On Monday we had planned to do a day trip to Miyajima. After breakfast, we walked to the station to catch the train to Miyajima-guchi. At Miyajima-guchi we caught the JR Ferry for the ten minute ride past some oyster beds to Miyajima Island. Miyajima is an island in the Western part of the Inland Sea of Japan and it's famous for the Itsukishima Shrine. When we arrived it was high tide and the bottom of the torii (gate) at the Itsukishima shrine was surrounded by water, which made it look like it was floating on the sea. At the ferry terminal we were greeted by hungry deer looking for handouts. Keith has decided that deer are basically like goats as they seemed to eat anything! We walked through the Omotosando Shopping Arcade which sold the usual tourist souvenirs and large grilled oysters. The highest point of Miyajima is Mt Misen – which can be accessed by a few paths and a Ropeway (cable car). We chose to take the Momijidani course which was the shortest path at 2.7 kms – but it still took us a good hour or so to reach the top of Mt Misen. At the top we were rewarded with gorgeous views of Miyajima Island and the other little islands dotted around the inland sea. We chose to take the longer path (Omoto Course) back down to the pier so that we could see the other side of the island. This turned out to be a little more challenging as the path was not as good. When we arrived at the pier, it was low tide and the torii was now surrounded by mud and people with buckets collecting shellfish. Back at the Shopping Arcade, Suzie tried a couple of oysters and then we caught the ferry back to Miyajima-guchi. We were pretty hungry by then so on the way to the station we stopped in at the 7-11 where we purchased a couple of bento box salads to eat on the train. Keith had a little accident with the salad dressing on the train. As he tore open the sachet the ponzu dressing squirted out – onto the skirt and handbag of the unfortunate little Japanese girl who was sitting opposite him!! She was really sweet about it though – and even offered us the use of her flannel to clean ourselves! Keith was mortified and wanted to say sorry in Japanese but the only words he could think of were "arigato gozaimus" which he kept repeating until he remembered that it meant "thank you very much".
On Tuesday after a leisurely breakfast, we checked out of the hostel and walked to the station to catch the Shinkansen for the first leg of our journey to Tsuwano. At Shin-Yamaguchi we transferred to a local train with a single carriage and began the steady climb to Tsuwano. We had woken up to a beautiful day in Hiroshima but when we arrived at Tsuwano it was raining. Keiko from Hoshi Ryokan met us at the station with umbrellas and we walked around the corner to the minshuku (family guest house). We elected to take the room with dinner and breakfast included and Keiku agreed to have dinner ready for us at 7.00 pm. We went to the cafe next door to have lunch. After lunch we went back to the minshuku to drink Tsuwano tea and work out how best to spend a cold and rainy afternoon in Tsuwano. We decided to walk through Tsuwano town to the local onsen - Nagomi no Sato. We walked with umbrellas past carp ponds and mountains rising on both sides with mist swirling down. On top of one mountain were the remaining walls of Tsuwano castle. By the time we reached the onsen the rain had stopped. Onsens are natural hot springs and generally consist of public bathing/soaking facilities with indoor and outdoor pools. Onsen water is believed to have healing powers derived from its mineral content. The onsen we went to had several different baths, saunas and an outdoor bath. After about an hour, we met outside and walked home just in time for dinner.
The dinner was an absolute feast of white flesh fish sashimi with soy and wasabi, seaweed soup with crunchy bamboo shoot, small shellfish which we removed from the shell and ate with rice, a fine seaweed with cucumber in a vinegar sauce, cold soba noodles with toasted seaweed in a soy dressing, pickles and strawberries. While we ate our way through these courses a claypot nabe was cooking away on the table. Inside the pot were wombok cabbage, green water cress, onion, enoki mushroom, beef, and a prawn. We removed these from the claypot with chopsticks and dipped them into a ponzu sauce before eating with rice. We drank the stock at the end of the meal and also had green tea to drink. It was the best meal we have had in Japan!
The next morning, we woke up to sunny blue skies and went downstairs to another feast for breakfast: rice, miso soup, toasted seaweed, pickles, fried egg with lettuce and cabbage, a mini wiener cooked with potato and cabbage, some sort of white tofu looking gel, beans and honeydew melon washed down with green tea. After breakfast we packed up and checked out. Then we walked through town and up some stone stairs through multiple red toriis to the Indari shrine, and then up the path to the castle, passing a large brown snake on the way. We stopped at the castle keep thinking it was the castle. Later we realised and walked the extra 300 metres to the castle ruins where there were great views over the valley. We walked down back into town, admired the carp in the ponds and went to the station to catch our train to Asoeki at the base of Mount Aso.
On Thursday morning we caught the first bus to Mount Aso. The bus wound up beautiful green grassed hillsides towards the mountain peaks. We stopped on the way to admire twin lakes in front of a small peak. We got off at the final stop and walked a small distance up to the crater edge. You could see green molten material bubbling away in the bottom and white steam clouds rising from the liquid. Around it was a large crater of stone with no vegetation at all. We walked away from the crater and along a path until we reached the base of a peak and started climbing up the steep track marked with yellow painted arrows. A nimble elderly group of Japanese passed us on the way up! Once we reached the top it was a lot easier and we traipsed along the mountain edge admiring the changing views. There was ground cover growing in most places and many insects flying around. We stopped and had lunch of apple and nuts/cracker snacks by the side of the track. We continued on and on the southern side was a dense cover of low shrubs which the track ran through like a tunnel. From a distance it looked like an undulating green blanket. By now we were very high and looking over the cliff edges was quite scary. We decided not to take the steep track down to a parking station and took the longer but gentler route. By the time we made it to the parking station for the closed ropeway it was 4pm and we were quite tired. We had come down a different route so we had to walk down the mountain further to Miyaji railway station and catch the train back to Aso. Luckily a Japanese couple in a light van picked us up and drove us to Miyaji station, for which we were thoroughly grateful. We grabbed a sultana bun from the bakery next to the station and jumped on the train to Aso. Back at Aso we headed off to the onsen to soak our weary legs.
On Friday went to Fukuoka – the capital of Kyushu island. We checked into the Hakata Riverside Hotel which was in a covered shopping arcade. Fukuoka is famous for Tonkotsu (pork bone) Ramen so at the recommendation of the hotel we went to the nearby Canal City Shopping Centre where they had a Ramen Stadium. This contained half a dozen ramen shops. We had a fantastic bowl of ramen and then headed out to Tenji District to walk around the inner city. We saw the Akarenga Cultural Centre which was a European style building with a copper roof and the former prefectural office. We walked through the red light district and along some pretty canals lined with weeping willows.
On Saturday we caught the Shinkansen to Himeji – this time it was only one train. We checked in and dropped our luggage off at Toyoko Inn and then walked to Himeji-jo Castle. Himeji castle was surrounded by a moat and had tall stone foundations and white washed walls. Unlike other castles in Japan, Himeji (also called Shirasagijo - White Heron Castle - due to its white outer walls) was never destroyed by earthquakes, fires or wars so it is in its original state. We followed the tour route which seemed to spiral towards the main castle keep. We walked along the West Bailey building which had a long pine floored corridor with several stone dropping holes at strategic points. We saw samples of "family crest" circle tiles on the eaves and the oil wall (a wall made of clay and sand and boiled rice water). Unfortunately the main castle keep was closed for renovation so we were unable to visit it.
After leaving the castle we went next door to visit the Koko-en garden. This was a series of small ornamental Japanese gardens with waterfalls, carp-infested ponds, a bamboo garden, a pine tree garden, a flower garden and a tea ceremony house. These were all immaculately maintained. We walked back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
This morning we went to the station to catch the first of our trains Kawaguchiko at the base of Mount Fuji. Today was our last day with the Japan Rail Pass. At Otsuki we had to change to the Fujikyuko line to catch the Fuji Express to Kawaguchiko. The train turned out to be a special tourist train with a beautiful wooden interior, lounge-like seating and big windows that gave us a panoramic view of Mount Fuji. When we arrived at Kawaguchiko, we were collected from the station by a van from K's House – which saved us a 1 km walk to the hostel. After we checked in, we walked around Lake Kawaguchi where Keith took some photos of Mt Fuji. As it was a cloudy day, we could only see the top of the mountain surrounded by cloud which made it look like it was floating in the sky. Much to Keith's excitement we saw a monkey – our first in Japan!
We walked to the Kosaku restaurant for dinner where we tried horse sashimi!!
YUK!!
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