Day 6 Pictures
After a late,well relatively, wake up this morning we had a nice breakfast at the guest house which included toast, ham and eggs. This was quite novel as we had been eating breakfast mostly on the run from bakeries at stations until this day.
We then caught the ropeway up Mt Misen for some spectacular views over the area and back to the mainland including a view of Hiroshima which wasn’t that far away.
On the top of the mountain there are monkeys that seemed to be all over the place and also more deer and crows who seemed to do a good job of helping the deer keep their ears clean.
There are also some more shrines and temples that we didn't get to as they were a further walk away and it was quite cold so we opted out of that exercise.
Whilst we were on the mountain chatting to the monkeys the weather turned decidedly evil and it even snowed on us. The ropeway (a.k.a. cable car) ride down was a little hairy and when we got to the bottom we noticed that they were not accepting any more passengers up the mountain due to the wind.
One of the things you see all over Japan are the many street vendors selling all sorts of foods. Of the street vendors people selling food on sticks seem to be most prevalent. On Miyajima we decided to try out the local food on a stick guy as we were cold and the food was hot and deep fried comfort food. We had a choice of chicken, fish or prawn which was done in some kind of batter and caked around a stick. The last bit of frying to finish off and heat up was done on the spot, to order.
On the way back to the guesthouse curiosity got the better of me and I ran up some stairs I had seen earlier that were close to our guesthouse. At the top was a small shrine and some beautiful views over the island.
Back at the guesthouse we decided to grab a tea before going over to the ferry terminal. The tea was served in many different styles of mostly wedgewood china cups.
We all piled on the ferry and waved our goodbyes to the wonderful island of Miyajima. A quick walk back to the station and the return train to Hiroshima followed.
At Hiroshima station we again bought some food for the next Shinkansen train ride to Kokura. Here we changed for a different type of train (Sonic 33) to take us to our destination for the next two days. The sonic trains have interesting head rests that from behind make you look like you have mouse ears.
Our final destination was the hot springs resort town of Beppu. The area is renowned for its thermal activity and vents of steam were rising from the ground and were dotted all over the hillside.
We gathered some provisions at the station convenience store and hopped cabs to our hotel. The hotel complex was huge and full of Japanese and Korean tourists that come to the area to use the onsen (hot spring baths) and to relax. At the hotel everyone wanders around in their yukata which is a type of dressing gown supplied by the hotel. It was quite bizarre walking around a place where everyone was wearing exactly the same outfit. Every hotel and guesthouse we stayed at in Japan supplied these yukata in the room. They also supplied slip on sandles which for my big western feet they were hopelessly too small. The heel of my foot always hung over the back of the slipper by about 6cm. I decided it was not even worth trying these in most places we visited.
We had dinner at the hotel which was uninspiring as most hotel meals are.
Our hotel room was quite novel in that it had western style beds along one wall and off to one side was a raised tatami matted floor with Japanese style furnishings and futon in the cupboard.
Day 6 Pictures