Hiking Miyajima & Karaoke!

22^nd September Miyajima, Japan

It was a slow start to our Saturday, but don’t judge me – it’s a Saturday! Today myself and Erin (my couchsurfing host) are catching a train and a ferry to Miyajima. Miyajima is an island just off the coast of Hiroshima. It is mostly known to tourists by the giant Torii Gate that stands in the water just off the coast of Miyajima, it looks as if it is floating. Its very beautiful, but unfortunately very touristy.

The main reason for visiting Miyajima was to climb the small mountain compared to Mt. Fuji that is. Mount Misen sits 500mtrs above sea levels and even though it was a pretty hazy day, you still got pretty nice views of the surrounding areas.

Erin was my ‘tour leader’ and she sent us up the most back country single trail route, it was great to get off the tourist track, it was a pretty small hike but very enjoyable but also very very sweaty, I was lucky that I had so much water!

On the hike up to the very top, we met a Czech dude, who we had some great laughs with. Once we got to the top we took some photos, and then took the steps down.

If you don’t know already I hate down hills, unless they are on a bike. But when it regards to hiking, I friggin hate them… and like always this was no exception, and I made sure that Erin knew how much I hated them. I’m pretty sure she got sick of my constant complaining.

But we eventually got to the bottom and took some photos of the beautiful Torri Gate. We then dodge tourists and Erin bought me a interesting but very tasty Japanese treat. It was a bizarre arrangement, I will try to explain it, but its going to be hard… So it was a type of batter that is deep fried, but inside the batter you could chose 3 different flavours. The flavours were: Cheese, Black Bean Sauce (I think) and chocolate.

I opted for Cheese and Black Bean Sauce, and they were nice… but not as good as Japanese Ice Cream.

After all of this excitement, we jumped back on the ferry and headed back to Erin’s flat in Hiroshima. I was so tired, so I pretty much passed out on the train home. Erin had to wake me up!

We grab some ingredients as we were going to attempt to cook (I forgot the name…). Neither of us have cooked it before but we were going to freestyle it and see what happens. Well, it didn’t turn out exactly as planned but it was still ok… it was food at least. I promise I will try and be able to cook it like a pro… one day. Still don’t know what the food was called, but there was egg in it! YOU JUST WAIT!

We wolfed down the food, and had to head out… as tonight was the night to PAR-TAY. We went to a local bar, that was charging stupid prices, so I went to the local 7/11 bought a beer and drank outside with a few guys, from here we were going to do some Karaoke! I COULD NOT WAIT!

I had met an Australian guy who was a part of the group of friends we were hanging with, and we were equally as excited about throwing down some ABSOLUTE CLASSICS!

So we organised a deal, that was 2 hours of ‘All-You-Can-Drink’ which is very dangerous… Karaoke and Drinking!

It’s such a surreal arrangement. You have this big black table in the middle of the room, with sofa’s running up the two side and back walls. There are 2 small touch screen tablet computers in the room where you can choose your songs.

On one of the side walls, there are a couple of tambourines that you can bang along to the tunes with. I got involved.

What was my first choice… have a guess?

Yep… Queen… spot on!

Song… well obviously BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY!

And I sang it with my heart and my soul! I’m pretty sure people cried!

My memories are a bit hazy about the night, but plenty of songs came on, lots of classics, lots of new stuff! All in all it was an amazing night!

We got home at… I dunno what time, but when we got home I fell asleep pretty quickly.

The next day was a nightmare, as I had to sit on several trains for 6+ hours until I made it back to Osaka, so I could catch my flight for the next day.

I got back to Osaka for dinner, and Jack and my self went out for some Beef Bowl, this was my last dinner in Japan.

The next day, we got up early for a run, and the main aim of the day was for me to get to the airport.

It was a sad day, because I knew I would miss Japan so much, but it had to be. I had my last meal, which was 6 plates of some of the most delicious Sushi I’ve ever had, and took my very full self off to the airport to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

So, to everyone that helped me out in Japan I would like to thank you. I had an amazing experience and I will never forget it!

Thanks again guys!

Next up S.E Asia! BRING IT ON!

Steve

The amazing view from the hike up!

Beautiful but bloody hot!

Erin in the foreground! This was the station the people can get a lift to!

At the summit! 529mtrs high! - its no Fuji!

Deer are everywhere!

The Torii Gate!

Just stunning!

Hiking around Hiroshima! Mitaki Dera!

26/9/12

1839 (localtime)

Hiroshima, Japan

Written in: I very hot, Humid and sticky Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On the 20^th of September I started my journey to Hiroshima! There was no way on earth that I was going to be paying the extortionate prices that Japan Rail ask for… so instead I travel for practically free.

How the Japan train system works, is that you buy your ticket to pass the gates and this ticket should be a ticket that will cover your entire journey, and if I was going to do the right way to get to Hiroshima by normal train it was going to cost me around 5000YEN which is around about $60AUD! There was no way this was happening, so at Osaka main train station I bought a ticket that cost the cheapest and is only meant if you are travelling 1 station on the train, and this ticket is 120YEN or $2AUD.

So with my 120YEN ticket I travelled for about 6 hours on the train until I eventually arrived at Hiroshima central station. I jumped off the train here and looked at all the different exits, because my ticket wont allow me through the ticket gates I have to sneak through the gates behind someone, WHILST there are a lot of people travelling through the different gates at the same time.

At Hiroshima there were just too many security guards everywhere, so I got back on the train and took it to the next station down the track, here I got off and saw that it was a lot easier to sneak through the gates.

I made it through! I made it to Hiroshima (not the central station) for only 120YEN. Now, I had to get back to the central station! So at the random station I was at, I bought the ticket that got me to Hiroshima central station and I was set!

I found Erin, my couch surfer in Hiroshima and I was set!

Erin showed me around the bit of the city at night, and it was just great to be in another Japanese city. I was feeling kind of hungry so was taken to a proper Hiroshima style Okanamiyaki restaurant! They do it a little bit different down here! They cook it all in front of your eyes, on this massive hotplate that run down the restaurant, and this hotplate is your plate as well, once they have cooked your food, that literally slide it to you where you enjoy a VERY HOT but really nice Okanamiyaki!

After this delicious plate of food, Erin took me to the A-Bomb dome at night where I took some photos, check them out!

After this we headed on back to Erin’s place where I passed out at a pretty reasonable time, as tomorrow I was up pretty early to check out the beautiful city of Hiroshima!

The first thing on my list to do was to take Erin’s bike and ride it around about 4km North East to do some hiking in Mitaki Dera. It was absolutely beautiful. This unexplored shrine and temple was suggested to my by Erin my couchsufer, and I honestly didn’t know all that much about it. When I got there, I saw a temple (standard) but also a path that just led UP. So being a curious young adult I took it… and it just kept going higher and higher! As I took the path up, dodging the spiders and spider webs everwhere!

So the trail just kept going, so I followed it up, eventually it lead to a big tall… electric tower! I was kinda bummed out as I thought that, this is where the trail ended.

So I climbed up as high as I could of this electric tower to find where this route would take me, I could make out a nice rock to sit on, and there was a type of trail leaded to it, so I continued on the same was as I was going before, and sure enough it lead me this rock.

By this time I was sweating, tired, so I chilled out for a moment or two and had a cheeky banana and continued going up. So by this stage I still had no idea where I was going, but there was still a trail leading UP so I followed it.

After about another 10 minutes if hiking, I finally reached the top. I was a sweaty mess, but it was nice to finally realise where the track was leading to. Once I admired the view and took a few photos I headed back down the trail, dodging big spiders and spider webs as I went. When I made it to the bottom, I went hiking up towards the other temples. It was so beautiful, the temples were all place in the most beautiful locations, as you would walk up the steps, a temple would appear and there would be a running waterfall and everything, and because not many people were walking around, it made the place so peaceful. I walked and walked, until it lead to what I thought was the end. I headed back down to the bottom again, only to realise that there was more to the trail I just hadn’t seen it yet.

So I headed back up through the temples again, and found the little path that heads UP, again. This trail lead me through a beautiful green bamboo forest. I had explored a Bamboo forest in Kyoto, but it was very touristy and although it was nice, the bamboo forest in Hiroshima was absolutely stunning. Apart from the mosquitoes buzzing around my head I would have stayed there for hours!

Anyway, so the path lead UP, and although I had a rough idea that this path would take me to the same place as the other trail, it didn’t bother me. The hike itself was so much fun that I headed all the way back up to the top, to see the average view again. But for me it wasn’t so much about the view, it was more about the walk up, and more-so for the walk back down through that beautiful bamboo forest.

By the time I had left Mitaki Dera it was lunch time, and I was hungry after all this hiking, so even though, I had some of Erin’s delicious curry in my bag, I still headed to the local ‘Family Mart’ and bought a cup of 2 minute noodles, and demolished them.

After my satisfying lunch, I took Erin’s bike and boosted off down to the Peace Park and the A-Bomb Dome.

It took me a while to find it, but once I got my bearings I was sorted, I firstly road around the A-Bomb dome just admiring it and reading the local information that they placed around the Dome. It was astonishing that this building still remained. I read that a great majority of the city was completely wiped out due to the A-Bomb that hit Hiroshima.

After I admired the A-Bomb dome, I went across to the Peace Park, where there is a museum, park and several memorials dedicated to all the people that lost their lives during the bombing.

As I road my bike through, I rang the (huge)Bell of Peace as loud as I could that signifies World Peace, as I continued through I saw a memorial that I had read about previously. This memorial was dedicated to the young Sadako Saski, who is a young girl that died from the radiation of the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. To this day, people (mostly children) from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. The statue has a continuously replenished collection of folded cranes nearby (wiki). From here I walked opposite the memorial and watched a flame that will stay ignited until the last Atomic Bomb has been defused… Pretty touching stuff.

I took a few more photos and then went inside the museum.

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again… I had a rough understanding about what happened during WW2. It left me shocked, it was absolutely brutal what happened to all the 80,000 that lived in Hiroshima during that time and eventually another 100,000 due to the radiation, even know there are traces of the Atom Bomb in the water!

 The museum did a great job in explaining the whole situation. What shocked me the most was the reason ‘why’ Hiroshima was bombed... it was due to it being a sunny day. There were 4 choices of cities that America wanted to drop the first nuclear bomb with Kyoto being one of the others, and the reason why Hiroshima was targeted was because of the good visibility…! So brutal.

There were so many gruesome imagines that made me physical sick, I’m not going to go into any details, but it’s quite shocking what war actually is.

By the time I had finished in the museum it was getting late, I think I may have spent around 2 hours in the museum reading all the different pieces of information and what not. From here I jumped back on Erin’s bike and boosted off around to the Hiroshima castle.

I found my way into the inner walls of the castle, paid my entrance fee and headed straight to the top floor so I could catch the sunset of Hiroshima.

In the Hiroshima castle there were a dozen Australian High School kids running around, I finally bumped into their teachers and they told me that the kids were spending 10 days in Japan.

The sunset wasn’t great, but I was asking the 2 teachers about why they were still teaching Indonesian as a language in our school curriculum, one of the only answers they gave me was that “it’s and easy language to learn”… such a very very poor answer!

The sun had set, and it was time to head down and check out all the different exhibits of Samurai swords and armour. It was pretty cool.

By the time I had left the Castle it was dark, and I was planning on meeting Erin at the A-Bomb dome for some food!

And great food it was, I was pretty wiped after all my hiking and biking, so when we got home I just passed out.

I needed my sleep as tomorrow (Saturday) Erin and I were heading to the island of Miyajima to do some hiking! My legs are going to be sore!

A-Bomb Dome!

The lake running through Hiroshima!

The Electricity tower i climbed up!

This is the view when i climbed up!

A great rock!

The sketchy trail!

The steps leading up to the temples!

The bamboo forest!

Very True!

Near the a-bomb dome!

The A-Bomb dome!

The A-Bomb dome another angle!

The bridge im standing on, survived the blast... but now is replaced.

The A-Bomb dome from the bridge!

The Bell of Peace! I RANG THIS GUY!

This monument is dedicated to the girl that died because of the after effects of the bomb.

Kids make these to show!

The A-Bomb museum 

The time since the last bomb was dropped 24518 days!

The view of the city from the castle!

The castle!

The castle at dusk!

Kyoto Pt. 2 - I think ive had enough temples now!

The I woke up on the  19^th of September with a bit of a deserved sleep in! I made it to Kyoto by about 1ish and started my exploring!

On my list of things to visit was the beautiful Bamboo forest in and the lovely Togetsukyo Bridge in Arashiyama. So I walked from the station to Arashiyama and eventually found the beautiful Bamboo forest. When I did my research on Kyoto I saw photos of this, but the photos don’t even compare to what its like in real life! Its absolutely stunning!

Bamboo!

More beautiful bamboo!

So beautiful!

Amazing!

The arching trees!

I walked around the forest for about 30 minutes until I got to the end of the walk, I sat down and started munching on some food in my bag, afterwards I got up and started looking for the next place to go, I must have looked lost or something, but a random Japanese old guy came up to me, and started speaking to me in broken English. He then showed me some beautiful photos of an observatory that is no more than 10 minutes walk from where I was. He pointed me in the direction and off I go. This is what makes travelling worth it! Random local guys just wanting to help out, how cool is that!!!

So I found the observatory and took some stunning photos, check them out!

Amazing!!!

Epic!

Zoomed in!

One of the many photos of me!

I chilled out at the observatory for a while, and then made my way through the forest back down. I jumped on a train that took me to the very famous golden temple.

It was 1.5 km walk from the train station to the Golden Temple, I got there by about 4.40pm. I was a little worried that the temple might have been closed, but I made it! I bought my ticket and charged on in.

In the previous journal entry I spoke about the Japanese gardens creating a viewing point where everything works, the Golden Temple got it perfectly.

My problem was, that when I entered, I entered with about 20 Japanese tourists, so I was swarmed with people. I took some photos but never really got to relax and take it all in, so after I walked around the garden, I snuck back through the entrance to really look at it! And it is absolutely amazing! I was just there, looking at this beautiful temple for about 20 minutes, the sun was setting on my face and everything was perfect!

Golden Temple!

Incredible!

Amazing!

Eventually they had to close the gardens so I was forced to leave, but it was such a beautiful place.

From the Golden Temple, I jumped on a bus back to the main station and was back at Kyoto main station by about 6.30pm. When the sun sets in Japan, whatever city you’re in completely changes, and Kyoto is no exception! The neon lights were out in force.

I knew where I wanted to go, so I found a way to get there. I was off to find the Geisha district, down in Gion. It was about a 2.0km walk from the station so off I went.

When I made it to Gion I then had to find where the Geisha district was, but before I did I needed some food. So I walked down the main street looking for some street food, till I started chatting to this Aussie guy called Nick that was on the internet using his phone. I asked him what he was up to tonight, I told him my plans and he was interested in coming, he was also on the lookout for food.

I dragged him off the main street to find some cheaper more local food! We ended up down a little side ally and inside this restaurant where nobody spoke English, so we just looked at the Japanese menu and randomly selected some things on the menu and just waited to see what they brought out.

I ended up ordering something with rice, whilst the other Nick ordered a plate of Squid! It wasn’t the best food I’d ever had, but it was fun just ordering something completely random!

We quickly finished our food and then set off trying to find the Geisha district! Our first goal was to find the internet, as once we had the internet we could get a map on our phone and find the place.

We eventually got the internet and started our walk, it wasn’t too far on the map, and it ended up being only 15 – 20 minutes walk from down town!

We knew when we had stumbled upon it, as there were beautiful red paper lanterns scatted all up and down the street, it was so beautiful, I tried taking some photos but they didn’t turn out that well. Take it from me, it was a very pretty street.

We walked around for a while, and even managed to see a Geisha running to or from her appointment! It was really cool

Anyway, we both started to get tired so we said our goodbyes and I headed back to Osaka.

1.5 hours later I was fast asleep back in Osaka! I was so tired, it was an epic day of hiking! Kyoto is such a beautiful city!

Tomorrow (the 20^th of September) I was heading to Hiroshima to visit the A-Bomb dome and get a completely mind blown as I visit the Hiroshima Museum! I cant wait! So till next time!

Geisha District!

More Geisha District!

Thanks again!

Steve