The Most Beautiful Castle in Japan

There's a lot of debate about this but Himeji-jo is the most beautiful castle in all of Japan according to the Lonely Planet. This is a high accolade because there are quite a few castles dotted around the country and although nobody admits it, they do look rather similar.

I thought Himeji-jo was charming, the exhibitions inside the castle were really interesting and well done. One of the feudal lords who ruled over the castle was particularly good at painting and calligraphy, and there were displays of some of his work. Being a bit of an art geek, I was fascinated by the exhibitions because he seemed to me to have been an extraordinary man, being both politically powerful and artistically gifted, which is quite an unusual combination.

The grounds have hundreds of sakura trees beautifully framing the castle during tha hanami, cherry-blossom season. Unfortunately, I was too early and so the trees were still in buds :(.