In this past month trying to get used to the extremely cold weather, burying myself in layers of futons and hibernating in the kotatsu, it's time to start moving around. It's slowly getting warmer and my body is feeling too stagnate. With wedding pictures coming around the corner and good friends from California coming to visit, we gotta whip ourselves into shape.
I'm pretty familiar with the main roads of Himeji, I've even cycled through the small residential areas as shortcuts to get around but there's something more gratifying about using your own two feet to truly absorb the environment. I can feel the texture of the land and take more time to look at my surroundings and observe and appreciate every detail.
The best part about walking is you can take time to take pictures. When I'm not stalking a car sitting pretty in a parking lot or garage, I like to take in the scenery as well. Sometimes it's too much of a heavy load to lug around my DSLR and lenses on our walks/jogs so my handy iPhone 4S handles the tasks just fine.
Himeji is more of a rural area, the city area is concentrated towards the train station so you get the best of both worlds. Sure, I love the metropolis of Tokyo, the hilly city of Kobe, and even the crowded weekend nights in Osaka, but it's nice to live away from the noise. Himeji, on the other hand, allows space to walk around, climb up mountains or even stroll down the river bends.
My wife and I are constantly looking for new terrains and discovering new shrines every time we go on our walks. You never know where that shaded dirt path may take you. They took us to graveyards on mountains sides with some of the steepest stairs our thighs could barely handle.
Here are a small series of panoramas that I've taken so far and many more to come on my travels around Himeji. I'll be traveling around the Kansai area in a few weeks so that'll give me a chance to get more pics of other cities.
かんぱい！
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