So we just checked out of the hotel in Shimonoseki.
This place is a dive. Nothin worth seeing.
The Hotel`s breakfast was the best part, an enormous buffet.
We`re on our way to the ferry port now and will be on the boat for the next 27 hours so you won`t hear from us until then.
Next time we write it will be from China.
If they haven`t done something like the place in Nagoya.
So we are just after finishing our first day of sightseeing in Hiroshima-Ken.
Last night I finished off at saying we went to Himeji.
Himeji is one of the many many UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan. They have loads of them, the temples in Nikko for example were all heritage sites.
Himeji however really deserves it. Ever want to play “forts” when you were younger or pretend you had this castle in your mind that you were king of? Maybe it was just my overactive imagination then.
However this was the type of castle you would have wanted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_castle
The place is absolutely breath taking. The castle dominates the city and the views are really something else, you can see this from the local train station. They are very proud of their history in Japan and have rebuilt any of these sites that have been damaged in the past. The unique thing about Himeji is that it is in it`s original state. As a result it has only been touched up to clean and keep in good nick. Very much worth the visit. As usual pics to follow, we keep hitting the Internet too late to do anything really useful so will prob just throw all of the photos up together at some point, it is 3 am here and I have to get up by 10am to check out by 11am. Oh the joy.
Anyway that was yesterday for the most part, we left the hotel in the morning, went to Himeji and got to Hiroshima in the evening.
Most people have this idea of Hiroshima and Nagasaki being bombed out shells but they really aren`t. Well Hiroshima anyway.
They Japanese are very proud people and as a result they rebuilt the city quite quickly and have made it into a vibrant international and culturally minded place.
The place also revolves around peace etc, not surprising really when you think as to why.
The main street for example is called Peace Boulevard for example and there are quite a few memorials and museums to the A-Bomb strike by te Yanks.
Today however we didn`t do Hiroshima, that is for tomorrow. We instead went to Miyajima. This is a small island that is mainly known for it`s shrines and sites, which are all on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Yeah see they are everywhere. Pretty much the whole island is a World Heritage sanctuary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyajima
Is good link to start off with. It is one of the most photographed sights and this gates or Torii as they are called here is the reason for it.
At high tide the sight is really something else, the Torii looks like it is floating in the water.
Once again many pics to follow, I tried to get a few in time lapse with the setting sun but it got messed up halfway because of a deer.
Yeah a deer came along and pulled a map out of my pocket casing me to move and also the camera. It was quite funny to watch a deer chew away of the map, I have kept it as a keepsake for now. This place was the same as Nara, deer everywhere. Although most signs said they were wild they didn`t seem it to us, they mainly just wanted us to feed them.
Besides gawking at this gate and looking for photo anoraks we also saw a five storied pagoda, some unfinished temple and another shrine area full of school kids.
You can see we are getting all temple`d out at this stage, they are a mixture of Buddhist and Shinto shrine most quite cool, but also many are very similar.
After the temples we went up the hill to hop on a “ropeway” again, yeah a cable car. After two separate journeys in them we got to a height of about 420m, with an additional hike we eventually got to the top of Mt Misen at 530m. This included a hike down the side of the mountain we were on into a valley and back up to the top of Mt Misen. Very idyllic and offered some pretty cool scenes. However we were in a rush, the cable cars stopped at 5:30pm sharp, in this country that means exactly on time.
As a result we were in quite the rush and didn’t get much time to stop. The run back down to get ourselves back in time for the car down, 7 minutes to spare, was good for us. Phil however may disagree. If you read the post about trains then you know why we say we had 7 minutes left. You get in the rhythm of being very precise with your timing. It suits Phil very well as you can imagine.
We then trekked it back down for the time lapse pictures I mentioned of the sunset earlier.
Hopped back on the Ferry and headed home.
We just got back from a night out and it was crap but we did have some Yakitori.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitori
It really is awesome.
Anyway tomorrow is Hiroshima city itself, the war memorial stuff is meant to be very heavy and can be quite depressing. Think Auschwitz for those who were there.
Then we are on to the port of Shimonoseki for our last night in Japan. We hop on the boat on the morning of the 17th and then land near in the afternoon of the 18th.
We are going to try and stock up on food before we leave, we don`t know what crazy food we are going to get served on that boat.
Anyway we will be trying Fugu in Shimonoseki so we will try and find an Internet cafe to let you know how it is!
Till then
So last time I made any kind of post it was short and rushed.
Here is a bit of a catch up to let you know what we have been up to etc.
So we landed in Tokyo on the 2nd of May, stayed in the Shinagawa Prince hotel.
It`s a fairly basic business hotel, but it was the best accommodation we could get in Tokyo.
This was because the first week we were here it was golden week and accommodation was hard to come by.
The next night was spent in a capsule hotel, pretty fun and interesting to do, I was pretty cramped though.
We took one night in a regular hostel then in an area an of Tokyo called Asakusa.
Was pretty boring, we went to Nagoya then the next day. We were meant to use this day to go Kamakura but slept in.
The next two nights were spent in Nagoya, the first one left us pretty freaked out as we went out for beers that night.
We were in the “nightclub district” in Nagoya and got mobbed by people offering “massauges”. Otherwise we were just being ignored. As I said the whole problem with being foreign here is that they ahve the main idea of you being a yank. The American soldiers stationed in bases all over this country have caused many problems and are just not welcome.
That and the fact that most Japanes do not speak English they dont want people in their establishments who dont speak Japanese.
The second day in Nagoya however was much better, we went to the Toyota factory and it was class. We arrived and were told to take a tour around the public area and half an hour later we would be leaving on our organised tour. They had all of the areas that Toyota was working on with some interactive displays and showing company history details etc. I never knew they owned Daihatsu.
They then had the coolest part of our unguided tour, they brought out a “partner robot” one which assists humans. They set this up with a trumpet and got it to play music. I have a short video which we will put up once we have the full hang of this blog theme, just got the gallery working the other day. Anyone familiar with the trumpet or trying to play onw will know how tricky it is, you need to chang you whole mouth shape and how hard you blow and many many other tricky things for humans, let alone making a robot do it. It was really cool to see, we didn`t however see the “orchestra that they have of multiple robots, that would cool.
The next thing they rolled out was the i-unit
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/04/1203_1e.html
and
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/toyoto-ifoot-and-iunit-026866.php
This thing was straight out of a sci fi movie and was fantastic. The lady who was demoing it activated it with her fingerprint then drove it around the show room. Really was awe inspiring. once again video to follow.
We left Nagoya the nex day, the place we stayed was as previosuly mentioned, Ryokan Meiryu. Nice clean and very friendly but otherwise unimpressive. Than again so was Nagoya so myeah.
We went on to Kyoto to our guesthouse there. There was however an issue with getting there properly. We had gotten a train to Shijo, which was where the map said we should go. They didnt however say that there were two Shijos in Kyoto, quite annoying. As a result it took us a little longer to get there but we did in the end.
Phil made a small reference to this place already but it is worht mentioning again. We spent three nights there and kinda wish we spent more. The first night after our walkabout we had dinner with the owner, Yashi and the other guests. Great way ti get t know the guests and we had a good laugh. trading stories and making recommendations. That night we went out for drinks after with the two other guests. Ended up in some little Reggae dive in Kyoto because the English guy we were with couldnt find the good place he had been the night before. Needless to say that ended up being a waste of time and we ended up giving up around some stupid hour. Luckily the hostel was close by so we could walk home.
We did a bit of a look around Kyoto that day and hit up one of the castles, pretty cool but the audio guide tour thing that we rented was awful shit, I strongly recommend you keep you 500 Yen for something more useful.
The next day we did the Lonely Planet walk around Kyoto in the lashing rain, it really dulled the effect. We were not really impressed that much at all by “one of the most beautiful cities in all of Asia”. We put this down to the rain and the getting lost on the way, which we put down to the rain.
That night we did similar but the english guy went home. In his stead we got english, welsh australian and french girls. Four in total. We all had dinner, drinks and Yashi brought out his sake. This is not like the crap you have in Ireland. This was actually tasty and everyone enjoyed it. After that a friend of Yashi`s brought us to the local Irish bar where she used to work. There is the dosgiest sign outside, think large piece of cardboard with green marker in the window. We thought it was a bunch of students messing but it was n actual bar. Anyway at this place we had a great night, ahich culminated in us making a dance floor for some Daft Punk after myself and Phil bought them a round of shots of Poteen. This stuff was 90% vol and could have been used as an industrial cleaner. Everyone but Yashi nearly got sick. instead he took all of what we didn`t drink, most of it all really, and sat there sipping it.
Bizarre, but it worked for him.
Anyway the next day we went to Nara and well we were a bit underwhelmed really. It was the first capital of Japan but was not really much to shout about. In fact I am trying to think of what was worth it there and I`m coming up blank. That night needless to say was taken a bt easier by everyone. We got back after dinner and most were just chilling out in the dining area. We took an early night and got prepped for the next trip which was to Osaka the next morning.
In Osaka we met Tomo, one of Phils classmates who lives in Osaka, he gave us a fantastic tour around Osaka and we were able to fit everything in that we and he wanted.
The Osaka Castle, the open roof skytower. Den Den town (electronics area of Osaka) and America Town, we ahd to after The Simpsons did, and walked through a very crazy and huge shopping district. We also stopped into their time square area which was smaller but more compact and just as much neon. We sampled the local food specialities, Okanimyaki and Takoyaki. Headed back to the hostel and really just grabbed sleep. The day was very busy and we were on the go the whole time. Thanks to Tomo we made it to all the places we wanted and needed to see.
Yesterday was Kobe and Arima. They will rack up as the most expensive places, for accommodation and other food and travel. The hotel was available and cheap with a good Onsen so we booked there. We didn`t know however that they are like a Ryanair airport, in the middle of nowhere. The trains cost us an arm and a leg to get there and back, we figure about 2000Yen return per person to get anywhere.
Then there was the food cost, Kobe is famous for this thing called Kobe beef, so we had some.
When I say some I should be more specific and save the chefs special, 250g sirloin.
To put it simply this stuff is awesome. The best steak I have ever and probably will ever have.
Phil has a mountain of shots we will get at later and show you but the picture cant show the taste which I reiterate, was awesome. We will put up a better post just about this with photos later.
Here is a wiki link for the moment, the marbling you see is waht gives it the fantastic taste and huge price.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef
We also did a cable car and ropeway, neither of which are what they sound to be.
The roapway was a cable car, and the cable car was train on a pulley system. The “roapway” was cool for the views but the “cable car” was pretty crap.
Anyway that brings us to today, we haven`t gone anywhere in Hiroshima yet but instead spent the best part of the day at Himeji castle.
I@ll have to give an update of this and Hirshima tomorrow as the time is now running out.
See ya
