Hiroshima & Miyajima

We bought a Willer bus pass for 4 days, so besides Tokyo we could choose one more destination (it's a quite convenient thing, this bus pass; it only costs 12000 yen and you can go anywhere you want in 4 chosen days. Japan rail pass is a bit better, but two times more expensive). We chose Hiroshima, and one of Japan's most known sights - Miyajima.
We arrived in Hiroshima at 6:30 A.M. tired as hell (always reserve your bus tickets early, otherwise you'll be left with standard ones, and you can't really sleep in those), but after we left our stuff in the hostel we went to see Mazda museum. Last year we were in Stuttgart in Mercedes museum and it was ineresting to compare those two. While Mercedes museum is gigantic and the building itself is magnificent (it even has it's own tornado in the main hall...), you can see the actual production line in Mazda factory. You can also see the whole "Mazda town", as we called it, because they take you on a tour around the factory in a bus. Besides, it's free and the guide speaks good English; you only have to make a reservation the day before. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos of the production line, but we could get in some of the cars:



After the visit to the museum, we went in search for food. We wanted to try the famous Hiroshima okonomiyaki, and we ended up in a fantastic place where a nice obasan chatted all the time with us and three college students (the obasan asked Jarek how old he thinks those girls were and he said 16...). She taught us how to eat okonomiyaki Hiroshima style (don't use the chopstics, use the thing that you cut the food with, and clean the teppan /the hot metal part of the table/ with it after you eat).



Hunger satisfied, we went to see the Atomic Dome, Peace Park and Peace Museum. I can't really describe my feelings well, so let's just leave it at that.


The next day we took a tram to Miyajima - I felt really good on a tram, just like home - and it took us almost an hour to get there; it's almost 20 kilometers for the city center. Then we took a ferry to the island, where we saw the Itsukushima shrine - one of Japan's most famous views. The torii in the sea is really bigger than it looks in the photos, and it is said that if you go under it, it will bring you luck.


We also met some deers, which are a lot nicer than those in Nara (but still, they tried to eat some of our stuff).


Then we decided to climb Mount Misen, the highest peak on the island (we figured that the cable railway is for wimps, plus it would cost us 1800 yen); when we reached the top it started to rain, so we boarded the ferry completely drenched in water. The beautiful view from the top was obscured by the mist and clouds, but at least we got some excercise.


We went back to the city center and Jarek wanted to try some ramen, so we went into the first bar we saw that was selling it, and again hit the jackpot. The food cooked by an eldery couple was delicious and Jarek got what seemed like a bucket of soup. A middle-aged man sitting next to us laughed as Jarek tried to drink it all, and when he was leaving he bought us a beer, probably for appreciation of good ramen.


We left Hiroshima wet and tired, but really happy and amazed by the place and the people living there. I think we will go back there some day...