Today was a brilliant day.
This morning we got up with the sun at 6:30am because we had tickets for the 8:30am Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. Breakfast consisted of weird things we picked from a bakery at Kyoto station – mine was like an omelette in a croissant and a delicious chocolate bun, B had something similar but his chocolate thing had custard in the middle. He loves the bakeries.
We caught the Nozomi super express out of Kyoto which only has 4 stops on the way to Hiroshima and takes 96 minutes. Tickets each way are about $100 but that includes a reserved seat (in a no smoking carriage….phew) and it is on the fastest train which goes MORE THAN 300km per hour! I think $100 is pretty reasonable to travel over 400km in distance within 1.5hrs.
The biggest issue on the trains (and in the train stations) for me is the prevalence of squat toilets. I hate them. I have the double whammy of no balance and always being in leggings/boots which make it super awake are to use the damn things! I’ve taken to using the disabled toilets in the stations….I always check if someone else is waiting first and I’m always super quick but I feel a little guilty. Considering that the “western” toilets here have heated seats and bidets I’ve been really surprised at the fact so many places we go have only squat toilets. Sometimes there will be a mix (15 squat toilets, one Western) and the Japanese ladies always laugh at me when I let them go in front because I’m waiting for the western toilet. Pretty sure the squat toilet is a cultural experience I’ll continue to avoid wherever possible.
Anyway, enough ranting about Japanese public toilets….back to my amazing day.
We got into Hiroshima at 10:06am and hopped on a tram to go to the Genbaku Dome-mae, also known as the atomic bomb dome.
From here we walked down to the river and decided to catch a private ferry out to Miyajima which is one of Japan’s three most scenic spots. I was pretty impressed B volunteered for the boat ride since he gets pukey on boats but he did fine 🙂 it was calm most of the way anyway. On the way to the boat, some Japanese uni students used signs in English to ask if we would participate in a comparative study – how many soybeans can a person not raised with chopstick use move from one plate to another in 2mins? We both said yes (what a laugh, plus you know, we are both slightly competitive) but then B had to say no as they had to film it, I still did it though! I thought it was a bit unfair as the chopsticks were plastic and those little beans were slippery suckers but I managed to move 4 and the Japanese guy I competed against only got 11. I thought I represented chopstick newbies relatively well!
Miyajima is an island famous for the Itsukushima shrine, set out in the water. You can see it in the photos here – the big red/orange gate thing. As it was low tide we got some pretty awesome shots.
Then I decided we were going to climb up to the rope way and go on the cable cars right to the top of the island (the peak we were aiming for was mount misen). So. Many. Stairs. It was worth it though, I can see how they get their world heritage site listing and the tag of “one of three most scenic views in Japan”.
After the trip back down in the cable cars, and down all the damn steps, we went back to the ferry terminal and came back to the dome site (which took about 45mins on the boat) where we spent the rest of the day exploring the Peace Memorial Park area and the memorial museum. It was a very moving experience for me as someone who has taught history to high school students before.
It’s now 6:20pm and we just hopped back on the Nozomi train to head back into Kyoto. I have my e-reader and B has his very awesome noise cancelling headphones that I’m jealous of because the speed of the train makes my ears ring and pop. We also both just ate our entire body weight in pastry (never leave a boy with a weakness for bakery food alone in a bakery…) so I think by the time we get in, it will be bed time. A sleep in tomorrow then off to Tokyo for our last few days.
Note: I’m deliberately not thinking about lugging all my luggage on multiple trains into Tokyo. Waaaaah. DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL.
Also – I have a bruise from where a deer bit me hahaha
Mel's Travel Blog 