Day 5 - Hiroshima - Dylan's Pastry Tour of Japan

Back by popular demand, Dylan's Pastry Tour of Japan!!!! Okay, trust me, after today you'll understand why, and yes, Frances, you were right. We took a lazy morning, a later-than-expected commute time to make it to Miyajima, then back home to check out Hiroshima castle before some unexpected night life!

So the walking yesterday must've done us in, because this morning we didn't wake to an alarm, rather waking up to whenever the sun shone in on us. At around 830 - 845 we woke up, to realise we hadn't figured out where the shower was in our accommodation. Typically this wouldn't be a problem, but because we were staying in a Ryokan, bathing wasn't just a daily habit, it was tradition. Adelaide and I donned our traditional Japanese robes and shoes, and tenderly walked around the location looking for the showers. We had quickly checked out the top floor before discovering it was downstairs. Because Addy had been here before, she went first, and assured me it was like a normal shower, just in a bigger room.

She wasn't wrong! The showering room in the Ryokan was a traditional small bath, with shower accompaniment for the initial wash. I couldn't figure out which of the provided bottles was shampoo so I went without (mistake). If I was having a bath I would've found it very refeshing; but as I was a little on edge about not being seen by others transitioning between the shower and my room awkwardly clad, I couldn't fully enjoy it.

After we'd recovered from the morning's experience, we left our accommodation early to head towards the River boat to Miyajima. When we arrived at the terminal located near the A-bomb dome, we found that we had been just minutes late of the last one. We bought some return tickets from Miyajima for both of us on a pleasure boat, for 7200 Yen (around $72) on the next ferry, but weren't worried as we'd planned to get brekkie instead. We doubled back through Hondori to Choco-Cro, a cafe which sold some pastries for breakfast. I had a Chocolate croissant and a egg-circle type thing, while Addy had a chocolate croissant and a sugary pastry (which I had to finish off), both washed down with black Ko-hii. See! Dylan's pastry tour of japan! 

Afterwards, we hit up the Konbini across the road for some more snacks, and returned to the Pier to eat them. I bought some melon bread and onigiri, while Addy bought a Pizza-man and a small can of Pringles. It was lovely sitting on the river, eating our food and just enjoying the time together. Soon the pleasure boat arrived, and we boarded.

We rode back up the river until there was a three way fork, with a cool 3 way intersection mounted on pillars above us, where we took a south turn back down the river, out into the bay. I understood why we didn't see many boats on the river at that point - most of the bridges were low. Even our pleasure boat seemed to skim underneath with inches to spare. The ride out to Miyajima was interesting, passing local fishing / schucking boats laiden with oysters or fish, and we got a better perspective on the surrounding hills. We were only able to stay on the actual deck of the boat until we hit the last bridge when the captain was able to open the throttle and we were escorted indoors, lest the wind commandier our beanies.

Selfie on the pleasure boat

Miyajima is just creeping around the coast on the bottom right

This gave us time to take some photos of the bay and zone out, and soon (under what felt like half an hour), arrived at Miyajima. The island was absolutely stunning, extremely picturesque, and inviting. Perhaps we had just played the weather right, but it was the ideal day you could easily lose yourself on it, and I think the pictures sum it up well - we took almost twice the amount we had taken the previous day.

Miyajima is home to deer, shrines, and lovely scenery. Soon after disembarking the boat, we realised it would've been beneficial to get a single ticket on the pleasure boat, then return via ferry and train so as not to be constrained by time. The kind operator on Miyajima refunded our money, so we were able to do so. We continued onto land were we followed the crowd around the coast to the big gates. We were near a tourist information map when we stumbled upon a deer, literally. A mob of tourists laughed at us when realised it dozing underneath the gazebo, but Adelaide took the opportunity for a picture. We followed the coast around, taking many photos and panoramas, before we ran into the shrine. Built and reconstructed many times over the last few years, we paid to walk through it. Much of the New Years celebrations were still up, and we were about to donate for our lucky charm when we realised they were all in Japanese.

Spotted: The first deer of the day!

Just chillin'

Courtesy of Adelaide

I couldn't help myself!

After leaving the temple, we had a quick look in a local souvenirs shop that we had spotted while eating our Pringles in the square, as we watched the elderly owner shoo a deer out of his place. We took an east route, through the village up into the hills. It got suddenly quiet once we were off the beaten track, but that was quite welcome. We continued past the last line of houses, and into the nature-areas, making our way to Miyajima Park. Being winter, the park was a little desolate and very quiet. We took our time on a bench to soak in the serenity, drink our Grape Fantas, and take some selfies near a waterfall.

Beautiful!

The iconic gate featuring deer (and some annoying kayaks)

Better than the photo we got someone to take

Looking up into the hills from the temple

 

Photobombed!

But seriously, an amazing view

 
To get back down we figured we'd follow the road around. It was a little oddly signed but we eventually made our way back into the village, where we hit the main tourist strip. I think I saw more tourists on this one street than I had on our entire trip thus far. We walked up and down, spotting a giant spoon and many a souvenir shops, as well as some Okonomiyaki restaruants, before stopping at one for lunch. I'm not sure if the other tourists were apprehensive about the local eats, but after we had stopped in this one, 4 other sets of them came in after us. The menu consisted of mainly seafood okonomiyaki, so we chose two plain ones with a locally brewed beer each, both were delicious (although I'd be hard pressed finding a Miyajima Beer at the local Dan Murphys I think).

One for Nathan

"I'll just have ONE more spoon of  ice cream please"

Exploded view of Okonomiyaki

Main drag

After unbuttoning our pants to make room for food, we rolled back along the coast towards the JR Ferries. We rode the ferry away from Miyajima, and jumped on a train on the mainland back towards Hiroshima. After nearly getting off a stop early, we swung by the JR ticket station to organise our Shinkansen to Kyoto for tomorrow.

Sayonara Miyajima!

We caught a tram to Hiroshima castle, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. Because we had missed most of the crowd, we were able to take our time around the exhibit. Hiroshima castle was completely destroyed in the bombing of 1945, so the castle had been a replica purposely rebuilt after the war, and was a museum inside - a perfectly good use of space. The views from the top weren't as cool as those from the Osaka castle, so we went back down and strolled through the grounds for a while.

One of the turrets on the wall; one of my favourite photos.

Addy's Castle

After it was announced it was close to closing time, we headed back through town towards our Ryokan where we went back to Choc-Cro, and saw the same staff as we had this morning, and bought some more pastries and Japanese parfaits. We had a quick talk to them before we sat down to enjoy our afternoon tea, before heading back to our Ryokan for a few hours to plan our day tomorrow.

Just a snack

With our stomachs settled, we headed out to have Mos Burger for dinner, before heading to Hon-dori again to find an Australian pub we'd googled. We had some difficulty finding the place as we'd made a mistake on the address, so we had to return to outside the Ryokan to get Wifi signal and double check before we realised we almost had the right address, just it was a block over and down the other end of the street. We returned to the right address and climbed up four flights of stairs to find it tucked away at the top.

The Southern Cross bar/pub was run by an Australian and a Kiwi. It was a quiet night when we arrived at 8.30pm, and only the Kiwi owner (didn't catch his name in the end) was there, serving a Brit and a Yank, and they quickly left after we arrived because they had some ping pong to play (apparently the pome was really good). We stayed there chatting with the bartender until 1030, and had few drinks. Adelaide was partial to the cocktail list, while I had some beer (an Asahi and a boutique Marlborough region beer), followed up with a spirit and cokes. At 930 we realised the Ryokan might lock up later at night so we finished up and headed home, very merry.

We made it back with plenty of time to spare, as the owners will still up watching TV. Addy fell asleep while I attempted to write all of this post, and only got about half way before following suit.

Tomorrow would bring the transit to Kyoto. Until then, Goodnight!