The next day was planned already. It was a day trip to Hiroshima. After a two hour ride on the shinkansen, I had arrived in Hiroshima. The first and only sight of the day was Miyajima Island. Miyajima island is a 10 minute ferry ride from Miyajimaguchi. As it was a Saturday, the ferry can get fairly crowded.
When I had arrived in Miyajima, it was time to explore the island but not before having a bite to eat as I had not eaten breakfast. However, be careful eating in certain areas as the deer can become quite aggressive and try to take your food. Yes....there are deers running around in Miyajima Island.
Exploring the island is quite interesting as there are a wide array of shops around the island selling souvenirs and more food! If you ever have the chance to go to Miyajima Island you must try the oysters. They are cooked infront of you and are really yummy. I wish I could go there right now and have some,lol.
Before leaving Miyajima Island, I got to see what I came there for, the floating Torii. It is the main gate in Miyajima Island and is the gate on the first photo.
There was no time for rest on Sunday as I went to Kusatsu and met my friend there. Kusatsu is 20 minutes by train on the JR line from Kyoto incase you were all wondering where it was.
As the restaurant was not open yet, we decided to go to the shopping centre instead of hanging around the restaurant. The bus stop was interesting as it had mini rice fields behind it. I have never seen that before.
I was surprised how big the shopping centre was. It was bigger than any shopping centre I have seen in Sydney. I needed a handbag, so I bought a Liz Lisa handbag. Unfortunately only later I had realised that I cannot put too many of my books in it as it may get damaged quite easily.
The food court at Aeon Mall was an interesting experience. You order the food, eat it and then you give the trays back to where you had purchased your food from. I had ordered takoyaki and yakisoba while my friend had ordered takoyaki and okonomiyaki.
After lunch, it was time for more shopping as there were still many shops to be discovered. I had bought more clothes including a high waisted elasticated jean.
Before heading back to Osaka, my friend took me to see the cherry blossoms near the station. The cherry blossoms were beautiful and was told that they were late blooming this year.
Monday was a nice and relaxing day as I had stayed in Osaka instead of deciding to go on a day trip outside. I started off the day by exploring Osaka castle. I got a bit lost getting there though as I walked towards the other side of the river instead of turning right.
Before going on any further, I will tell you a little bit of history about Osaka Castle. Although a temple was built around the castle in 1496 by the Holy Priest Rennyo, it was not until 1583 when the construction of Osaka castle began by Hideyoshi Toyotomi who wanted to unify the country. By 1585, the main tower of Osaka Castle was constructed.
Going inside Osaka castle was an interesting experience as I did not visit castles on my first trip to Japan. There were a lot of stairs and unless you have an impairment, they prefer you take the stairs as I had noticed that the elevators had disabled people only signs on them. There was a lot of history behind it but as I was not allowed to take photos, I cannot show you what it looks like.
It was nice to do a bit more shopping after seeing Osaka Castle so I went to Namba but took a detour at Kuramon first to see what it was like. I have never seen so many markets in my life. It was like walking through a long street full of markets. Unfortunately as nothing tempted me there, I went to the Namba subway shopping centre. I had lunch there and then had a look around at some shops. I did not buy as much items there as I decided to save for other places. However I did buy a pair of pants though as I thought it looked rather unusual.
The relaxed pace of the trip was shortlived as I decided to go to Kyushu Island the next day to see Fukuoka. I have always been curious to see what Fukuoka was like as I have heard a lot about it in articles as well as songs.
I had arrived in Fukuoka station and had a look around the department store before heading to Tochoji temple. I had not really heard of this temple but decided to go there anyway to see what it was like.
Tochoji temple was smaller than the ones I have been to in Kyoto and Nara but beautiful nevertheless. Unfortunately similar to Osaka castle, I was not allowed to take photos inside the temple.
The temple was founded in 806 and is a temple of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Tochoji temple was founded by Kukai upon his return from China during the Tang dynasty. Prior to its present location, the temple was first located by the seashore.
It was time to head to Canal City after seeing Tochoji temple. Before having a look around Canal City, it was time to eat so I had udon and tempura. Unlike in many Japanese restaurants in Australia, the tempura here was self serve so you could have as much or as little tempura as you like. I cannot eat too much tempura so I just had a couple of pieces.
I felt like I had not seen Hiroshima thoroughly so I decided to head back to Hiroshima after seeing Canal City. I took the tram to the memorial peace park. The memorial park had several memorials to the atomic bombing in 1945.
The last day of my stay in the Kansai region included visiting Himeji castle and Arashiyama bamboo forest. I first visited Himeji castle as I had wanted to see that the most. I had a look around the outside of the castle before having a look at the room of the princess in waiting. Unfortunately the castle was under construction at the time of the visit so I could not see the main area of the castle. For some strange reason, there was also a building right next to the main area of the castle as well.
To end my last day in the Kansai region, I visited the bamboo forest in Arashiyama. It was beautiful but it was a lot smaller than I had expected. It was also very crowded but it was worth seeing. Although I would not likely visit the forest again, I would like to visit Arashiyama again as the town was really beautiful and had a unique character to it.
Stay tuned for the next part of my trip and hope you enjoyed my first blog entry ever.
Laura xx
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