HIMEJI : Where History And Nature Come To Life

Himeji City, located in Hyogo Prefecture along the southern edge of the Kansai region and facing the Seto Inland Sea, is rich in history. It has served as the center of Harima Province since the Nara Period and became a major stronghold for the Tokugawa during the Edo period. Due to its historical significance, Himeji has developed a strong tradition of craft production, which includes Buddhist altar manufacturing, leatherwork and wood crafting for temples and castles.

Himeji is situated within the Harima seaside industrial area. The region has a strong presence of several key industries, including steel mills, chemical plants and automobile electronics, Additionally, the northern part of Himeji supports significant agricultural activities along with commercial fishing.

Culture and Experience in Himeji

JR HIMEJI STATION

JR Himeji Station served the bullet train Shinkansen offering a 3hr10 min access to JR Tokyo Station, 1hr to Jr Hiroshima Station, 40 min to Kyoto Station and 30 min to JR Shin-Osaka Station.

KANSAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (KIX)

Located near Osaka, Kansai International Airport (KIX) is accessible by a 2hr bus ride from Himeji City.

Also, it takes around 1hr10min to go to Himeji from Osaka Itami Airport (ITM) and 1hr from Kobe Airport (UKB).

MICE Facilities : Convention Center Arcrea HIMEJI

Arcrea HIMEJI is a convention center located at a 10 min walk from JR Himeji station. Composed of a Grand, medium and small halls, Conference rooms, an exhibition hall and an outdoor Exhibition Space, Arcrea HIMEJI is a very convenient facility with everything in one place.

Grand Hall (360㎡）	A large-sized hall seating 2,010 people boast the largest capacity in the Harima area. The hall is suited to a variety of events from domestic and overseas artists' concerts and performances to lectures and panel discussions.
Medium Hall (230㎡）	A multipurpose space to accommodate a wide range of events from professional performances to civic events, with 693 seats arranged in a fan shape.
Small Hall (50㎡）	An audience-friendly hall that create a sense of unity between stage and audience with 164 seats.
Conference rooms (35~690㎡）	A conference floor with a multipurpose hall of 690 ㎡ and 10 larges, mediums and small rooms.
Exhibition Hall (920~4,000㎡）	An commodious space of 4,000㎡, partitionable into three areas. This large pillar-free space with an clear height about 10m can be partitioned into 3 parts to be flexibly used according to event scale.
Outdoor Exhibition Space	A lively plaza of 1,600㎡ that can be used in combination with indoor exhibition space.

Unique Venue : Himeji Castle

Also called Hakuro-jo (White Egret Castle) or Shirasagi-jo (White Heron) because of its white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight, Himeji Castle is a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site and a National Treasure of Japan.

It is the largest remaining castle building in Japan, embodies the attractiveness of Japanese castles as illustrated in elaborated castle layout, a variety of stone walls, a row of large and small keeps and roofed-passage turrets. With its esthetic perfection level rated as the highest among wooden buildings in Japan and uniquely excellent in the world, the castle became the first Japanese structure that was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1993.

As an unique venue, Himeji castle offers historical structures for convention receptions, ceremonies, and exhibitions with a view to making MICE in Himeji more attractive and valuable.

Himeji Castle gardens can be privatized to hold reception parties like commemorative ceremony, meeting or company new product announcement giving an unforgivable moment to the participants.

Unique Venue : Himeji Castle Sannomaru Square

Type	Outdoor
Area	13,700 square meters
Food and Drink	Allowed

Himeji Castle Sannnomaru Square consists of a vast lawn space that spreads out before you as soon as you enter the castle main gate. Behind it you have a full view of the castle keeps against the sky. It offers a huge open feeling and half space alone is available as well.

Unique Venue : Himeji Castle Ninomaru Square

Type	Outdoor
Area	1,200 square meters
Food and Drink	Not Allowed

Himeji Castle Ninomaru square is located in the pay zone of Himeji Castle. From the site surrounded by stone walls and white walls, you can look up at the spectacular castle large keep closely. It is very valuable historical space available exclusively for International conferences.

Unique Venue : Himeji Castle Nishi-oyashiki-ato Garden KOKO-EN

Type	Outdoor and Indoor
Area	9,200 square meters
Food and Drink	Allowed

KOKO-EN is a popular beautiful sightseeing spot in Himeji City offering an splendid location as a MICE venue. It has a 3.5 hectares superficies, and it is located just south-west of Himeji Castle.

KOKO-EN is a Japanese style garden with a path around a central pond and spring constructed on the site of a feudal lord’s residences, consisting of 9 different gardens. Water fall into the big pond of Oyashiki no Niwa (house garden), an unique venue spot, where colored carps are swimming proudly.

Activity : Shakyo and Zazen experience at Shoshazan Engyo-ji Temple

Shoshazan Engyo-ji Temple is a sanctuary surrounded by nature , the prayer mountain was opened about 1,050 years ago by Shoku-Shonin, the holy priest. It is popular as a location for the Hollywood movie The Last Samurai and other popular Japanese movies.

Here, you will be able to experience Shakyo, a sutra copying exercise where you write Chinese characters and make whishes, and Zen meditation to refresh you body and mind.

Activity : Tile Making and Factory Tour

Tile Factory Koyoseiga was established in 1920 and has continued to preserve the traditional Japanese style of smoke-firing roofing tiles in kilns.

Koyoseiga has been recognized for its high production quality, and even produced the ridge-end tile with the figure of a shachihoko, which is placed for ornamentation and fire prevention and often seen atop the tiled ridgepoles of castles, for the renovation of Himeji Castle.

The participants will learn about the world of traditional Japanese smoke-fired roofing tiles through a tour of the tile factory and will experience the traditional Japanese method firsthand under the guidance of a Craftsman.

Activity : Japanese fishing boat experience

The waters of the harimanada Sea facing the Ieshima Islands are home to a wide variety of fish and shellfish, including the Hyogo recommended Brand such as common Japanese conger (Shirasagi Hamo), swimming crab, sea bream, shrimp and flounder.

Participants can board a fishery experience boat and observe a variety of fisheries , including a bottom trawling fishery, from the boat. Participants can sample freshly caught fish on board and experience work at sea that is not usually seen. The experience boat are air-conditioned and equipped with restrooms for your comfort.

Information shared with the courtesy of Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau is dedicated to promoting tourism in Himeji City,. Its goals include attracting and supporting conventions, as well as encouraging location filming for films and televisions, both inside the city and beyond. Through these efforts, the Bureau aims to revitalize the local economy, enhance citizen culture, and help establish Himeji as an international tourist destination.

[URL]

Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau

Himeji Convention Guide

https://www.himeji-kanko.jp/convention/en

Visit Himeji

https://visit-himeji.com/en/

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnwWW1UV-L8&list=PLL-5n9W6D8ty5DVrJT72ji7s1qq565oEG

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/himeji_kanko