First Published 20 July 2012

Up and out nice and early to head to Mijajima island. We walked to the station and Ange probably bought hard boiled eggs at the 7-Eleven. Turns out Ange has a bit of an obsession with eggs.

We got the train to Mijajima and then the ferry to the island.  It’s the island with the shrine/gate in the water, seems pretty famous here in Japan. One of the top three things to see, pretty big. At low tide you can walk up to the gate. I did, there were lots of ¥0.1 coins on the floor with lots of hermit crabs amongst them.

The front is quite touristy, lots of shops selling the local biscuits, and a giant wooden rice spoon weighing 2.4 tonnes. We picked up some lunch snacks, I got the Japanese answer to a pasty. A soft roll with Hiroshima beef inside. Delicious.

 

After seeing the shrine, we walked up towards the hills, towards Mt Misen. We got the cable car up and then hiked the last few km to the Buddhist shrine and temple at the top.

This was one of my favourite days so far. Brilliant to get out of the city and a ‘really good’ day for the group. We got the cable car down to the bottom of the mountain. Tried to find a beach and failed.

Headed back to Hiroshima and then we went to get our bags from the hotel. The Bristol three had their stuff in lockers in the station. So we left them there and arranged to get the 7 pm train. Something went wrong with the plan and this meant that the Leeds four got the train and the Bristol three did not. However after much speculation as to what could have happened to them we got to Kyoto and sent Eddie to the hotel where she was staying with the Bristol three. They arrived shortly after and we were to be reunited in the morning. Phew!

Linz, Ange and I stayed in a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel, much like a B&B. Futon mattresses, Tatami mats, robes and a lovely family running the place. I think we probably broke the rules, especially regarding shoes and slippers, but we really liked the place and the air conditioning in our room was so good.

I popped out to get some tea, the other two (Ange and Linz) went to a shop. Ange bought eggs and diet coke, Linz probably bought breaded goods or meat on a stick.

My dinner was brilliant, big pile of bean sprouts, carrots and pork and Gyoza. Vegetables are quite hard to come by in Japan. So this was a real treat.