We woke up and finished up the packing we had started the night before to get ready to leave Iwakuni. Steven had a dental appointment so we wanted to wait until he was back to leave so he could take us to the Shin station. We said our goodbyes and arranged to have a few things shipped back to the US (coming to you Sheryl and Steve). We took a last set of pictures with Steven, Leah and Zach and we headed for the station. Our first stop was Okayama which features a castle and one of the top 3 gardens in Japan (they like to rank in 3’s). We got to the station and remember we have all of our luggage for now so we set out looking for a locker. There were several sets of lockers but none had any of the “large” size available which we needed for our stuff. We looked around for a bit then we saw there was a hotel attached to the station so I figured it was worth a shot to see if they would hold our luggage for a couple of hours. We got to the reception desk and asked but they would only keep them for guests but they tried to direct us to a bicycle rental place that would hold luggage so we set out again (remember still dragging all of our luggage). We looked around in the direction she gave but couldn’t find it. Then we headed back toward the station to figure out what to do when Becky saw a lost and found office so we asked them and they pointed the place out to us about 2 blocks back the way we had just come. We eventually found the place and the nice man just charged us for 1 piece even though we were leaving both our suitcases and backpacks. After this we finally headed toward the castle and gardens and caught a streetcar headed to a nearby stop. We decided to just tour the gardens and view the castle as we walked there and from the garden itself. We bought our tickets to the garden and headed in to see what we could see. This place was pretty amazing and crowded with school kids eating lunch, several artists painting the castle and gardens and other japanese and tourists enjoying the beautiful surroundings. There were several sections to the garden but the highlight was definitely the lake and small island and the area around it. We took lots of pictures of everything including the beautiful views of the castle from the garden itself then decided it was lunch time and headed out of the garden to search. We found a little Japanese restaurant so we looked at the plastic food and decided to head in. This was the first restaurant where they haven’t had an english menu so the little lady took us outside again to have us point to the food we wanted from the display. It is always a little exciting to have little idea what you are getting but we ended up with Becky having an omelet over rice with chicken and I had udon noodles with pork. It was very nice and we had a wonderful view of the castle while we ate. We then headed back to the train station by streetcar and grabbed our luggage to head on to Himeji and one of the top 3 castles in Japan. We found our train and got to Himeji with no problem and found a locker this time so it was much smoother. The trip there took longer than I had planned so we got there right about when the castle was to close at 4. We walked down the main road leading to the castle and caught our first glimpses. It took about 10 minutes to walk to the castle grounds entrance and as we crossed the bridge into the castle we could hear loud announcements from the castle itself that we assumed meant they were closing but we continued up as close as we could get. We saw a Japanese wedding couple as we walked up and also all of the cherry blossoms were perfectly in bloom. The castle is the original castle from the 1600s and is being renovated but luckily they just have the crane set up off to the side and it wasn’t covered in scaffolding like it will be soon. We walked around the grounds for a bit then headed back to the station again to head to Kobe. We got to Kobe and got our bearings and headed down the street to our hotel which was about 5-6 blocks away. We found it and got checked in to the hotel, which was very nice. We got settled and decided to head down to the port area which has a cool tower and a few other interesting buildings and also to look for what Kobe is famous for, Kobe beef. We got down to the port area which was a little longer walk than I had thought and also colder so Becky was freezing by the time we got down there. We took some pictures of the port tower and I saw an area across the marina that looked like it might have some restaurants. When we got over there we thought there wasn’t going to be anything and had just about decided to give up and go to a seafood place we had seen earlier when we came across a steak restaurant and sure enough they were serving the area’s famous beef. We got a table and they pretty much just had 3 set type meals so we got the most reasonable one. This was a several course meal starting with a ham, onion and some sort of sauce appetizer. This was followed by salad and soup and then the main course. The beef was served on a hot cast iron skillet and was very rare when served but you could cook it to your liking on the skillet along with peppers, onions and potatoes. There was also rice on the side and a collection of other toppings including a pickled plum. I had heard Japanese people love these so I tried it, definitely not bad but very salty and not my cup of tea. Dessert followed along with hot tea and the entire meal was accompanied by a woman playing the piano. Let me tell you the steak was melt in your mouth fantastic. I mean not an ounce of gristle or unnecessary fat (plenty throughout the meat though). After the meal we made the hike back through the cold night to the hotel and tried to get some sleep for another moving day to Kyoto tomorrow.