Today we were asked to all have breakfast together in the 1st floor dining area. This was a normal dining area, not the same place as last night.
We walked the village of Miyajima. It was slightly crowded but apparently this is a hot spot for the Japanese tourists. I can understand why too. There are many temples here and a nice beachside atmosphere. As a group we went into the main beachside Shinto shrine. There is a Shinto gate out in the water. Looks amazing. I got a couple of good photos of it last night. At this shrine a wedding was going on. The process in which the ceremony was happening was very delicate and formal. Yumi has told us that this island is forbidden to perform ceremonies for sad occasions like bereavement. Only the happy ones.
The group split up and did our own thing for the rest of the morning. However I caught back up with Yumi at the temples at the top of the hill. Here they have Tibetan Buddhist temples. We walked to the top of the highest one. On our way back to town we walked down a slope with loads of small Buddha figures wearing knitted woollen hats because the visitors think they might be cold being bald. LOL. Looked very cool.
In town I bought another phone charm as well as the local fried sweet bean bun in the shape of a maple leaf. Miyajima islands' main symbol is the maple leaf.
I also bought a new wall scroll.
We caught the ferry back and walked to the local train st for a 30min ride to Hiroshima. My 'Monkey Baby' phone charm broke on me but I managed to get all the bits needed for a repair. Once In Hiroshima I had time for a quick Mc Donald's before catching the Shinkansen to Kyoto.
We got a coach to the hotel. Its yet another ANA Crowne Plaza, but this time the WIFI works. This is the final hotel and I have my suitcase.
Yumi only gave us half an hour. We went for a long walk around the city to get our bearings. We kinda split up from Yumi towards the town centre. Some of us including Dave and Clowder (no idea how to spell her name) had the idea of catching the shuttle bus back from Kyoto st. It meant a long walk but it was worth it. We went into this vast mega electronic store. I tried to find the CD section and found it but the Puffy CDs were bloody singles again! No album section in site!
I was flagging. I found 2 of our group at the station watching a water jet rainbow display. We had to get to the other side of the station and went up the escalator to the top. it was a long way up. Once up we found this gigantic staircase that lights up, taking you even higher if you wished. It was very impressive.
We caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel. I walked straight to a ramen noodle restaurant. I had spice pork ramen. It was amazing. Coincidentally, Dave and Clouder came in and joined me which was fun.
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