Osaka Catchup

Today we really needed to sort ourselves out doing laundry, packing, shopping and get ready for the weekend. We're happy to have toned it down now. We were used to having a set list of a lot to fit into one day but we're done with that!

Vita cooked us a beautiful traditional home cooked meal for dinner and Joe (Walter) made me a Sake mixed drink which was awesome.

Tomorrow we're off to another place owned by another friend of Vita. Its a tradtional styled house renovated I believe, out more towards Osaka countryside. Then on Saturday we're camping up in the mountains, dinner together with Laurance & family(?), Vita and Joe and going to a natural onsen that's co-ed, for first time. Not uncommon to spend hours relaxing in there apparently.

Forest and waterfall walks on Sun morning, then Laurence has very kindly offered to take us to the airport if he can. Back home in AU Monday morning 7am.

To Osaka

We've arrived safely in Osaka and are staying close to Osaka bay. We can see Kansai airport way off in the distance and Awajima. Great area.

It's great to see Visma and Walthari. Shige and his family are very nice people and we feel very lucky to stay here. We hope to have them maybe stay with us in Australia in the future. Shige is very funny.

No photos today really. Just one we came across on the way here. Maybe more tomorrow.

Exploring Miyajima

Feeling a little brighter today we had a good sleep in the Miyojima Seaside Hotel. Great spot, deer are about just outside, beach just out the front, beautiful silky water and a small marina where we can watch the boats go in and out. We've seen the local fisherman bringing in loads of shellfish. They come in much faster to dock than we do! haha. They're efficient.

The plan for today was to explore the town, then head up to the Ropeway and discover Mt. Misen. We were the only ones having breakfast that early (7am) and we were out and about in town while they were just starting to open a couple of their shops. We walked up through the town to the ropeway as the bus wasn't running yet and it turned out to be a beautiful walk. The ropeway was....an experience. Lol

Small 4 person ropeway cars that rocked about and we went over some huge drops. I think I did pretty well, was a bit worried, Erin was laughing at me and saying I was cute, so I wiped my clammy hands on her :p The second ropeway was a larger car that took about 10-15 and it felt much better. The view was stunning, hazey but stunning. When we reached the top I read some information on a battle that had taken place in the valley we could see below. It was a battle between Mori and the Sue clans. Sounded very intense and chased to the ends of the island kind of stuff. Mori won the battle with far far less men by using tactics that scared the enemy. So after my little piece of Samurai history fulfillment we started the hike to Mt. Misen. It's fairly short (15-20mins) but about 600 steps through winding very uphill paths. The bones in the sides of my knees have been giving me trouble since Tokyo so I found it very painful but we made it :) Erin's messed up knee had trouble on the way back but we lived ;) And very worth it. Here's the photos. You'll also see the interesting dinner we had and the mega spatula. Miyajima is famous for its rice spatulas and it's maple leaf (waffle) cakes filled with sweet bean paste or cream custard. Most of it was actually really nice :)

Darren

We heard some bad news this morning. A member of our family Darren Round has sadly passed away unexpectedly on Saturday night. Daz, is my sister-inlaw's brother who I know a lot of you know. We will miss him very much so. He was a great guy and an inspiration to many who knew him. We will miss him very much.

RIP Daz, you walk with Jesus now in heaven :) All our love is still here with you.

To Hiroshima & Miyajima Island

We made our way to Hiroshima. It's been a heavy week and it was a very heavy day but we pushed through.
You certainly come away from Hiroshima...somber and very different. The amount of effort the US went to hide from the world the damage done at the time and many years after was terrible. While they were occupying Japan the US were making sure the media was very suppressed. One of the main reasons for the bombing was to show the Soviet Union what they were capable of. The US were very worried about the Soviet Union's plans for the East and West.<br />
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After Hiroshima we made use of the local tram system and made our way to Miyajima ferry. All went smoothly which was great! The ferry trip is pretty short and the weather was nice. The haze is still around though.<br />
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I don't really feel like typing that much today so I'll leave you with these photos of our trip.<br />

Sanjusangendo, Kiyomizu-dera Temple, Gion, Custom sword

Rainy day go away! We still braved it, it's only water. My umbrella looks halarious now but I still won't buy another.

We really enjoyed Sanjusangendo which is a natural treasure. Its an amazing tendai sect buddhist temple holding 1001 statues made from wood and covered in gold leaf of the thousand armed kannon and holds a giant statue of their deity as well. It was quite a sight. No photos allowed.

We also enjoyed our visit to independent buddhist temple 'Kiyomizu-dera' in this hills around Kyoto. It was beautiful there, rain had stopped and it was clearing up. We're amazed by the amount of, natural flowing water in Japan. Little waterfalls as nd trickling water sounds are everywhere. Alot are made just from monks or locals hundreds of years ago just to improve the feeling of a pathway or area.

We made our way to Gion to explore the Geisha district. We found many people walking around in Kimonos and buying things to beautify themselves. Unfortunately there was some sort of large protest in the street going on at the time but that moved on. Not sure what it was about.

Eventually we made it to Shogoin where I had already visited on our first day to buy the Katana. I'm getting a custom made to the theme I like. Moon and Dragonfly. Its going to be black silk, white bone, folded carbon steel and not a toy. See it in 4-5 months. :) Regular updates.

Off to Hiroshima tomorrow.