Bread (Pan)

It's 11:30 pm I'm brushing my teeth trying to prevent myself from falling face first into the sink. Today was a long amazing day so let's start from the beginning. I first woke up at 7 which was when we were suppose to be woken up, from there me and Kampbell my hotel roommate went to breakfast at 8. Once we finished eating we went to our room and got ready. We caught a train for about 45 minutes until we reached himeji when we got off we meet with Aki and his mom Mrs Ueno. We then walked over to a food center where we received the best surprise that day. Aki's mom brought us melon pan and curry donuts. As I ate this I knew I later wouldn't contemplate regretting to eat this like my past food decisions. It was amazing and I was so sad to not have eaten this when I was younger. After everyone finished eating we walked over to the Himeji castle, which was about 5 minutes away. When we got there we met with two tour guides, who took us up the castle. Our tour guide was great she talked a lot about everything and gave a great explanation on most things. We learned how the castle is designed to trick and kill the invaders. After we were done touring the castle we caught a train and went to the place that restored the castle. We got to tour the entire factory, I enjoyed touring the factory because we got to see a great example of amazing craftsmanship. After we got done touring the workplace we got to use the same material they used to restore the castle's roof to make a picture frame. When this was done it was around time for dinner, so we took our train and met up with Aki’s parents as well as Ryo’s dad. Lucky for us Mr. and Mrs. Ueno treated us by buying an amazing dinner filled with great Japanese food. This was probably the best dinner of the trip for me, the atmosphere, the people, and the fact I got to know Aki's parents made everything memorable.

Thank you Aki, Mr. and Mrs. Ueno for hosting us!

Mrs. Ueno is happy that the boys would eat anything!

Mr. Minakata (JJ and Ryo's father) joined us as well! Good to see you again.

The boys are happy with their matching umbrellas.

Mrs. Ueno delivered us freshly fried curry bread and baked melon bread. Thank you!

Our guide is telling us that this huge wooden pole (which is supporting the castle) is more than a thousand year old.

Impressive architecture.

Looking out from the samurai castle.

Himeji Castle "The White Heron"

The Four Samurais!

The World Heritage Site. Beautiful!

The factory who made and restored the current roof tiles (75,000 of them) for the Himeji Castle.

Old shopping streets near the castle.

Learning about the smoked roof tiles.

Each one is carefully hand made.

This is where it is smoked.

The craftsman is showing how it is done, one by one.

After the long day.....