Himeji - Himeji Castle

Since our Akashi Kaikyo Bridge got weathered out we decided to pay a visit to Himeji Castle a day early. We rode a shinkansen there. Himeji Castle is fantastic though it was rather wet.

In Tokyo we got to see the cherry blossoms in prime bloom season. In Himeji we got to see them fallen off the trees. This was a stream of them.

We entered one of the baileys. This resulted in some low light picture taking. Beware the exposure ghosts.

Lots of interesting historical information to read throughout.

Image down one of the defensive openings, probably for an archer.

This hole was for dropping rocks or hot liquids, I think.

Many of the windows have bars (like the one on the right of the image below) as part of their defensive construction. I got greedy and tried to get my lens with lens hood through the bars. I failed and the lens hood came off, keep this in mind for later.

Before we could enter the castle we had to take off our shoes. This happens often in historical buildings. We did this for the bailey as well as one of the building at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

I love photography in locations like this. The light is awful, flash is not allowed, and tripods and monopods are forbidden. I really enjoy the challenge of finding places I can put the camera in a stable position and take long exposures. I think all of these are shot at auto ISO 100-200 with some hitting 30+ second exposures. Also, that ghost effect.

A more normal shutter speed and exposure top. A much slower shutter speed and long exposure bottom. The bottom image came out brighter than the actual location was to our eyes.

Holly's grandfather once had a part in designing sprinkler systems for naval ships. We thought this was great.

That giant column slightly left of center is one of two that support the whole castle. Also the people almost look like smoke due to the long exposure.

Previously I mentioned being greedy and losing a lens hood. Well... from the top of Himeji Castle I thought I might be able to find it...

Enhance...

Enhance...

Found it! If you make this photo full sized and look under the right window near what appears to be HVAC systems you can see a black ring that is my lens hood. It may be there a while...