We had WHAT for dinner??

Tuesday April 13th

Today was all go! We made an early start and legged it to the station to catch the train and then the ferry to Miyajima. Miyajima is the island which is famous for its red torii gate often seen on Japan travel posters. We took a quick stroll along the esplanade and took some photos of the torii gate and the deer that are roaming freely around the island. It appears that they occasionally pop in for a spot of shopping in the local stores. We noticed that they were all eating something off the ground and on closer inspection discovered that they were eating the fallen cherry blossoms. What a cute little clean-up crew!

In keeping with our recent habit of being in the right place at the right time, we witnessed a wedding party going by, with the bridal couple being transported in a rickshaw pulled by a man who looked like someone from Japan's past. The local people clapped as they went past and shouted 'omedetou gozaimasu' which means congratulations.

Then it was back to the ferry and the station to catch the shinkansen to Hamamatsu.

On the way back to Hiroshima Station, we came across a young man who was deeply asleep. When we pulled into Hiroshima Station, John tried his best to wake him up, but we think he might have had a little too much sake the night before, so he wasn't ready for rejoining the world. We had to leave him to continue his snooze, so he may still be riding the rails while his boss and family wonder where he's gone.

We had a rough plan to meet Toshi, my other Japanese penfriend at the Hamamatsu Railway station and I'd told him I'd email him from the shinkansen. We had been told that Internet access is available on the trains and at the stations. Much to my frustation, we couldn't get access, either on the shinkansen or at the station, so I felt really bad that Toshi would not know whether we were coming or not, and which train we would be on. Fortunately I'd given him two possibilities, so there he was waiting for us when we stepped off the train. He took us to his local shrine, which was very beautiful. He bought us each a little good luck charm from the shrine. Then we did it again - right place, right time. A couple of local builders had arranged to have a blessing at the shrine and they arrived while we were there, so we were treated to an authentic Shinto ceremony performed by the priest, accompanied by drums and Japanese flute. We then went for a walk around the town around the new city plazas. In the background of the 'pots of tulips' photo is a 45 storey building called the Akura Hotel which has an observation deck at the top. Toshi took us up there and we had an amazing view of the city. We saw our hotel, which looked like a little shed compared to the surrounding buildings.

We then went for an early dinner. John had decided before leaving home that he wasn't keen on eating unagi (eel) which is the specialty dish of Hamamatsu. We'd been told by several people that it's very nice, so he put on a brave face when we decided to go to a restaurant that serves unagi. Toshi recommended a meal for us, so we all had unagi with rice, soup and some crunchy vegetables. The soup was clear and quite tasty, but had a strange object sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Toshi said 'that is quite bitter'. When John asked him what it was, he pulled out his iPhone and used the translator. When he showed us the translation it said "liver of the eel". Sorry, Japan, we've loved most things we've eaten, but we really couldn't face that one! The eel itself (minus liver) was very nice and we enoyed the meal very much.

Toshi then took us back to our hotel and we parted company. As with Hiroko, it has been very nice to meet someone that I've been writing to for some time. We really enjoyed his company and I'll enjoy our exchanges of emails even more now I know him a little better.

We relaxed in the hotel for the remainder of the evening so we'll be ready to take on Tokyo tomorrow.