By this Author: ChristieA

Today we took a day trip to Nara & crossed off some Unesco sites plus the Big Buddha was on our want to see list. We managed to see 6 out of 8 sites before we ran out of time. So to be brief this was our day

Kohfukuji Temple

Kasuga Yaisha Shrine

Todaiji Temple

Yakushiji Temple

Toshodaiji Temple (we were too late to see in this one bit we still got a look at the outside)

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We walked to the first few temples (yes we’ve well & truly done our steps for today) and you go through the deer park. The deer just roam the open spaces, people feed them, pat them, take stupid selfies......

Tomorrow we are having a proper travel day something like 5.5 hours train travel so I don’t think there will be a blog entry.

Sorry I bet your now singing it like I was after I heard some kid singing it this morning. The weather forecast wasn’t going to be in our favour so we opted to visit the Osaka Aquarium. It was pretty good we saw puffins, penguins having an ice bath, dolphins playing, the whale sharks surveying there tank, little schools of fish, patted a shark & sting ray (I think I can still feel that horrible jelly like skin), I could go on but I’ll let you have a look at these pictures.

Leaving the aquarium the weather wasn’t too bad the odd spot of rain so we jumped on the largest Ferris wheel, in 1997 it was the tallest but has since been over taken. At 112.5m it was enough for me, I was fine until we were about 3/4s of the way up and then it sunk in how high we were but it was ok.

Since we had seen a few other castles we thought we better get a look at the Osaka Castle, we opted not to go in.

Leaving the castle we were stopped by two nervous school girls asking if they could interview us, they asked us a couple of questions, where are you from, favourite food & sport, etc. when done they gave us a nice certificate to say thank you.

We thought we could fit in the Shitenno-ji Temple but they must have closed before we got there, we could still see the temple grounds just not inside.

So when you travel Shinkansen you don’t really get any travel days to chill & catch up since it’s so fast. On one trip we went up a little rise and I thought we were taking off.

Today the Shinkansen brought us to Osaka where we will spend the next few days, we arrived around midday but weren’t offered early check in so we ditched our bags to explore our new neighbourhood. We stumbled across a small restaurant selling Chinese, no English menu but the lady was so helpful & spoke enough English (honestly some of these little 6 table places hidden where the locals know where to find them have been the best meals). I had what I think was the best fried rice I’ve had in a long time, even ate it with chopsticks, I must have done well cause I think the lady complimented me on it. We did eventually get to check in time and were thankful for a few hours chilling.

One thing we thought we should try in Osaka is Tako-yaki or as we refer to them octopus balls. They are a doughy dumpling stuffed with octopus (I pulled mine out I find octopus here to be like eating rubber) that are grilled in special made moulds. They are molten hot in the centre & a little gooey but you they were kinda alight.

We brought a Japanese gin to try only to find they don’t actually have tonic here, there’s an ingredient in there that they don’t like yet you can buy a premix....go figure. After googling we found what we thought was tonic but it’s not the same.

This is the view from our hotel, probably the only night we’ve seen the sunset we’re usually crashed out exhausted by then.

I have a gripe with people staying in hostels, I get that you come in late that’s fine but seriously do you need to go through every plastic bag in your bag......numerous times???? Anyway whinge over this has been our home for the past few nights

Since everyone else was up early in the dorm we headed off to Miyajima, took a street car & the ferry to get there and the weather well it was overcast and we did have some light rain but it didn’t stop us. We roamed the streets for a while, so many souvenir shops we soon got sick of them and the deer roaming the island well they just blended in after a while.

We braved the crowds (mostly tour groups) and walked around The Itsukushima shrine as the tide started to go out.

And why does anyone go to Miyajima....to see the O-Torii Gate of course, we were there long enough to see it before & after the tide went out. Sadly it really does look like it’s in a dire need of a good paint job but this is one of my favourite photos, you can see the size of it with the people around.

There was also the Daigan-Ji temple nearby we took a quick look at.

It felt like we were doing the hike but instead it was only a stroll to the ropeway, there was a sign that said 10mins, 7 if you run a little. Pretty sure distance is one of those things lost in translation. There’s two different cable cars that take you to the Shishiiwa observatory and of course this is when it decides to throw down some light rain, when we’re on top of a mountain. Since the views weren’t great we opted not to summit Mt Misen.

Now this is the point we start to get ‘hangry’ and we’ll we had been told to try the oysters, it’s what there known for and well when in Rome. I tried an oyster and well wasn’t that keen on it but still I ate it pretty sure the fact it was grilled & had been flavoured with sake helped hahaha

Another thing they are known for on Miyajima is Momiji Manjyu I guess it’s a biscuit with some kind of filling, well I had been told to try the deep fried version. So that’s a sponge cake with some filling (the pig I am tried two custard & cheese both great) then dipped in batter & deep fried.

Last night after been inspired all day I attempted another paper crane (don’t ask about my one the night before it was crane like that’s about it) to leave to join the thousands for the next peace Memorial Day in August.

Today we explored the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, the place is quiet and a lot of memorials to see. My favourite of course the children’s memorial with its beautiful gold crane, surrounded by paper cranes and pictures made of cranes. We also went to the museum, that’s definitely a must do, they’ve done a really good job with the displays. I enjoyed the one about Sadako but they also had a special displays showing drawings by people showing there memories of the atom bomb, they were heart wrenching and worse to me than the photos. Anyway take a moment to think of the victims as you have a look at these photos.

We did stumble across a little shrine so we poked our heads in and glad a look.

Lucky Hiroshima is fairly flat because we’ve walk a long way today some 21,000+ steps but that was because we decided to see the Shukkeien-en Garden. Again an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city outside it’s walls.