Are we in Japan or Manchester!?!

We decided to get up and out today as we were travelling to Osaka and we wanted to explore Miyajima island. We'd planned to do a hike to the highest point on the island, Mount Misen but it was bouncing down (raining). The mountain was covered in mist and even Japan's largest island Honshu wasn't visible. We decided to do a short walk that included Senjokaku Pavilion, Toyokuni Shrine five-story pagoda, Itsukushima Floating Torii Gate and Momijidani Park. It was slightly surprising how many tourists were already up and about even with the awful weather. They're resilient and patient folks these (mainly) Japanese tourists.

Momijidani Park wasn't really a park as such it was more like a nature trail and included bridges, waterfalls and more deer. It winds it's way up through a wooded area up to the ropeway and Mt Misen climbing trail where we turned around as the weather defeated us this time! I'll get you need time Gadget!!! (I mean weather).

We decided to make a stop in Himeji on the way to Osaka as we'd read good things about the castle and the weather still wasn't particularly great. We boarded the ferry, back to the mainland, a little after 10am and arrived into Himeji via a local service back to Hiroshima and a Shinkansen to Himeji about 1pm.

We found a local pizza restaurant for lunch not too far from the station as it was just over 1km to the castle and the current queue estimate to enter the main keep was 2 hours!

When we arrived at the castle grounds there was indeed a lot of tourists even at 3pm. We admired the castle from just inside the walls (it's free to go into the outer part) and took a few photos before the heavens opened again!!! This time we'd just purchased our tickets, about £7 each, to enter the main keep. The website still seem to suggest a couple of hours wait....we got very wet but on the plus side it did only take about 45 minutes to get into the castle.

It was an impressive building and has survived wars, earthquakes and fires so is orginal* The main keep is a wooden structure that contain 6 stories but there isn't anything to see on the various level until you reach the 6th floor. This floor contains a small shrine and has a multitude of windows facing all directions allowing us to see the sights of Himeji city and the castle grounds.

After re-tracing our steps back to the station we got on a JR train bound for the third largest city in Japan, Osaka. We were staying in the Kita Ward so reasonably close to Osaka station (in fact only one stop on the JR loop train). It was one of those evening where you just want to get a takeaway and watch a movie but as we don't really know Japanese, didn't know of any local takeaways and we were in a new city we braved the outside once again!

We headed to the food and entertainment district of Kitashinchi and found a quante Japanese restaurant that had a fish I'd never tried before called bonito, tastes and looks a little like tuna. After food we searched for a bar near by and we found one called Captain Kangaroo... We had to go!! It was a fun bar serving over 50 beers (most bottled including Newcastle Brown Ale) and had more of a western vibe to it. 

Hiroshima & Miyajima

Hiroshima & Miyajima
We tried to book on a train to Hiroshima but sadly they were fully booked this meant trying the unreserved carriages. This wasn't such an easy task this time as both trains were really busy. However we did get seats together after a couple of stops and the time went quickly but people were standing the whole way down the train so getting off with big bags was challenging. We weng to thd main storage area for bags and a nice lady took us to another baggage area below the train station which was half the price.

We spent about 5hrs roaming around the key sights of Hiroshima. Firstly we took a walk down to the Peace Gardens this was our only little bit of black tourism. This is where we saw the only structure standing following the atomic bomb 70 years ago which was sad to see. We then took a look around the castle gardens and museum/tower which has some English translations which we haven't seen in other places and only costs ¥370 each so it's a bargain.

We then transferred over to Miyajima it's really easy on the ferry as it's included on the JR Pass and you get to see the floating gate on route. Although it was a cloudy day we got some good evening pictures as we arrived about 6:30pm and stayed over night so it wasn't too busy.

We had a beer at the brewery overlooking the gate and across the water to the mainland but be warned it was £15 for 2 large beers so it's not cheap but the beer was good, the crazy thing is that last orders are about 7pm as it closes by 8pm!

We then took a wonder to find food about 7:30pm, as it was a Sunday most restaurants were closed and those that are open stop serving really early about 8pm so make sure you get in somewhere in plenty of time whatever day you're staying. We both ended up having a curry dish one veggie and the other with scallops which is the islands speciality. Apparently the Japanese eat curry on a Sunday so we were just following tradition - we think!