Ok so we're a little late in posting the Japan part of our trip and hopefully I'll not forget all the interesting and tantalizing tidbits we accumulated. Back mid July we last talked about arriving in Kobe via the bullet train. Another surprise we had in Japan was that it is a cash society. Outside the major cities there was a very good chance that a business or restaurant would not take a credit card. And we never did find an ATM that would take any of our cards! Fortunately we had bought yen before the trip but if Mizuzu hadn’t cashed an additional check for us, it would have been tough.
We spent the first couple nights in Kobe. On the first day we went of to see Himeji Castle. It is an amazing place – check out the link. You really get the sense of the security of the place, the psychological impact it would have on anyone coming to deal with the powers that be.