the final one on Hiroshima

So, as I may have said before, we went to Hiroshima on this deal, right?  Well, part of the the deal was you can't take the bullet train all the way back from Hiroshima city to Kobe, you have to take the local trains to the edge of Hiroshima Prefecture, about 2 - 2.5 hours, and then catch the bullet train.

At first I was kind of like "Well, that's annoying," but then as we got going we got to see some lovely countryside and small-town Japan.  Remember how I said it was hard to see anything when you're on the bullet train?  Yeah, this totally made up for it.  So what we have here is a bunch of pictures from random places we passed through and changed trains at.  They aren't really in order.

if we had a car, we could go see waterfalls and things

this little tiny stop, about 40min- 1 hr outside of Hiroshima city, is so small you have to show your ticket to the station master to get out (if you have an ICOCA card you can scan that, but there's nowhere to put the paper tickets).  Basically, you only come out here if you're going to the airport...  It was our first train change.

farms!! (I'm currently watching a movie set in Hokkaido where the main character is staying on a farm and they regularly go out and confide their worries to the cows.  I love it)

Our second train change...

as we were going along admiring the mountains, we suddenly came to the ocean and realized "Hey, those aren't just mountains, they're islands!"  Even after being here for 2 years, that kind of thing still surprises me.

Didn't stop here, but it's a great name :)

Final train change.  To the Shinkansen!

Fukuyama station, waiting for the train.

Famous people from overseas advertising random Japanese stuff is both fairly common and fairly amusing.

We got back to Kobe, did one last train change to the subway and got home about 10 (well, I did anyway).

I liked Hiroshima, I really did.  Although there were a few other things I would have liked to do and see, I think 3 days was a good amount of time to be there as a tourist.  It seems like a nice city of decent size.  I probably wouldn't mind living there, although of all the places in Japan I could live, it isn't number one.  What can I say, I miss the country  :)

I feel like there were a couple other comments I wanted to make, but I'm not thinking of them right now... oh well.

Hirsoshima, part the second

On our last day, we took a rather long time to get left (no seriously, we almost missed the check out time), but then we went to Hiroshima castle, which was super interesting.  Well, I thought it was anyway, my companions elected to go ahead and meet me at the art museum.

castle entrance.  notice the moat?  there actually used to be three of them, but the other two got filled in over the years.

This is the foundation of the headquarters of the 4th division of the army during WWII.  By this point, most of the original buildings from the 12th century or whenever had either burned or been torn down.

Reconstruction of the main tower of the castle, like Osaka Castle it has within it a museum on the history of Hiroshima, which was really terribly interesting.  I learned all about life in a castle town :)

One of the cool things I learned was how they built up the banks of the moat, planning to knock them down and thus flood any invading armies.  That never happened, due to lack of invading armies, but it was a pretty good plan.

The castle grounds have been converted into a lovely little park.

I rather like Hiroshima Castle.  It's a lot flatter and easier to get around than Osaka Castle.  Well, that comparison really applies to Hiroshima and Osaka cities as well.

We grabbed lunch at a ramen place, then spent the afternoon in the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum.  You can read all about it here: http://www1.hpam-unet.ocn.ne.jp/english/.   Hiroshima has 3 or so art museums, but we only had time for the one...  They had three exhibits.  One was a traveling Van Gogh exhibit that had been in Kobe, but I hadn't seen it.  I'm pretty sure I would have appreciated it more if there were more explanations in English...  The second was part of a larger project called Art Arch Hiroshima 2013, and I really enjoyed that one.  It was peace themed and very moving.  The third exhibit was free and featured objects made by Japanese Americans in interment camps (is that the proper name?) during WWII.  I was amazed at what they were able to make with found items- dolls and chairs and chess sets.  all kinds of things..

Next to the museum is a Japanese garden (http://shukkeien.jp/), which I spent some time wandering around in.  I love Japanese gardens. 

This particular garden is famous because there's 10 or 12 mini islands in the little pond.

We set off for Hiroshima station around 4 and began our long journey back.  I'll tell you later about why it took us much longer to return than to get there.

広島へ We went to Hiroshima!

So the other week the train was running a special where you could buy a return-trip bullet train ticket to Hiroshima, which also covered all local trains in the area, for just over $100.  Trust me, this is super cheap.  I heard about it from a friend and three of us ended up going.

We left on a Thursday, catching a 9:13 train out of Kobe, which took about 1 hr, 15 min.

On the Shinkansen!!

I was a bit disappointed, because the train goes so fast you can't really see the countryside...


After we got to Hiroshima, we took the tram to the J-hoppers hostel.  (Hiroshima has an extensive tram system, good for going anywhere in the city and only costs about $1.50.)  We dropped our luggage at the hostel and walked over to the Peace Memorial Park, which is about 5 min from the hostel.  We spent most of the rest of the day in the park and museum (we got there around 11/12 and left after 7).  It was beautiful and sad and I was really grateful for the time to walk by myself and think and digest. I prefer not to comment further, but I will give you a couple pictures.

making okonomiyaki...

After, we had Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki for supper.  It was not nearly as good as Kansai-style, but we had fun.

doesn't it look tasty?

I also had oysters, a Hiroshima specialty. Hiroshima Prefecture produces about 60% of Japan's oysters.

I would like to mention that we walked basically across town and back for this.  Hiroshima city is much smaller than Osaka, or even Kobe.  I like it :)












We got back to the hostel before 10, checked in, and went to bed.

Day 2:  We got kind of a late start, because we were going to Miyajima, which is a famous shine, and the idea was to see it at high tide and low tide, so we didn't have to be there until about 12, when high tide occurred.

So we go up, had breakfast at Vie de France, a chain bakery that also has a location at the station near my house, took the train about an hour, switched to the ferry and thus arrived at Miyajima.

Here's the shrine at high tide...

As you can see, it looks like it's floating on the water.

And then, to kill some time until low tide, which was around 6, we took the ropeway to the top of the highest mountain on the island.  We also adopted this British girl who was traveling Japan on her own and needed someone to share a ropeway car with.  She was pretty cool.

ropeway.  very high up.

top of the mountain

apparently this rocks are famous...

we also had a late lunch.  I love udon.

Afterwards, my companions walked down the mountain, while I elected to take the ropeway.  (Cause I'm getting old.)  Then we got to see the shrine at low tide, which was really super fun.

This has been rebuilt several times.  I think this is about the 8th generation.

You would think this thing is anchored to the ground.  It's not.  It's so big that its own weight keeps it from being washed away.

heehee.  this guy was so funny :)

there were so many wee little creatures left behind after the tide went out.  I was amazed!  and thrilled!

After that we went back to Hiroshima and had Irish food for supper.

That's chicken wrapped in BACON.  it was epic!

also, this is getting really long, so I'm gonna do the last day later.  maybe tomorrow.