Day 20: Hiroshima: Miyajima, the Deer Island, and Christmas Lights

Today we had the most amazing day on a small island off the coast of Hiroshima called Itsukushima. Historically home to a recluse monk seeking enlightenment, the island was full of historic reminders of this amazing time, and deer.

First up, straight off the ferry, there were deer everywhere, and people crowding them for photos. In reality, I think the deer just wanted food, but Betty (my favourite deer) clearly wanted to be my friend.

People are told not to feed the deer outside of this one area, because they are wild animals, and there have been problems with them eating rubbish and getting really sick. I wrestled half a wrapper out of one deer's mouth, but it's obvious they are getting places they shouldn't.

The island is possibly most famous for a huge shrine built off the coast of the island. The shrine, along with the temples around it have water come right up to the edges of them, but never to them. The main shrine appears to almost float in the water, and was amazing to see both during the day and at night.

We were lucky to get there at one stage during the day at low tide, and were able to go right up to it and touch it.

Aside from the deer, the island had a heap of amazing attractions, we spent half the day just wandering around the mountain, with natural creeks and rivers. There is also a massive cable car that takes you to a lookout near the top of the mountain, which takes almost an hour. Mt Misen is over 500m tall.

The view was spectacular in all directions. Unfortunately this wasn't the summit though, and we had to climb an additional 200m to reach it, which was hard work, but totally worth it for the shrines and monuments there.

Another of the big attractions of the island is of course the temple built by the monk who sought enlightenment there. He lived on the island in the 800s, and lit a fire which has been burning for over 1200 years since then. The Misen Hondo Hall is where he spent 100 days meditating, and the Reikado Hall houses the eternal flame.

A special note also has to be given to the street food, which I didn't get a photo of, because I was too busy enjoying it all.

Last night we caught up with a friend we met in Tokyo, and she told us about a street set up in Hiroshima with an amazing light display. It was incredible. 5 blocks on both sides of the road, covered in light displays!

The street we went for dinner also had a pet turtle out the front of one of the restaurants. (Don't worry, we asked, and he was a friend, not food!!)

Tomorrow, Osaka! xx

Day 19: Hiroshima: Hiroshima Castle and Shukkei-en Garden

Today was yet another quiet day - the last until we leave Japan, so we decided to do some walking and see some of the other sights Hiroshima has to offer.

We headed to Hiroshima Castle which was rebuilt in the 1950s after being destroyed in the war. It is mostly a museum now, but the view from the top was great, and the whole area has a beautiful feel to it.

After the castle, we headed to Shikkei-en, a historical garden preserved for centuries through earthquakes, fires and bombs.

Like a lot of Japanese gardens, everything in this garden was meticulously planned and maintained. The layout is meant to signify the Hiroshima, and greater Japanese landscape, with islands throughout, and a peak to represent Mt Fuji.

The wildlife there was also pretty amazing, with hundreds of Koi fish desperate for some fish food, birds, turtles and even a few cats all around the place.

It was amazingly peaceful, and despite not being a huge area, took us a few hours to explore.

The carp were incredibly loud eaters. If I can upload it, I may put up a video of the feeding frenzy we created with just a handful of pellets.

Tomorrow, deer island!! xx

Day 18: Hiroshima: A Day Trip to Iwakuni

Iwakuni is a small, mainly fishing and petroleum town these days, but historically, was one of the main castle towns, founded by a banished lord who had supported a defeated shogun.Remnants of the town's history can still be seen, and today we left Hiroshima and traveled about an hour west. 

We spent the early parts of the afternoon wandering around the modernised parts of the town, just looking at the large river flowing through the town, eating McFlurry's (which are still mixed in Japan) until we found a small sports bar called "Poems" where we had some cheap drinks, free popcorn and a great chat with the sole barman.

Eventually we headed to the day's main attraction - the castle built by the lord, and a huge bridge, Kintai Bridge.

It was freezing cold, but we bore the elements and saw some huge Koi fish, and stayed late enough to see the bridge lit up from all sides.

For some reason, there were a heap of cats in the area, and I have no idea why.

Tomorrow, staying local in Hiroshima xx

Day 17: Hiroshima: Peace Memorial and Wandering Around

Hiroshima is known for one thing above most others - being the first place to ever have a nuclear bomb dropped on it.

Today we visited the memorial and park built near the site of the attack. Instead of being hate-filled, or fear-mongering, the whole place is about peace for all of mankind.

It was a very sobering and eye-opening experience, and while we didn't take any photos from inside the museum itself, I think it was a good place to go. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, as it was very confronting, but the whole message of peace was quite lovely.

There were also millions of paper cranes made by people from all over the world for the Children's Monument, built in part for the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who passed away from leukemia when she was 12, almost 10 years after the bomb was dropped. It was probably her story that was the saddest to read about in the museum. It was really lovely to see all the beauty that came from her spirit.

After the memorial and park, we weren't in much of a mood to do anything else, so we just wandered around Hiroshima.

We had a delicious sundae, and stumbled upon a kids dance competition. They were all incredibly in sync, given some of them looked like they may not even have started school yet!

We also found some TimTams that I haven't even seen in Australia!!

Tomorrow, a day trip! xx

Day 16: Hiroshima: CHRISTMAS

For some weird reason, in the 70s, KFC decided that the people of Japan needed to celebrate Christmas - not the gift-giving, tree-putting kind of Christmas, the type with fried chicken.

Even to this day, there have been signs everywhere advertising to order your Christmas Chicken, so we, being the total rip-off tourists we are obviously got fried chicken for our Christmas dinner.

And it was delicious.

It seems like the whole of Japan quite likes the idea of Christmas though, as our hostel hosted  a Christmas Party for us last night complete with drinks, cake and costumes... Even the 7/11 workers dressed up for it!!

After lunch, we bought some movie tickets and then just chilled on the rooftop at our accommodation with some drinks. It was really chill, and kinda nice to just sit back and listen to some carols.

We also bought tickets to see the new Star Wars (and I know Sean's dad reads my blog, so I'm really sorry Sean went without you!!)

The movie was awesome btw, but the apple Sean had before it was arguably more impressive.

Tomorrow, Peace Memorials xx

Day 15: Hiroshima: Delayed Trains

So, we are finally in Hiroshima, and it is lovely. But it was not without it's stresses and troubles.

What should have been a 4 hour trip turned into a 10 hour trip!! Our initial train was delayed by 95 minutes which steamrolled, throwing the whole day out of time!

We at least got to see some good sights through the east coast of Japan... and Hiroshima looks good from the 15 minutes we've seen on it...

Tonight, a hostel Christmas Party.

Tomorrow, CHRISTMAS CHICKEN!!!! xx

Day 14: Kyoto: Tea Ceremonies and Netflix

Today was our last day in Kyoto, and instead of going on a day trip like we planned, we spent the rainy morning catching up on TV shows in bed. Sean didn't even wake up until around 11, so I just chilled on the top bunk with my laptop. It was great.

After stopping in for a quick lunch at "Pooh's..?" (yes, that's the real name of a cafe) we walked over to Chion-in, the biggest buddhist temple in Japan. The front gate alone was about 6 stories high!!

Inside was a little underwhelming though as the whole main temple is being renovated, and is currently under a gigantic shed until 2019. 

There were some beautiful things inside though, and we had a good time dodging the rain under century old roofs.

After the temple, we went to a traditional tea ceremony where they taught us how to properly drink and prepare Japanese powdered green tea (Matcha).

The man who first introduced some history about the ceremony was 16th generation tea ceremony host - over 300 years of family heritage, all in tea!

The young girl who ran the ceremony was amazingly graceful and well-presented, and it was clear that she had years of experience under her belt already, with precise movements, all with particular meaning behind them.

After she made tea, I was lucky enough to be the guest of honor, and was asked to drink the tea she had made, and was deemed the head of the group. We were then asked to prepare our own tea - a skill I will definitely take home with me!

Tomorrow - Hiroshima xx

Day 13: Kyoto: Gold Temples, Zen Gardens, and Lots of Toriis

Today we got up nice and early to try and beat the Kyoto tourist rush we've noticed. 

Despite getting there before it even opened, we still had a couple of tour groups pull up as we went into the first stop for the day. Luckily they were monks and fairly quiet though! (Even if they did all appear to be taking their new profile pictures in the gardens on their iPhone 6s)

The Ryoan-ji zen gardens were beautiful. At first the rock garden seemed to be smaller than I pictured, but as we sat there, cross legged next to dozens of monks, it became a really peaceful, lovely place.

I could have sat there for hours if not for the hoards of American and Chinese tourists who slowly flowed in, gossiping and chatting.

On the way out though, there was a small basin (a tsukubai) which is common near temples for washing your hands and mouth before entering a holy place, with an inscription further telling of the buddhist metality, "I learn only to be satisfied" which felt completely at place there.

After the zen garden, we hurried over to another famous temple, Kinkaku-ji temple - the completely gold one.

It was already teeming with other tourists, and it's odd how so many people have such a herd mentality. Some of the buildings people were crowding were of no real significance, while other buildings which were centuries old had no one looking at them.

We've found that a lot of Kyoto has a very "in-and-out" feel to it, and people aren't really appreciating the amazing things before them.

Despite the annoying people, the building itself was incredible. It used to house some of Buddha's artifacts, which is amazing to think about, and the whole thing is completely covered in real gold and lacquer. The reflection in the pond in front of it was stunning.

Seeing all of this took much less time than we anticipated, so we decided to head south to 

I didn't tell Sean what it was, because he would never have agreed to do it. It's a a 2 hour walk up a 250m mountain, but it was pretty incredible.

There were about 16 big shinto shrines along the climb, and over 1000 bright orange archways called Toriis.

The view from the top was pretty amazing of Kyoto, but the real standout was the seqa of bright orange we saw the whole way.

As a reward for our long climb, Sean got a Pocari Sweat (a poorly named Gatoraide) and I got a pile of lollies!! (Ignore that elderly lady who was also at the top, I swear, it was a tough climb)

Tomorrow, a day trip! xx

Day 12: Kyoto: Nijo Castle and the Old Empire

Today was yet another cold and rainy day, but we got out and about anyway. Thank goodness for waterproof jackets!!! Unfortunately my faithful canvas top shoes have a giant hole in the bottom of one, so I was walking on a wet sock all day, but I've had worse problems.

We decided to go to the Nijo-jo mae (Nijo Castle) which had some ridiculously old things in it. It was built in 1603, and was huge - around 8000 square meters! It was all beautifully decorated and painted, with a lot of the original details and trims even left unchanged.

There was also a museum which had a lot of the original painted doors on display which are usually stored and maintained, as the whole site is heritage listed. 

The gardens around the castle were arguably even more beautiful, with Japanese Pines (the same as the typical bonsai trees) covering tiny man-made islands, with stone bridges connecting them all.

After the castle, we headed to the site of the original Imperial Palace. We didn't get in early enough to go inside, but Sean tried anyway, setting off an alarm in the process.

Again, the gardens were the real standout, with a small area with a shrine and a man with a cat being a personal highlight.

We got super lost trying to get back to our accommodation, because there are temples everywhere in Gion, the district near our hostel, and they are hard to tell apart on a map.

On the plus side, we saw about 10 really pretty temples, and found a delicious fried pork place.

Walking along the river, we also saw some people feeding hawks! They were huge, and completely dwarfed all the other birds by comparison. It was such an odd sight!

Tomorrow, zen gardens and gold temples xx

Day 11: Kyoto: Arashiyama, Bamboo and Monkeys

Kyoto is growing on me. Today we wen to Arashiyama which is known for its amazing Bamboo Grove. During the day, it was amazing to see such a vast forest of it, and I was more amazed by the number of houses dotted though it, off tiny side streets.

There were a lot of temples along the way and in that area too, but they were all expensive to get in to, so we just looked from outside (Can't be throwing dollars at temples when there are amazing free ones everywhere!)

Inside the grove there was also Tenyru-ji which is a huge zen garden. It was expensive to go into, but the entrance was free and beautiful, with smaller gardens dotted along the path.

After the bamboo, we headed across a small bridge and went up a huge climb to a monkey mountain. 

There are over 100 macaque monkeys who call the small area home, and I think we saw almost all of them - there were monkeys everywhere!!

I particularly liked the baby monkeys, of course, but the aggressive female who almost charged at Sean comes in a close second.

The view from the top of the hill was spectacular, looking across all of Kyoto too.

After the monkeys, we had some time to kill, so we had a look around the Arashiyama area. Most of it was very touristy, which is alright, but we at least got to try some traditional Takoyaki - octopus balls (cut up octopus inside batter which gets fried up.

We also discovered that 7/11s sell 4 LITRES OF SAKE for about $20AUD. We didn't buy it, because cheap sake is nasty, but it's a handy fact to know.

People here love pets too. There was a woman doing an instagram photoshoot of her dog at the train station, and about half a dozen people all milled around taking photos too!

After our lovely wander around the town, night finally fell, and we went back to the bamboo grove. If we thought it was pretty during the day, it didn't even compare to the night.

The small streets were lit up by hundred and hundreds of lanterns, and the bamboo itself in places lit by different coloured lights. 

At first the crowds of people seemed kind of annoying, but once we got to a crest in the path, looking down at the sea of people was really quite beautiful.

Even the small lake we had seen earlier was illuminated, and it was so still that the reflection was perfect!

For dinner, we met up with a girl we met in Tokyo and some of the people from her hostelwe went to a small specialty restaurant. Each district is known for it's own take on dishes, and where Tokyo was all about its seafood, Kyoto is known for its burnt soy and miso ramen. It was genuinely amazing!

After dinner, we headed to a small bar in Gion, the traditional district, but drinks were pricey, so we just had one and headed to Karaoke. Once again, the classic 2000s hits were pumping!

Tomorrow, the first Imperial Palace, and Nijo Castle xx