Kyoto day out to Himeji Castle and changing plans due to Typhoon Hagibis. Rugby World Cup 2019 Japan

10th October 2020
We were up early today and onto the Kyoto Municipal Subway train to the main JR Kyoto station. Using the Kansai area pass we were getting the train to visit Himeji Castle.

The JR Kansai pass restricts you to using the direct JR special rapid trains (shin-kaisoku) and the journey took 90 minutes. The trains were frequent- roughly every 15 minutes. The journey was pleasant and passed through Osaka and Kobe. It then traveled up the coastline before arriving in Himeji.

You can see the Castle as soon as you exit Himeji station. It took about 15 minutes to walk from the station to the castle.
We got tickets for the Castle and the Gardens, and spent the day exploring both.

Himeji Castle

When we got back to Kyoto, the we heard the announcement from the World Rugby organizers that the game on Saturday – England V France in Yokohama- had been called off. This was due to Typhoon Hagibis that was predicted to bring violent winds and torrential rain to Tokyo and Yokohama.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Hagibis

We were due to head to Yokohama the next day, the train, hotel, car rental and flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka were booked and paid for. Despite the plans we decided not to go, we couldn’t see the point of being stuck in a hotel room, in a storm for the weekend.
As England's next game was the quarter final in Oita, we decided to go to the Island of Kyushu and booked a flight for the next day from Osaka Airport to Fukuoka with Jetstar.
We also managed to change our car rental booking from a Yokohama pickup to a Fukuoka one and get the ANA flight for the 14th October 2020 refunded-for some reason I had booked a fully flexible ticket!
So! within a few hours we were sorted and good to go. As it was late by the time we had sorted everything, it was a 7/11 take away for dinner again. I am really going to miss the 7 /11 and its choice of 'to go' food.