We spent a morning on Miyajima Island.It was high tide when we got there and low tide when we left.
Classic shot of cherry blossom by Clare, but not a winning effort really. We started to get a bit more picky about cherry blossom shots after a week, as quite a lot of the blossom was past it's best.
A sign on the walkway to the gondolas/ropeway.
After Miyajima, Chris headed off to Hiroshima to look around the Peace Museum. I went there last year so I headed off to Iwakuni. Iwakuni is lovely and well worth a visit but I really recommend that you take a local train so you end up at the right station. Shin-Iwakuni station is miles away from anywhere and there weren't any coin lockers available that would take my bag so I had to get it all the way over to the local station in order to leave it while I went to the famous bridge.
The bridge is amazing. Samurai were allowed to walk over it, commoners had to take the ferry. When you cross the bridge there are some lovely samurai houses and compounds to look at, a mini castle and albino snakes. It is all very tasteful and beautiful but there are the usual souvenir shops with Hello Kitty overload and the odd concrete dog or two.
Chris and I met up again on the train and spent the night in Kurashiki. If anyone is going to stay in Kurashiki YHA, Do follow the instructions listed on the website from the Kurashiki Station. Don't try it from Shin-Kurashiki Station. That makes the suggested taxi cost rather more than the suggested 800 yen which it would have cost from Kurashiki station. Once again, I was caught by the fact that the Shinkansen station and local station are completely different sides of the city. Kurashiki YHA is also up a very big hill which goes through a cemetery and is dark at night. It isn't the most convenient hostel but the full Japanese breakfast was wonderful.
Shin-Kurashiki to the tourist part of Kurashiki City was about $2500 in January - but it was either that, or wait 35 min for the local train.
ReplyDeleteHello, Clare Plug suggested I check out your blog. I had a really nice time in Okayama this past January - I had a month visiting my parents in Yokohama, but took a wee trip south. Okayama was the most pleasant city I've visited in Japan.