A bit of an unexpectedly stressful day today in a few ways. Firstly my flu/chest infection/god knows what that I’ve had for a bit has developed into more consistent coughing and a bit of light headed ness (I probably ought to see a doctor when I get home). Secondly it was torrential today in Hiroshima. Yesterday I made the when it rains, it pours joke regarding my newfound enjoyment of onsen. Today it was some of the worst weather I have ever been outside in (that’s and odd sentence). As such we had to amend our plans a little bit and spent less time exploring the Peace Park than I would have liked and had to skip the Shikkuen Gardens. Finally, due to the imminent arrival of ‘super typhoon’ Neoguri (which we only found out about today), we made the snap decision to cancel our trip to Takayama. I am bitterly disappointed about that as I was very much looking forward to seeing Takayama and Shirakawa-Go but in the end it seemed like the more sensible decision to amend our plans and return instead to Tokyo where the effects of the typhoon (I keep going to instinctively call it a cyclone) are supposed to be a bit less and where there are more inside alternatives available. From the looks of the weather report our whole time in Takayama on Thursday would have been a forced retreat inside anyway so I think the right decision was made given the information. Gives me another excuse to come back to Japan one day anyway.
Last night we had our ryokan meal which was nice and did a boat tour to the Itsukushima Shrine which was beautiful. Couldn’t really capture it with any justice in the pictures I’ve taken.
In the morning we checked out and set out for Hiroshima. When we got off the tram at the A-bomb dome I foolishly remarked: “the weather is not that bad”, at which point the weather gods turned on me (which also happened because after the first week I thought how lucky we’d been with the weather – cue super typhoon). We visited the Hiroshima Peace Park and the museum. I didn’t take a lot of pictures here because it wouldn’t have felt respectful. The museum was outstanding in terms of the message of peace and nuclear disarmament it is trying to get across and the marvelous way it presents the message to the public.
Next we took a taxi (see: weather) to Hiroshima Castle. I love a good castle, even if it is a reconstruction. However the weather and weather reports had put a bit of a dampener (Ha!) on how I was feeling so we didn’t spend a great deal of time there. We spent just enough time though for me to make a fool of myself.
Lunch time. Having heard about Okinomyakai, and hearing that it’s a specialty in Hiroshima, we went to Okinomimura to try some. I quite liked mine although not quite as much as I thought I might. It was kind of like a pancake meets kebab with a lot of cabbage, spring onions and noodles thrown in for good measure. It was a fun lunchtime though.
Back on the train the Kyoto where Australia’s deadliest predators struck. No, not the Great White Shark, or the Redback Spider, or the Brown Snake, but the Great (White) Idiotic Tourists. In Japan, things are quite orderly. Everything runs on time, people queue up. It works. People don’t loudly barge in front of a queue, hold everybody up trying to get on the train, run about the carriage trying to find your assigned seat and then carry on with conversations in a completely silent carriage. The gift of the Great White Idiotic Tourist though is that it can achieve all of these marvelous feats and more!
Back to Kyoto for an easy afternoon of shopping near the hotel and a friggen awesome Japanese hamburger steak dinner (if you come to Japan, Japanese hamburger steaks are a must) and now I’m trying to recover health wise and plan around the super typhoon and our amended accommodation and itinerary. Sucks to have to change it but you gotta roll with the punches, or something like that. Hopefully I can keep this blog varied. With the weather, who knows what we’ll get up to. I’m sure we will find something.
Moshi Moshi! Daniel Desu. 