiting the exterior only is still worth the trip.

We walked slowly, and it took us under an hour to climb to the top and back down.

KOKO- EN GARDEN

Koko-en Garden is a meticulously crafted garden adjacent to Himeji Castle. The cost to tour the garden on only ¥50 when to buy a ticket to see the Castle. Here, you can immerse yourself in the tranquility of nature while experiencing the beauty of traditional Japanese design.

Before starting our garden tour, we had lunch in the Kassui-ken restaurant inside the Koko-en garden. Check out the menu HERE. We all selected the Kobe beef, grilled on earthenware utensils, for ¥2680 plus ¥500 for a beer. The beef was served uncooked on a ceramic dish, and we cooked it ourselves over small individual butane burners. We enjoyed cooking the meat; it was a tasty and fun lunch.

After lunch we wandered along the winding paths of the garden lined with lush greenery, and enjoyed the meticulously manicured landscapes, which featured a harmonious blend of pruned bonsai trees, vibrant floral displays, and serene ponds teeming with colorful koi fish. Every corner of the garden seemed to offer a new tableau of natural beauty, with carefully placed rocks, bridges, and pavilions enhancing the overall aesthetic.

After the garden tour, we said goodbye to Hitome, our wonderful guide, and returned to the train station, stopping in a local souvenir shop.

BACK TO KOBE

We returned to the train station and headed up to the Bullet Train platform. There was a train heading the Shin Kobe 15 minutes earlier than the train we had reserved, so we decided to take this and hope there would be empty seats in the First Class car. We would have returned to the unreserved car if there hadn’t been. There were empty seats, but when the conductor came by, he checked my ticket and noted we were on the wrong train. He said we were OK since we would get off at the next stop. This is why I would just get unreserved tickets in the first place if I made this trip again.

Back in Shin Kobe, you could take a taxi directly to the ship, which would be faster and probably the same price for a group of four.

Our cost for visiting the castle was $91 pp for a group of six, which included a Kobe Beef lunch. Our guide was free, but you are expected to pay for their lunch.

MAPS