Day 3 - Mountains again, Gandalf

On the last day of our trip - Monday - we decided to head back to Miyajima to take the ropeway up to the top of Mt Misen.

First was a four-person gondola:

Then a larger cable car the rest of the way. Not satisfied with the views from the transportation, or from the top of the ropeway, we steeled ourselves for climbing the rest of the way to the top of the mountain. But first, we took at look at the warning signs:

Luckily for our luggage (less so for my camera) there were no monkeys out that day. Perhaps it was too hot. It was certainly too hot for any sane people to be climbing a mountain. Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that. Not that I'm English.

We made it to the top after much sweating. There were many views to enjoy. The looks out over the Seto Inland sea towards Shikoku, "our island" (though I don't think you can see it here).

After making it down in one piece, we headed back to the mainland, back to Hiroshima city, and timed things perfectly so we could jump on the fastest Shinkansen this time, the Nozomi, which was a first for me. The Nozomi apparently can reach speeds of 300km/h over this stretch of track. We did the journey back to Okayama in 36 minutes, a cool 25 minutes faster than we did the same distance the day before.

With little time until our bus back to Tokushima, we rushed to the town of Kurashiki, which is famous for its preserved historical quarter. I wish we'd had more time to spend there, as there are so few places in Japan where the old isn't encroached upon by the new on all sides.

We literally had just enough time to walk out to this area, do a lap around it, then head back to the station. I feel like I'm cheating when I take photos of a place I haven't properly investigated. Ah well, maybe another day. Far into the future.

We got our bus back to Tokushima, which despite the rail link seems by far the best mode of transport between the two prefectures. On the bus I nabbed some sunset pictures. Behold!

Who needs rose-tinted spectacles when you have a digital camera, eh?

Day 2 - Trains, trams and boats

On Day 2, we got up fairly early and went to the station to find a way to Hiroshima. After concluding every other option would be too long and boring for words, we decided to use the shinkansen or 'bullet train'. The took the next available one, which was a Kodama, the slowest of the three shinkansen services, due to the fact that it stops at all stations on the line. Still, it was only around an hour between Okayama and Hiroshima, a journey which takes up to three hours using local lines.

In Hiroshima, in deference to Lesson 4 of the Voice Oral Communication textbook "Show me the way" we went to all the places the characters talk about.
Hiroshima Baseball stadium:

The A-bomb dome:

And the rest of the Peace Memorial Park:

Not in the textbook, but still of interest to me since I like castles, was Hiroshima castle.

I got another pin badge at the Peace Memorial Park tourist shop, and one in the castle, bringing my trip total to seven. I've never been so successful on such a short trip before.

After Hiroshima Castle, we decided to head to Miyajima-guchi, where our hostel was. Miyajima-guchi is the station beside the ferry port to Miyajima, another place in the textbook and a World Heritage Site. After stopping by our hostel and dropping some bags, we jumped on the ferry.

Miyajima has a large population of deer which welcome visitors by prying into their bags and trying to eat the contents.

Emily and I were eating special Hiroshima nikuman - meat dumplings - and were shocked to find a deer defying its vegetarian upbringing and trying to get at them.

Miyajima is so-called because of the shrine on the seashore on the north side of the island. The torii shrine gate is a famous Japanese image. Here are a couple of my photographic efforts:

After calling it a day at Miyajima, we followed some inaccurate directions to a cinema to see Inception, a film I didn't dislike, but fail to understand why everyone is so enamoured with.

Last travels - Day 1

Last weekend was a three-day weekend, Monday being a national holiday. Not knowing what else to do, Emily and I planned a trip to Okayama and Hiroshima. And we didn't plan it very well. We booked accomodation at about 8am, an hour before we got on our bus. (*addendum by Emily; more like we didn't plan at all, and just did everything perfectly the first time round)

We got lunch at a place in the Okayama station building, during which I noticed not one, not two, not three but FOUR pin badge machines. It was a very exciting moment for me. Each machine was different, so right off the bat I got four new pin badges (obviously I could have gotten more, but I have rules). Only one of the pins was actually an Okayama pin, so my hopes were high about finding more on our travels.

Our first stop was Okayama castle, much like any other castle in Japan except for being black instead of white. Here's how we got there:

I love trams. I think they're tram-endous.

Anyway, here's the castle:

The castle's interior was along the lines of Osaka castle, in that it was basically a museum with little of the original (or at least restored) interior. I prefer my old buildings to be properly old inside and out. But you can't expect much in Japan. A lot of old buildings were bombed to bits during the second world war and rebuilt after, and others were knocked down because there wasn't the money to maintain them. However, the trip to the castle was fruitful in other ways. Or one other way, I should say. I got another pin badge from a machine at the top. It was a different kind of machine to the others, so I didn't break any rules.

We got a combination ticket to the castle and nearby Korakuen gardens, which turned out to be a very beautiful place. See attached beauty:

It was extremely hot, however, so we had to keep stopping for drinks and shaved ice treats. We also found an area where you could cool your feet in a shallow pool. Eventually, having seen them from atop the castle, we became determined to venture out onto the moat in that most dangerous of vessels, the swan boat. Upon crossing a very sketchy bridge over to the docking area, we had the mad old man warn us of the dangers of the river's current, and he drew us a map telling us where not to go. Unfortunately, the map was basically two lines and didn't include any landmarks, so we pretty much had to play the thing by ear.

The steering was about as responsive as Mario Kart Double Dash, and to get anywhere at all you had to paddle at extreme speeds, which, with the blistering heat, meant extensive sweatification. After endangering our lives in this manner for a while, we returned to the dock where the deranged old man overcharged us and sent us on our way.

In the evening, after watching some Japanese TV featuring a guy with a pet monkey, Emily insisted we eat at a place advertised in the Lonely Planet. So we did.