Saturday, 5 April 2008
Having swapped the suitcases for the convenience of a backpack the day before, there was no need, once we’d risen the next morning, to do anything about the luggage once we’d checked out of the Urban Hotel and prepared to head for Himeji.
The fact that we’d eaten well the night before also meant there was no immediate need for breakfast so it was a case of straight onto the train and off for further sakura-viewing.
We managed to find two seats opposite a Cub Scout troop on their way somewhere, prompting Hughesy to reflect that nine-year-old boys tend to be much the same the world over. Having finished work two-and-a-bit years ago, I don’t remember too much about Year Four school excursions, but the behaviours I was watching on the seats across the aisle looked uncannily familiar.
Once we’d reached Himeji the sight of crowds of people heading in the same direction down the avenue which takes you from the station to the castle should have warned us that things were about to become crowded.
It’s just that I didn’t realise just how many Japanese people would use the presence of cherry-blossoms on a sunny Saturday as an excuse for a day out.
Subsequent information suggests a figure somewhere in excess of seventy thousand.
We took a break from the crowd to grab a spot of breakfast at a convenient noodle outlet, resulting in Hughesy’s first successful attempt at using chopsticks, an achievement I was, for some reason, unable to repeat.
Suitably nourished, we felt sufficiently strengthened to join the queues forming at the entrance to the castle grounds.