Wednesday, March 19:

We left Kyoto to go by rapid express train to Osaka (about 40 mins).  It was cold and raining, unfortunately.  We did have a good run of good weather while in Kyoto though.  In retrospect, we should have just stayed in Kyoto and done day trips to Osaka and Himeji, as there's really not alot to do in Osaka proper.  Our ryokan, Kameya Ryokan, was situated right near the Osaka Aquarium which was pretty handy, as that's one of the few highlights in Osaka city, but we had to catch a JR train (the Osaka loop train, which was free for us with JR passes) and then a subway to the Osakako stop.  We got to the ryokan pretty early, around 11am, and the room wasn't ready but we were able to drop off our bags and head off in the rain to the Aquarium (which is situated in an entertainment area, with big ferris wheel (which we didn't go on) an Imax theatre and a restaurant and shop complex).  The ryokan itself was pretty nice, we had a big room with a TV you didn't have to pay for, and the shared bathroom was just across the hall from us.  We decided to go to see an Imax first and then the Aquarium.  We saw Dinosaurs Alive 3D, which wasn't bad, then went to the Aquarium itself (which I thought was a bit over-prices at Y2000 each, tho Charee got a discount as it was Ladies' Day, which I think is every Wednesday -- those crazy japanese!).  The weather was miserable, rainy and cold, and after our afternoon entertainment we checked in then decided on 2 hrs karaoke before swimming around town looking for a place to eat.  We finally settled on a local izakaya, which was actually very nice indeed!  We relaxed in the evening by taking a japanese-style bath (where you have to wash before getting into the piping-hot water), and some late-night TV ("The Cable Guy" in japanese) before retiring.

Thursday, March 20:

We headed off to Himeji to see Himeji castle, a good day trip to do from Osaka (or Kyoto).  It was about an hour on local express train.  It was rainy in the morning but stopped by the time we got to Himeji, tho continued to threaten us with dark clouds overhead for the rest of the day.  The castle is a bit of a hike from the train station (and of course we managed to get a little lost) but we managed to get there, with only an udon stop along the way.  The Himeji Castle is quite a nice castle to visit, and if you're going to visit one in your travels, let this one be it.  The grounds and interior of the castle walls, and castle itself, are all worth checking out, and there are very nice views of Himeji city from the top of the castle.  We took a ton of pictures here.  There were also several neko (cats) around the grounds, at one point a clan of eight greeted us.  They didn't take too well to my stale beef jerky tho for some reason (one of them threw up). :-/  We spent most of the day at the castle and stopped for some omerice near the station (restaurant called pomu no ki) on the way out.  We took the shinkansen back to Osaka (why not? it's free for us with JR Passes), which only took 30mins.  Another hot japanese bath smoothed out any aches we'd accumulated in the day.

Friday, March 21:

We left Osaka and headed for Hiroshima by shinkansen (oh, how we love the shinkansen!).  It took about 90mins.  Hiroshima has a nice feel to it for a biggish city, and it was a bright clear day and quite warm when we arrived (late morning).  However we soon discovered that our accomodation (Minshuku Ikedaya) was on the other side of the city from the JR station.  We started walking.  And walking and walking, getting more hot and bothered as time went on (we had our backpacks on).  Soon we noticed that Hiroshima has trams, so we quickly jumped on one which made the trip towards our minshuku (like a japanese-style hotel, by the looks of it) much more expedient.  The minshuku was located very near the Memorial Peace Park, which commemorates the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in WW2.  So that was quite convenient, as besides the oishii okonomiyaki, a famous delicacy of Hiroshima, the Memorial Peace Park is the other main highlight of Hiroshima (tho as I now recall, I believe there is a very nice japanase garden somewhere in the city).  We finally found our minshuku, and after some confusion with the reception (we'd made a plan adjustment a few days earlier, at first we were only to spend 1 night in Hiroshima but we decided to spend 2 nights, and called ahead to extend our reservation), we got the key to the room.  Well, even for Y11,600 for 2 people for 2 nights (which is very reasonable), the place is pretty scary.  It's quite rundown, our room is very small compared with other places.  Our room was on the 4th floor (with no elevator!) with the shower room on the 1st floor.  Luckily every floor has a toilet tho!  We certainly got our exercise.  There was hardly anyone else in the whole place (unsurprisingly).  Still, I suppose you get what you pay for, next time we'll make sure we go to only ryokans!  But, we're backpackers so we take the good with the bad, and as long as there's a roof (or table) over your head at the end of the day, that's all that matters ultimately.  Besides, these sorts of things make for good stories. ;)  I decided to wash all my unders in the sink with shower gel, but then struggled to find a place to hang them in the room.  I found a long piece of wood in the cupboard (which may have been a piece of it at one stage) and managed to prop it up over the cupbaord doors to hang my washing on.  It worked pretty well.  Suspiciously, there was also a long piece of rope in the cupboard -- maybe this was the emergency escape route.  Anyway, after checking in (and grimacing) we headed over to the Peace Park and also went to the museum there, which was just as horrific the second time for me.  There are some pretty gruesome pictures of the A-bomb victims and survivors, so be warned if you're going.  The park is a definite must-see in Hiroshima though.  Afterwards, we went looking for some okonomiyaki.  We finally found a family-run okonomiyaki restaurant secreted on the 4th floor in an arcade.  It was very oishii!  Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki includes noodles, lettuce egg.  I got extra mochi (sticky rice cake) on mine and Charee got ika (squid) and ebi (prawn).  Afterwards we headed back in the dark to our creepy hotel.  We opted not to have a japanese-style bath, being unsure just how often the thing is cleaned!

Saturday, March 22:

Today we took a local train to Miyajima, an island south west of Hiroshima (25 mins express train, 10 mins ferry -- all JR so free if you have JR Pass).  Miyajima is famous for a huge red tori gate in the sea (you've probably seen pics of it).  There is also a big red temple to accompany it, as well as lot of other smaller temples and shrines.  We were greeted by a host of wandering deer upon arrival, Miyajima has lots of them.  They like to try to eat anything you have (including your clothes!).  We saw a couple of mischievous ones ransacking someone's stroller while they were in a shop.  We took the ropeway up the mountain (one of them) which gave us a good view of the islands.  We wanted to go to the Mt Misen Observatory and then hike back down the mountain.  Well, even after getting off the ropeway we had to hike up about another 45mins to the top.  There were nice views (and pink-faced monkeys), but we discovered that the easy course down the mountain was closed and we had to take a longer route.  We'd been told this would take an hour, however 3 hours later we finally reached the bottom.  Our feet were ready for replacement by this time.  It was quite arduous as the course comprised hundreds and hundreds of stone steps that wound up and down the mountains to the bottom.  We met a couple of old japanese ladies who accompanied us on most of the trip.  They were very genki tho, they had already hiked *up* the mountain!!  It was a nice adventure tho (we love hiking), even tho our feet didn't agree by the end of it.  The views from the trail were very nice, and there were cute little shrines along the way.  By the time we got to the bottom we were starving, we hadn't had lunch and it was about 5pm.  We stopped at the first place we saw, I got japanese curry and rice and Charee got katsu-don (pork cutlet and rice).  The water had gone out and the big tori gate was reachable by foot so we went to take a look.  We hung around until the sun set over the mountains then finally took the ferry and train back to Hiroshima.  Now we are in an internet cafe and then we'll go have the famous okonomiyaki in the train station mall before heading back to our creepy hotel.  We're very much looking forward to heading to Beppu in Kyushu tomorrow tho, and relaxing in the onsen (hot springs)!  Our trip is in its final week, but we still have some travelling to do.  After Beppu, there is still our temple stay in Koya-san to look forward to.  Stay tuned for that!