Hiroshima, Kagoshima Hakata
Only one night in Hiroshima at a hotel right near the station The Sheraton a fabulous hotel very western and big rooms
.
Our first stop was a walk thru the Peace Park which everyone should do including the politicians. Leith and I have done it twice so we went by ourselves to the Shukkeien Gardens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukkei-en
These were set out about 1620AD by the Lord of the area. They only occupy about 40000 sq ft but have everything, water complete with little islands, the arch bridge, and little miniature moutains, everything so compact. We had a lovely lunch there in the sun. The gardens were heavily damaged after the atomic bomb but have now been completely restored.
Then back on the tram down to the Miyajima ferry terminal. It is short ferry ride to the Miyajima island where the iconic red Torii gate is situated. I am sure you have seen pictures of it. Owen wanted us to get there at sunset so that we get the classic photo of the setting sun glistening on the water- which we did
. See photos. Lots of other tourists we all had to walk about 700m from the ferry to the viewing point, we walked beside a little stretch of sand. Every 3-4 metres or so there was a red spotted deer lying on the beach against the warm sea wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsukushima
The deers were a bit of menace since they were very keen on one's ice cream or other food. My stick came in handy to shoo them away.
We celebrated Leith's birthday in style that night. Owen had organized a group meal at a Okonomiyaki restaurant for the 30 of us. This style is where a cabbage and 'stuff' is cooked in front of you very like teppanyaki both are cooked in front of you on a stainless steel plate howver the latter has a much finer range of dishes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki
If you read the link above it doesn't mention the cabbage but it was part of our dish together with pancakes and other bits
.
On the way we spent time on a steam train from Yamaguchi to Tswana and back. This took about 2 hrs one way . Unfortunately there were some long tunnels and some windows were left meaning that the carriage filled up with smoke, we learnt very quickly to shut windows before entering the next tunnel
http://www.kankou-shimane.com/en/blog/archives/930
Tswana was an interesting town where we had a 2.5 hour lunch break, a little difficulty finding something open, a couple of places appeared to be closed when we walked past but opened just as we were walking back to catch the return train. We did have a lovely torfu cheese cake I don't think it much cheese in it but it was very tasty. We saw an interesting roadside stall cooking chestnuts, first they cut into the outer shell then pressure cooked them for some minutes and then sold them hot.
A long day as we got back to the hotel about 2100hrs
Next day (Sunday) we had the restored steam train #58654 from Kumamoto to Hitoyshi then
SL Hitoyoshi from Hitoyoshi to Yoshimatsu
through rural Japan stopping 2-3 times at lovely wooden 100 yr old stations
. Some stations had food available such as Nashi pears and tempura vegetables
Unfortunately the day was wet, light rain fell nearly all day, the tail end of a typhoon, luckily still warm and little wind
Next day we had half a day before leaving Kagoshima, this is one of our favourite cities since amongst other things it has a good tram system, also some great arcades and the port area great views of the volcano Sakurajima, this is about 20 min ferry ride away many people live there and it is still active - a bit like Mt Etna I suppose.
We arrived at Hakata for a two night stay to explore the north part of Kyushu (the south island of Japan). These days it is connected to the main island by Shinkansen and tunnel but in the past it was by conventional train and ferry. So there is a very good train museum commemorating this period. I am not whether to pleased or not but we saw a steam engine in immaculate condition the same age as me
. I am not in a museum yet.
On the way back we had a couple of hours at Yufuin a lovely craft/touristy place - a little like Maleny near Brisbane - which we had been a couple of time before. There is a short walk by some flowing water where we see the same white heron type bird (with yellow feet) standing in the water waiting for grubs and such like to emerge from the bed or banks. He/she was there again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yufuin,_%C5%8Cita
Hiroshima more than the Peace Park
Saturday, October 04, 2014
Hiroshima/ Kagoshima/Hakata, Kyushu-Okinawa, Japan
Other Entries
2025-02-09