Himeji

This was my first time going to Himeji. I saw a lot of pictures and read quite a lot about Himeji on the internet. Thus, my interest peaked and I was off to Himeji. I am totally bypassing my entire traveling schedule, but oh well.

Himeji castle the field and the garden around it is quite beautiful. Definitely worth the trip. Supposedly it is even more beautiful during sakura season. However, the one thing I strongly disliked was the “zoo” next to Himeji Castle. I do not understand how this “zoo” is able to pass the strict restrictions, laws and regulation that are in place towards a zoo. This “zoo” was clearly not up to the standards and in a sense was abusing the animals they kept. Let me explain. 2 polar bears in a cage of 3 meters by 7 meters, with a small pool within that cage that is roughly twice the size of a full grown polar bear. One of the polar bears was heavily pacing from one side to another side. This is a sign of severe stress.

Next, a cage of 4 meters by 5 meters, roughly 30 flamingo's were cramped up in there. They looked miserable, their colour was fair and simply sad to look at. Then there were 3 kangaroo's, 2 camel and other large animals, separated by animal but living in a cage the size of my room in the Netherlands, roughly 25m2. It's preposterous.

In my previous blog I wrote about the Gaijin Forcefield (a superpower that foreigners have that gives them extra space in public places). Well, guess what? After my trip to Himeji castle I felt famished so I decided to go to a local restaurant that looks crowded. In Japan a lot of the time crowded means either new or popular. In this case it was the latter. The reason why I started to talk about the Gaijin Forcefield again is because I was actively avoided in this restaurant. Because this was a gift shop and a restaurant in one I asked the cashier on how to order. All she did was call someone over and the old lady guided my to my seat. Mind you that I asked on how to order in Japanese. So there I was, getting guided by an old lady, that unfortunately, could only walk bended. Unable to walk upwards, the only way for these people is to walk with a bend back.

Anyhow, the moment I sat the old lady said she would get me an English menu. Before I could complete the sentence: '日本語のメニューはいいんですよ' (The Japanese menu is fine), she already near the kitchen. How in the world did she manage to move roughly ten meters forwards with her bend-back in matters of a second? From that moment on I decided to call her 速ばあ 'Hayabaa' or fast-old-lady.

Next to me were two Japanese, most likely daughter and mother as one of them looked a tad older, but then again [Asians], you never know. They giggled a bit when they saw this, with a smile and a short nod I turned my head and opened the menu starting to look for something to eat. The old lady returned with an English menu and walked away. After a minute or so I had chosen what I wanted. Now all that was left was ordering so I closed the menu and placed it aside.

I started looking around a bit, looking several waitresses in the eye with a small nod, but nothing happened. This happened a few times. Then I repeated it but this time with an added 'raise of the hand', but again they looked and... nothing. The counter and the kitchen were straight ahead of me and I could see the waitresses talking, most likely about me and who should take my order.

You might wonder how I know they were talking about me, which is quite simply. The waitresses talking to one another, then looking towards me, then talking to each other again, several times with a few 'disagreeing hand gestures' and 'shaking of the head' and small bows is somewhat of a universal language.

So, nearing the 3 – 4 minutes of waiting I decided to just call them out when they got in my vicinity with a simple すみません, (excuse me) this time I got a reaction of 'はい、少々お待ちください' (please wait a moment).

Thus, I thought I was finally able to order, but alas, I was disappointed once again. Regrettably, aside from the acknowledgment nothing happened, yet again. This time the table next to me was done eating, hence one of the waitresses came to clean it up. It was Hayabaa. So feigning ignorance I just asked her politely on how to order. Her reply was, when I am done cleaning this table I'll come to you, please wait a moment.

Yes finally, I can order! I only ate a sandwich in the morning so I was famished. After taking the stuff to the kitchen I saw her coming out, but she went to a different table. Who knows, they might have called out to her before I did. But minutes passed and still nothing. The table next to me asked what was happening, so I replied in Japanese that they might be afraid of being unable to understand me if I spoke in English. Without skipping a single heartbeat, the bit older looking woman just shouted 'すみません' and in a matters of seconds a waitress came over. She was kind enough to direct the waitress to me and I just ordered in Japanese. Then all of the sudden the waitress started asking questions on where I was from, where I learned Japanese, and so forth. Really, now you care? After answering the questions as quickly as I could, receiving the typical '日本語はお上手ですね' (Your Japanese is good) and replying with the 'いいえ、まだまだです' (Not at all), she walked off to the kitchen.

After a several minutes of waiting for my food, a family of 4 Americans were seated next to me, and they too were somewhat avoided. But with an English menu they decided quickly and as soon as Hayabaa came with my food, she took the order from the family, in English. What... How... Why... I just... Huh?!

The food though was delicious. Karee katsu, all day, every day!

I have never had this much trouble order food in a restaurant. Mind you, this is Himeji, not some backdrop farmland. They even have an English menu, and it was offered to me, so what happened? I doubt this was the work of the Gaijin Forcefield.

All things considered, Himeji is definitely a place to visit if you are in Japan. Unfortunately, other then the Castle and the Zoo I did not have enough time to explore a lot in Himeji. So until maybe next time Himeji.

Then there are those random moments during one's journey that you will remember for a long time. On my way back, waiting for the train to arrive at the platform, two Japanese girls were acting “strange” with their umbrella. Strange in a way of having fun but in a weird way. One of the girls was “dancing”, more or less strangely moving her body along with the umbrella and the other one was taking taking pictures and recording her. So I just stood there looking at them, baffled, and they paid no attention to their surroundings. After a good few minutes they noticed I was looking and they just laughed out loud. At that time I was unable to hold in my laughter so I laughed too. After that, they came up to me and just started asking those typical questions: “Where are you from?”, “Are you American?”, and so forth. It was fun listening to their broken Engrish but for the sake of a conversation I switched to Japanese. Of course, as always, they are shocked that a foreigner is able to speak Japanese. So after a short conversation, both our trains arrived and we went our separate way. So... Gaijin Forcefield, what happened? Did ya miss? 発動失敗?