The last full day in Japan!

The original plan was to go to Kobe. What to do? What to see? No one knew. I did a search, mom did a search, nothing interesting (to my mom) came up. She wanted me to decide whether we should go and to be honest, I’m not sure whether it should be an “us” trip and I felt if I said yes and we went, mom would not be happy and would blame me for this trip, just like she’s been blaming me every time we made a wrong turn on this trip.

Okay, plan B – rest for half of the day and venture out the latter half. Not a bad idea, in fact, I liked that idea. I could use the rest, especially when there are multiple blisters (“are” being they’re still there) on the bottom of my right foot and my pinkie toe had become swollen from all the walking. I checked my Fitbit and did some quick math, over 120 miles (193 KM), that’s how many miles I’ve walked since the beginning of the trip.

In the last minute, right before bed, mom changed her mind. She was unwilling to just sit around and do nothing. She felt like she must spend every moment of the trip going places and not sitting around, resting, despite her body has been crying out the whole time just as mine has.

And I knew I had to say yes because she seemed so excited and promised we would go, see it, and return early to rest. So, we were off to Himeji to see Himeji Castle – an UNESCO world heritage site and one of the original castles remaining in Japan.

Himeji is about a little over an hour from Osaka, depending on whether you’re traveling by rapid train or local train. Though we boarded a rapid train, it still stopped at over 10 stops before reaching Himeji.

Mom woke me up a little after 6 AM and we left at half past. Within a block, I began having problems. My right pinkie toe was itching and burning, two of the worst sensation to have when walking. I felt anxiety and irritation amping up. Why couldn’t you speak up for once? Why did you let her pick? My inner voice scolded me. I wanted no blame for this. I needed to soldier on.

So soldier on, we went.

Despite the swollen pinkie toe and the walking and all the physical pain I’m still suffering, I was glad I got to visit this place. It’s really quite interesting and unique and the views are amazing. Who can resist that along with a little wind to temporarily stop the sweat from pouring out of every available pore?