Himeji Transportation

The Loop Bus is very convenient for those who want to travel quickly and it only costs 100 yen per ride, so it's very affordable!

The Loop Bus goes from Himeji Station and loops around the castle. There are stops near all of these sites:
-Himeji Castle
-Himeji City Zoo
-Kokoen Garden
-Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History
-Himeji City Museum of Art
-Otokoyama Senhime Shrine

The bus will get you from the station to the castle in just 5 minutes, but even on foot, it will only take about 15 minutes, and there are many shops along the way, so either way is nice.

Because it is such a popular destination, Himeji is well-connected to many cities.

The Shinkansen connects Himeji to the nearby cities of Okayama, Kurashiki, Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as cities located much further away like Nagoya, Hiroshima, Onomichi, Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Shimonoseki, and Fukuoka.

Local trains are a great way to save money. There are direct trains from Okayama, Tsuyama, and Kobe, but local trains are also convenient for those travelling from Osaka and Kyoto.

We came to Himeji bt train from Kyoto. There are two main trains that run from Kyoto to Himeji, the rapid one and the regional one.The cost of the ticket is the same, about 15 euro one way but the regional train takes about 2 hours and half, instead of the one hour and half of the rapid trains.Usually you do not need to know train timetables as there are really a lot of trains running any hour.

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Make use of your Japan Rail Pass as Himeji can visited half day is you wish.
Journey from Kyoto JR is only 55 minutes by Hikari Shinkansen.

You can get a JR West Rail Pass which covers Kansai area including Osaka and Kyoto. And its available at cost JPY2000 for 1 day.

From Kyoto station, take the Hikari 361 shinkansen to Himeji Castle. It runs hourly from platform 13 or 14 (check with station master) and takes 55 minutes to get there.

Exit Himeji Station, and walk for 15-20 minutes on the main road to Himeji Castle. You can't miss it as there's only 1 main street dotted with many interesting shops and cafes.

Alternatively, take the Raku loop bus to go to the castle and around it. It's interesting to see the old village that surrounds the castle. To find the bus, exit Himeji Station, turn left and cross the street. It's a dark red small bus. Cost US$5.10 per person.

It is very easy to get to Himeji by train once in the Kansai region of Japan. It is within easy range of Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto and Nara which are all popular cities to visit in Japan. I think that anyone travelling to the Kansai region should make an effort to go to Himeji for a half day at least and tour this beautiful castle. It is about 4 hours by Shinkansen from Tokyo.

The Shinkansen is by far the most convenient way to travel around Japan. Unfortunately it isn't very cheap! Luckily there is a Japan JR Rail Pass available to foreign travellers. See the JR East website for details:

It must be bought abroad and stamped in Japan before you can use it. There are several options including one week (unlimited JR travel except for the super fast Nozomi service), two week, JR East and JR West passes. Check with your local travel agent for the best option or click on the link to see for yourself!

Here is a link to a very cool page that lets you see the routing between cities/stations/ports within Japan. It will tell you the route and includes the cost and time. http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/.

I have heard that there is a place at Himeji station where you can borrow bikes for free for a day. The main part of Himeji and the castle is easily seen by walking, but a bike ususally gets you there quicker. If nothing else, riding a bike gives you the near-death experience of riding in a crush of cars, bikes, and people.

There are a 4 discount ticket shops near Himeji Station. These shops sell mostly JR train tickets (including Shinkansen), but also bus tickets (to Tokyo, to Itami Airport, etc), movie tickets, stamps, postcards, telephone cards, gift certificates to dept stores, museum admission tickets, etc. ALL AT A DISCOUNT!
The closest one to the north of the station is on Miyuki Dori (the shopping st). Walk north out of the on the main st , turn right at Vie De France(bakery),& the tkt shop is at the next corner on the right.