An easy day trip from Kobe, Himeji Castle is Japan’s most magnificent surviving feudal fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nicknamed the White Heron Castle for its elegant, gleaming white silhouette, this beautifully preserved 17th-century complex of interconnected keeps, gates and defensive walls is a masterpiece of Japanese castle architecture. Wandering its steep wooden stairways and taking in views from the main keep offers a vivid sense of the samurai era. A short train ride from Kobe, it is one of the finest and most rewarding sights in all of Japan.