Went to Himeji for Tuna sashimi and Fugu hotpot

You can see Himeji castle all the way to the back of the street

As the host is still not around as we heard from Hannah that he is working in Osaka and the farm house was just left open for volunteer to come and go as we wish. Since he isn’t around and yesterday we had done the heavy lifting of arranging the log for the farm, Hannah decided to let us go for a day break at Himeji. She will be heading to the Himeji castle but we plan to go out just to do some retail therapy.

The train station outside of Niino station

We have no jaw line in Japan due to the rice we ate

Hop on the JR train 10 station to Himeji will cost us $5.10 one way each. So today our transportation on MRT along is $20. Sianz. 

We are agreed with lots of small shopping mall just around the Himeji station and they are small enough for us to finish all these shopping and street walking using one day. So other than these handful of small shopping mall, the Himeji castle is just 15mins walk from the train station. 

We had curry rice for lunch and shop a bit till tea break where we drink coffee at one of the old cafe that use siphon coffee filter. Japanese do not really like using espresso machine to make coffee and they love to use drip coffee and siphon coffee filter which all these vintage shop had in common is the old fashion design and the rusty looking wood carpentry. 

Highlight after that was that we went to a Japanese sashimi shop Totto to had the tuna and some sashimi at a very affordable price. It is very popular among local Japanese. It make me realise that sashimi don’t have to cost a lot if you are eating it from Japan itself, maybe there are over supply in Japan itself.

Special tuna $22 and assorted 5 type sashimi for $9 cheap!!

We are happy with the down jacket we bought at second hand shop

We walked around till it gets dark in the evening and Japan sun set as early as 5pm where the sky get dark every early and we are able to get a nice view outside Himeji station. Oh ya, the sky are very clear in Japan and we can see stars in the sky so vividly and clear!! How long was that since I seen such clear sky? Since when i was in the army time?

Night view in Himeji station is breadth taking 

So after walking not long we went to take our dinner cum super at Fugu restrauant. Fugu is Japanese puffer fish which is deem poisonous to fisherman around the world but Japanese get to eat them as Japan had strict rules in cleaning the fish and removal of those parts that is poisonous. Only certain restaurant is given permit to run fugu and heavy penalty if process are not strictly followed. Therefore Japanese people feel safe to eat them and so am I. 

Tomorrow we are receiving a new guest in the house and we are meeting Taiwanese guy in the village who will want to bring us around town.