Hotel Active! Hiroshima

After a quick morning saunter through takayama's morning market to pick up supplies, most of the day was spent heading south-westerly towards one of Japan's more well known cities, even if it's not for the best reason. Hiroshima is actually a very developed hub, and as we headed to our hotel, I once again noticed a large number of restaurants, shops and department stores that I had suspected were unique to Tokyo. Not so. That night we headed to the large building ...

... I hate people who think everyone wants to listen to them play guitar). We called this guy Chuck for a while and eventually he became known as Biff.

Also, there is magazines all round town that show “Lady's” bars and “Guy's” bars. Basically hostess bars for guys and girls. For some reason I picked up this magazine and put it in my back pocket. We somehow bumped into Biff at a bar trying to pick up a couple of pretty local girls using magic tricks. We ...

... slowly and surely returning to Japanese shores. We knew that Hiroshima would be a special port for us because of its history. We arose early to watch as the White Lady made her way into the harbor of Hiroshima. It is an old natural harbor that has been important to the Japanese since they began sending and receiving ships from all parts of the world. As we moved into the vicinity of the harbor, we could see in the early morning light many small islands and numerous ...

... from the Edo period. It feels like your in a movie set or have actually stepped back in time. Ammmaaah-zing.

There were also these floats that they only take out once a year for the town's annual parade. They are three-hundred years old and still absolutely beautiful. Apparently, if they were to completely recreate them today they would cost about four-million US dollars. Which is probably why they just held on to them.

As I speak, however, We are in ...

... a fun one.

However, given that Rachael will no doubt recount the entire last few days in detail, I'll refrain from babbling endlessly too much and try to keep this paragraph to the good stuff. First and foremost, snow is probably my most favorite thing ever. After a botched attempt to visit Kanazawa thanks in part to both confusing Shinkansen terminals and rushed planning, the trip to Takayama was particularly refreshing. The two hour train ride ...

Its four days now until I return home for one day under a year! I can't wait! I've busied myself thinking about things I am looking forward to and managed a mental list of over 70 things. Here's a very few of my entries: 1. Seeing my friends and family 2. Having a proper English roast (this is a hint, Mum and Dad!) 3. Being able to borrow books from the library again 4. Having choices of which clothes to wear 5. Seeing the pets ...

... attraction is the massive Tori gate which is off shore. Unfortunately, during the day, when the tide's out, it's usually covered in mud. I'm told that when the tides in it's even more beautiful. On our way to the gate, while walking through the shrine to get there, we were lucky to witness a traditional shinto wedding. Again, that was my mum happy. After the shrine we found a restaurant that had a ...

... br>
Itsukushima, or Miyajima, is another World Heritage Site. It is famous for the Red Torii Gate in the sea, which was chosen as one of the three best views of Japan. I didn't know why there were some deer in front of the ferry port. Anyway, the red main building was beautiful with a performance stage, which reminds Japanese of a period drama scene. The island is also famous for rice paddle and there was a large rice paddle ...