Oniisanbomber's Blog

Japan Trip – March 2025 – Part 2 (Himeji)

18th of May, 2025

After several days of freezing snow and rain in Tokyo (see Part 1 of my Japan trip blog post), it was finally time to leave the capital and head to the warmer south – Himeji. A castle town near the Osaka-Kyoto-Nara triangle.

Before leaving Tokyo, there were two things I had to take care of.

The first thing was that my Elaina figure was too big. There was no way for me to squeeze that into my luggage or backpack without damaging the packaging, and taking it out of the box is out of the question.

So after some searching and asking around, I found a nice bag store near Shinjuku Station. It really was spacious. Actually it’s bigger than my carry-on. It fits everything and then some.

For those interested, the bag is from a local Japanese brand called New Era. It seems to be quite popular among high schoolers here since it can fit a whole basketball and a lot of textbooks.

After buying the bag, it was time to get the most essential thing for me to go to Himeji: Shinkansen tickets.

Without those tickets, I’ll have to walk to Himeji, and that will take several days.

I didn’t want to deal with the incredibly complicated ticket machines (the line in front of those machines is super long, with both foreigners and locals trying to make sense of them. For any non-Tokyo native, these machines are hard to use really) so I went to search for the ticket office. After crossing the street and following the signs all over the station, I eventually found the JR office at the very back of the station, hidden away in some corner. It’s almost like they didn’t want people to find the ticket office.

Inside the ticket office, there were a handful of people lining up.

If you’re unfamiliar with the ticket machines, I highly recommend you find the JR offices in the station. It is much better than sweating bullets while trying to navigate the complicated menus, which are a mix of touchscreen buttons and physical buttons. Imagine an ATM machine, but 100x more complicated.

Fortunately, the staff at the JR offices spoke fluent English. I could’ve spoken to them in Japanese, but hey, if they speak English, that’s great. I told them I wanted to go to Himeji, tomorrow, in the morning. They had several times available. After all, it was on the same line that went down to Osaka, Fukuoka and Hiroshima. Bullet trains on that line left more often than the bus.

I selected a time and then the guy asked me if I wanted to try the Green Car. The Green Car is the JR term for business class essentially. I thought, “why not?” It was my first real holiday in 5 years. It has been a long, tough road for me, so why not try it. I’ve heard a lot about the Green Car and wanted to just try it out. So I said, “Sure.”

In the end, the Green Car cost me 43,000 yen (~3000 Norwegian Krone).

It was stupid expensive, but I’ll just try it once.

The next day, I took a taxi to Tokyo Station, checked out their Pokemon Store, then went to find the correct platform.

Finally, I was able to board the train. Nozomi 67 Super Express.

The seats in the regular train compartments are in a 2-3 layout (or 3-3 if I remember correctly). The seats in the green car are in a 2-2 layout. This means lots of space, privacy and silence. The seats were brown, wide and comfortable.

The people traveling in the Green Car were mostly older, wealthy Japanese and business people. I think I might’ve been the only tourist there.

I felt stupid for spending 43,000 yen on train tickets (with return), but as soon as the doors closed and the journey began, I forgot about the money. On my previous Japan trips, the regular seats are super crowded and it’s full of people. Here in the Green Car, I could rest my feet on the footrest, lean back and just enjoy the ride.

It was so nice and peaceful.

But I won’t spend 43,000 yen on this experience again.

When I exited Himeji station, this is what I saw:

It felt much quieter and more peaceful than Tokyo. Maybe Tokyo is overrun by tourists? But Tokyo felt rowdier, dirtier and less safe. But in Himeji, it felt like that this was the real Japan.

There was a sense of calm in the air. It was the air I felt when I first came to Japan over 15 years ago.

Also, in the station there was a super detailed model of Himeji Castle (see also my previous blog post). Words won’t do it justice. Seriously, just look at it.

I dragged my luggage to the Richmond Hotel, took a picture from the room and then had dinner. After dinner, I wandered the streets.

While taking the picture of the town and wandering the streets, I couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of loneliness. In this quiet town, there was nothing much. An indescribable sense of loneliness hung in the air as I walked the streets.

And I wondered if this is what it feels like to grow up in a place like this.

It was clean, modern and crime-free. There’s nothing really wrong with – and yet, the heart feels empty. There was a sense of isolation here, a different kind of isolation that one might feel in the big city.

To walk these empty streets and go back to an empty home.

When I went to the convenience store around 7pm, I found that most of the food items were sold out. Next to me were office workers also hunting for something good on the shelves.

And that was when it hit me.

For tourists like me, the Japanese convenience store was a novel experience. The sound of the automatic door opening, the unique smell, the items on sale.

But for a local officer worker? After working grueling hours, bowing to a terrible boss, they go into a convenience store and pick up some food and then go home because they had no energy to cook and there was no one at home to cook for them.

Eating convenience store stuff once or twice while on holiday? Sure. It’s a novel experience.

But to do that on an everyday basis?

Every bite would taste like loneliness.

I went to the hotel to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.

Next time: Exploring Himeji!

– Oniisanbomber