Hiroshima to Miyajima Island to See the Covered Landmark

Normally I write my posts in the evening or if I fall asleep while writing, in the early morning. That really wasn't possible last night. I remember briefly considering it but when I didn't even have the will to put on pajama pants I quickly realized that my post would not only be incomplete but probably incoherent as well. So I'm writing from the train to Tokyo instead. 

Miyajima Island and the giant torii gate under construction (photo by TravellingFool.com)

May 4th

Our plans for the day were to wrap up the tourist sites and hit up some karaoke in the evening before hitting the sack and getting up at the crack of dawn for our 8am trains.

We started with Miyajima where the floating torri gate, that has become as symbolic of Japan as kimonos and sushi, is located. We were told there was some netting covering the gate since they are doing some construction to repair damage from a typhoon that occurred back in the beginning of April. Can you imagine if they did that in the States? We imagined the uproar that would occur back home if a national landmark was covered up during the biggest tourism week of the year. Here in Japan though there was no lack of tourists or outrage as far as we could tell. 

Fresh grilled squid in Miyajima (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Miyajima island was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny with a swift cool breeze coming from the ocean. We walked around the island a bit and stopped at nearly every food stall. We had grilled fresh oysters, deep fried cheese with fish paste wrapped in bacon, chicken and pork yakitori, melon flavored shaved ice, and ice cream. My chicken yakitori tasted funny at first. For some reason it was rubbier then I thought grilled chicken on a stick should be. I looked at it after swallowing the first bite to find it perfectly raw. They re-grilled it this time making it cooked and it tasted this time completely different and delicious. So salty though. The Japanese love them some salt.

When it came to seeing the sites on the island we met a few issues. The first being that the gate was completely covered in scaffolding and opaque nets. We saw it both with the tide in and when it was low tide. During low tide there were hundreds of people digging in the sand, for what I'm by sure. There were tons of tiny hermit crabs and grey crabs in the shallow pools of water. Eric managed to kill two of them flicking them into the air with a stick he found. He tried to convince us they survived but we knew better hen the once moving shell lay still in the shallow pool of salt water. 

Miyajima crowds (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Since the gate was kind of a bust we made our way to the gondolas at the Ropeway. It was crazy expensive so at first we thought to buy one way tickets and walk back (I was going to buy round trip regardless of how expensive it was). A quick look at the map and we learned that the walk back was estimated at nearly two hours. All that for an aerial view of the island? No thank you. We then made our way towards the aquarium or aguarium as the sign said. Making it through the throngs of people to get there was taxing to my patience. There's only so much I can take of large crowds much less inconsiderate short stopper shoving crowds. We got to the aquarium to find a line with probably over a hundred people on it. Surely this can't be for the aquarium? Yup it was. There were so many people on the island with us that I guess it was inevitable. With everything packed, expensive, or closed we headed back to the ferry and made our way back to the hostel. 

Bridge Park in Hiroshima (photo by TravellingFool.com)

The early mornings an walking caught up with us. The five us managed to get some much needed nap time in on the train back. At the train station we parted ways, them to the bridge park (shikieen park) and me to the hostel.

I rested up for a bit then felt bad about missing out on seeing the park. It was too late for me to walk there and I had been dying to get some riding time in on this trip so I rented a bike at the hostel and headed towards the park.

Riding in Hiroshima was remarkably similar to rising in the outer boroughs of New York with the exception of the ability to ride on the sidewalks. I loved every minute of it.

I got a bit lost heading to the park but found that if I followed the other bikes I would be okay. Sure enough they led me towards the park where I got yelled at in Japanese for riding into. I understood the word for bike (gitensha) and quickly backed out. There was a parking lot across the street with free bike parking which worked out well. 

Koi fish hungry for snacks in Bridge Park Hiroshima (photo by TravellingFool.com)

I was really glad that I made it to the park. It was gorgeous. There was a big pond in the middle and a path around it with all different kinds of bridges going over the arteries of water. And a giant stone bridge across the middle of the pond. There were tons of koi swarming the edge of the giant stone bridge and I found out from Eric when I met up with everyone to head back that it was because there was free koi food that people were feeding them from the bridge.

The ride back was fun. I stuck to the streets and rode along side the cars. It was surprisingly easy to remember what side of the street to stay on. The cars nor the people seemed phased to see me rising alongside them which was a nice change from home where some of the cars try to run you off the road and the pedestrians fake you out and panic.

Instead of heading straight back to the hostel I took Erica advice to explore Hiroshima beyond the walking distance of the hostel and train station. I managed to find Hiroshima's seedy underbelly of nightlife as well as the covered shopping block. On the way back I stopped at 7-11 to stock up on Chu-hi and water for the evening ahead.

When I got back to the hostel I found a very tired group occupying the room. Turns out they went looking for me because they were worried that I didn't get back to the hostel before them. I felt terrible but told them of my discoveries and found they also ha a few new discoveries, namely a German restaurant. 

German restaurant in Japan (photo by TravellingFool.com)

We headed to the German place for dinner before karaoke. I was doubly disappointed by the place. First because we couldn't really order what we actually would have wanted because the menu was in unreadable Japanese and secondly (but far more importantly) because they had a Japanese style toilet.

If you're not familiar with Japanese toilets they're basically a hole in the ground and nothing else. If I didn't have to go so badly I would have just held it or walked somewhere else. With a long night ahead I wasn't willing to take any chances so I took my jeans off. You never know what could happen and I wasn't going to pee on my pants. At the end of the day I we successful and unscathed.

We had German sausage pizza for dinner since that was the only picture on the menu. It was meaty and super cheesey and good. Jordan and I also got fresh pretzels and I got a curry wurst. It was all super filling and gave us enough energy for karaoke.

Karaoke was fun as always. We headed to Billy the Kid and sang our hearts out (and drank our livers out, well at least I did). For every drink anyone else had I had two so by the end of the two hours I was nice.

I don't really remember getting back to the hostel but I remember having life chats with Eric on the roof terrace of the hostel. I have always loved the chats that we have had amongst the stars and silent hum of the night air.