瀬戸内の旅 1(A Travel along the Seto Inland Sea 1)

れいこさんのお母さんの七回忌の法要で広島に向かうのに、6月11日、今回は松本空港から神戸空港に飛ぶことにしました。すでに梅雨入りしていて、最初はずっと雨の予報だったので、兄達にもお願いして、ポーパワーを発揮。見事、晴れを引き寄せました。

For the 6th anniversary of Reiko's mother, we headed for Hiroshima. On June 11, we flied from Matsumoto airport to Kobe airport. We were alrady in the the rainy season and at the beginning the rain was expected all the time during the travel.

I asked my brothers to gather our power to bring the sunshine and look! it was a fine day only with some clouds.

JALとの共同便、フジドリームエアラインズで飛びます。

少し雲はありましたが、北アルプスの雪山が素晴らしい。

Our flight was supposed to be a JAL codeshared with Fuji Dream airlines.

With some cloulds, we could have a good view of the Northern Alps with snow.

フライトは快適で、50分で神戸空港に到着。

It was a wonderful flight and took only 50 minutes to Kobe airport.

神戸空港から三宮まで、初めてポートライナーに乗りました。海の上を渡って行きます。

僕らは先頭に座ることができて、ちょっとジェットコースターに似た感覚を味わいました。

三宮まで、街並や港を高い視線から眺められるのも楽しく、料金が高そうだなあと思いましたが、340円しかしなかったので、そうか観光用ではなくて、都会の足なんだなあと実感しました。

From Kobe airport to Sannomiya station, we took a Port Liner for the first time.

It crosses over the sea. As we got the front seat, we rode it as if we were riding a jet roller.

The view of the town and the port from the high railway was so excellent that we wondered how much the fare would be. It turned out, later, only 340 yen to our surprise. It was so cheap that we realized that this ride is actually a practical purpose to connect the ariport and the railway station.

三宮からは山陽線で姫路に出ました。便数が多いので、下道でも便利です。

From Sannomiya, we took a local train of Sanyo Line to Himeji, which was convenient, too.

10時に松本を出て、お昼過ぎには姫路に到着。

握り寿司を食べるつもりにしていましたが、予定していた店がお昼はやっておらず、駅前のお店で穴子ちらしを買いましたが、これがなかなか美味しかったです。

We left Matsumoto at 10:00 and arrived at Himeji past noon.

For lunch, we expected Nigirizushi but all the restaurants we had checked were open only for dinner. We then purchased a Chirashizuji with conger eel, which was quite satisfying to our delight.

腹ごしらえを終えて、いざ姫路城へ。

Being satisfied with lunch, we headed to Himeji castle.

今回は値段が三倍に跳ね上がった天守閣は外からだけ。いつもお城を見ては見損ねている、好古園の方を見ることにしました。想像していたよりも広い庭で、ゆっくり見て回ると二時間くらいかかりました。

This time we only looke up the castle from ouside and did not go in as we used to do. It is partly because the entrance price became three times as expensive as before (too much to pay) and partly because we always got tired from walking in the castle too much to visit the garden. This time our main purpose was to visit this garden, Koukoen.

The garden was excellent. It was much bigger than we had expected and took two hours to walk around it.

庭を見終えて疲れてしまい、外堀沿いを散策しながら、途中で夕食をゲットし、旅行に出ると飲みたくなるプレミアムモルトのビールも買って、ホテルに引き返しました。

ホテルはごく普通のビジネスホテルですが、最上階に街を見渡せるお風呂が付いていて、夜はサウナも使え、ゆっくりできました。

After we enjoyed the garden, we took a long walk along the outer moat of the castle to our hotel, realizing the castle sight was much larger than the one of Matsumoto castle. We also purchased our dinner and a can of beer, a routine of traveling, on the way back.

Our hotel was an ordinary business hotel close to Himeji station but there was a large bath with a souna on the top floor. It was relaxing to take a bath looking over the town.