A sunny morning in Miyajima!

We got up early on the morning of August 10 and took the shinkansen for Hiroshima. Upon arriving, we made our way to Miyajima first and for the first time ever, I was able to enjoy the sight, under a bright blue sky. No torrential rain, no mudslide… beautiful sunshine! We walked around for a bit and took lots of pictures. In front of the giant floating Tori, as we were taking pictures, we ran into a bunch of deer. (Yes deer just run amongst the tourists there).  What we were not expecting, was that Tristan was going to get attack by one of them… so let’s back track…

Early that morning, we got up and had breakfast (salmon, rice, miso soup)… but we were running a bit late and feared we might end up missing our train (and we did), so since Hudson was not done eating, I quickly wrapped a piece of the fish and threw it in Tristan’s pocket (without him even noticing).

Coincidentally, Tristan but both of our Japan rail pass in that same pocket and we made our way to the train station.

Fast forward back to Miyajima… The deer must have smelled the fish and dove into that pocket. I watched in horror, as the deer took a strong hold of our japan rail pass. Carrying Hudson in my Boba, I pounced on the deer and started pulling on the pass trying to get it out of its mouth. At the same time, a Chinese family from Minnesota (who were kind enough to take family pictures of us earlier) started trying to distract the deer away from the pass while two Japanese young man hold on to the back of the deer so it couldn’t take us in the mountain. A very awkward sight! Let me tell you! Tristan was just frozen there in complete surprise! He was still holding his camera and just could not even understand what had just happened! Then it struck him, if the deer suddenly let go of the pass, it could easily be flung by mistake in the ocean…  but before the deer could do anything, I finally got the pass back! What a relief!

After that incident, it was discovered that the fish was still in his pocket. We quickly got rid of it and went on visiting. We finished our morning, sitting around an okonomiyaki grill as we enjoyed a Hiroshima-fu oyster okonomiyaki!

Miyajima and Hiroshima

I am very unsure what to write here. Overall our day in Hiroshima and Miyajima ended up exactly like my trip there last year!! Stuck under the pouring rain.

We left Osaka early in the morning. Jumped on the Shinkansen and headed for Hiroshima. From there we transferred to Miyajima and arrived around 10 am under a heavy rain. I am sure Miyajima is a beautiful and magical place but somehow I am starting to have a very bitter feeling about that place. Whenever I think of Miyajima, I think of cold freezing rain, wet feet, wet pants, wet everything.

Even thought it was raining, the place was crowded with tour group. We walked around a bit, saw the majors site, took the money shots and went in a little restaurant for the famous Oyster Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style.

By then, the island was almost covered by a thick fog. We took the ferry boat and went back to Hiroshima. There, still under the rain, we made our way tot the Castle, played around with the costumes, walked to the Peace Garden, took a few pictures.

Since we were tired of walking under the rain, we spent the rest of the day under the covered shopping street, did some Purikura, bought Flip Flop, and ate an Okonomiyaki in the special Okonomiyaki building.

Overall, Hiroshima does not score really high with me. The city itself is ok, it is worth visiting the Peace Park but that is about it. The Okonomiyaki are not anywhere near as good as the ones in Osaka.

But since Hiroshima is on the way to Kyushu, and since Marie had never been here, I thought it was important to stop by.

After our day soaking in the rain, we jumped back on the Shinkansen and continued our trip towards our main goal: Kumamoto!

We reached Hakata (Fukuoka), found our staying place Khaosan Hakata (a great hostel that I would recommend to anyone visiting the area).

Miyajima rainy blues

Rainy blues would have been not so bad but instead I had to battle vs Arashi. (ok I am laughing at my own joke here) Ok in plain english… 70mm of rain in less than an hour. I got stuck inside a temple where a nice lady was offering towel and hot tea to everyone. It was scary at time. It didn’t look like rain anymore, it looked like a waterfall from the sky. When it finally calmed down to pouring rain, we were told we should hurry back to the boat and get back to the train station as soon as possible and leave the area. Which I did…

But let’s go back in time. I got to Miyajima early in the morning and was amazed at how beautiful the island was. I walked to the main temple and took may picture of the Tori (one of Japan’s 3 sight). Last year I saw Fuji so now I only have 1 sight left to see. The tide was high so we could not walk all the way to the Tori (same principle as Le Rocher Percé à Québec). So I decided to visit other sights while the tide would go down… that’s when the sky opened up and fell on our head!

I still had time to eat one Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki!!! (Hiroshima style cabbage and soba pancake with oysters) It was delicious!!! The Oyster were huge!!!

Hiroshima-fu Okonomiyaki with Kaki

This is a place I really want to go back too… I want to eat more oyster and I would like a sunny day so I could take pictures of the beautiful scenery.

So I got back to Hiroshima and played text message tag with Ayumi (who is in Canada).We spent the whole afternoon texting each other back and forth. I was bored and the rain showed no intention to stop. I decided to check out a few famous Okonomiyaki restaurant. First I went to Mitsu (okonomiyaki restaurant from 47 live) but it was closed for mid-afternoon break. So then I made my way to the okonomiyaki street and found Hachimasa (okonomiyaki restaurant feature on Arashi’s TV show) but it was not opening till 5 pm. Out of luck I decided it was time for me to leave Hiroshima and to finally hit Osaka!!

I got to the train station only to find it under a state of pure chaos!!! Turned out all that rain had flooded a city further south and had damaged the shinkansen line. Thousand of people were laying on the floor of the station, waiting for the next available train. Luckily the only track still in function was the one for Shin-Osaka. But what a nightmare… everyone trying to get out of Hiroshima with no where to go… Even the Osaka bound trains were delayed for hours. I jumped in the next departing train (even thought my ticket was for another one) and played the foreigner card!! I had no intention of being stuck one more day in Hiroshima.