It was a really nice day so we spent 8 1/2 hours on a train to walk around a little castle town called Himeji for 6 hours. Apparently the castle was in an old Bond film? When we went, they were shooting a samurai movie, or a samurai drama. The castle was beautiful. I think that generally, it's been the same since the 1600s. The most interesting part was that there is this well, where a maid got thrown in (I think she was dead when they threw her in but maybe they threw here in alive?), because she warned her lover (a Lord of the castle) that there was going to be a plot to kill him or something, and then someone higher ranked than that lord found out and accused her of losing a really valuable plate. So they killed her, threw her body in the well, and apparently her ghost could always be heard counting plates. Later, that lord turned her into a Goddess or something, and made a shrine for her, so the well's been silent since. Also, one part of the castle was used for ritual suicides by samurai.

(Actually after that we went shopping in the malls, so we didn't spend 6 hours in a castle)