Himeji

Himeji is a castle town in Hyogo Prefecture on the Sanyo Shinkansen line west of Kobe, and it exists in the traveler's imagination for one building. Himeji Castle, nicknamed the White Heron for its white-plastered walls, is the finest original castle in Japan, intact since the early 1600s.

Walking the castle's maze of gates and steep keep staircases explains Japanese fortress design better than any museum could. Next door, the nine gardens of Koko-en recreate Edo-period landscaping along the old samurai quarter, and the ropeway up Mount Shosha reaches Engyoji, the mountaintop temple complex that appeared in The Last Samurai.

Most people visit as a stop between Osaka and Hiroshima, since the castle stands a straight walk up the boulevard from the station. Give it half a day, more in cherry blossom season, when a thousand trees bloom around the moats and crowds swell accordingly. Grilled anago, the local conger eel, makes a good lunch.