Restful Beppu

 The view from my window today

Notice I say today rather than this morning. Today is a free day & we chose to make it a relax day. And I take my relaxing seriously. While the others got up at the usual time for brekki I slept in.

While they went for a walk, & had morning tea at Starbucks, I continued to sleep in & it was very pleasant there in the first comfy, non-rock like bed we’ve had on this trip. 

Refreshed from all this slothfulness i challenged the ever energetic Sandy to a spot of shopping, before a swim in the rooftop pool, here we are ready for that adventure.

And during (with our friend Cam joining in)

And then a visit to the hotel onsen. No photos of this because of all the nakedidity. Men and women are separate and the feeling of female space is empowering and delightfully surprising. As with so many Japanese experiences it’s quiet, without any overt request for quiet, & very calm. The clothes & shoes to wear into the onsen (pictured above) are provided along with a basket to carry towels shampoos etc not that we needed to take that stuff but it’s all provided too. 

I’ll admit to being nervous about the naked bit, turns out unnecessarily so much discretion from everyone put me at my ease. And Sandy & I were in there on our own for a long time, which was very nice. The water is still, not like a spa and very hot. I’m not sure if there’s minerals in it but it certainly felt healing, as well as supremely relaxing. Afterwards there’s individual shower alcoves with small wooden seats and all the hair products, lotions etc a girl could want  

Moving on from there is an area to dry/style your hair do make up etc. before heating out into the big bad world again. I’m telling you the Japanese really know there stuff when it comes to living life.

This is another memory I’ll cherish from this trip. I’m so lucky to have these experiences.

Beppu

 The view from my (train) window this morning 

We sent our luggage on ahead today & caught the Shinkansen (bullet train), headed for Beppu, because that’s really a must do activity in Japan … right?! Ken got us to the station and nearly got us on  the right train. Close Ken but no cigar, if not for the astute people in the tour group who were reading plarform guides and pointed us in the right direction we would have ended up at Tokyo today. 

Here is Campbell, 

a very nice young man in our group. He’s on box duty today. Ken, and various ‘helpers’ have been carrying these boxes around for the whole trip. They are the boxes the audio devices came. He’s actually given up using his, so now he just shouts at us, but we carry these boxes so that he can return the devices at the end of the trip. One wonders if there is no other way of obtaining boxes in Japan?

Lunch was at a service station, but they don’t do service stations over here like we do. I mean look at this view of Beppu for a start.

And how about this food … at a truck stop!

Down in Beppu we went to a very interesting museum, Japanese do these interactive places really well. The middle room was a labyrinth with stamp-stations to locate and decorate a postcard (going out to my grandies) which was right up my ally. I really enjoyed this whole activity.

Beppu is a place built up around hot springs. The Hells of Beppu are a series of pools amidst pretty gardens, well worth the walk around. 

Finally arriving at our hotel, via a circuitous route, Ken unsure where he was going again, and we were all sure we were in the wrong place because very posh, and not unknown for Ken to say ‘ummm no not here’  but it turned out this was where we are staying for the next couple of days and we are extremely happy about that.

Hiroshima

If you’re at all interested in modern history this has to be on your ‘to see’ list. And actually, even if you’re not, come here. See what happened. Hear the stories from the people who were here while they can still tell you. Our guide today was born four days after the Enola Gay delivered her heartbreaking payload. She was not at the epicentre but her parent’s family was, and they went in to the hit zone to find them. Can you imagine caring for a newborn whilst looking for your own parents in that devastation?

We met this wonderful woman early in the morning and she started our tour by teaching us how to negotiate the public transportation 

Tram to the port

Ferry to Miyajima

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If I ever  come back to Japan I’d like to spend a three or four days here.  It’s beautiful and calm and there seemed like so much do. Having a couple of days here would be very restful I think.

On the way out of here we sampled the local cuisine. We all had cream cakes (yum) & Mike had grilled oysters straight from the local oyster leases. They were HUGE!

Back into Hiroshima after this pleasant sojourn, we walked on the T-shaped bridge that was the target. 

We stood on the spot that Little Boy exploded 600m above. 

We walked around the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, now called Atomic Bomb Dome, where people were working that morning when it looked like this

And we’re all killed instantly when the bomb dropped

Kept now in this state of preserved ruin as a reminder of the terrifying destruction of nuclear weapons. The people in power took 22 years to agree to preserve this building. The resistance came from survivors who found the remains too painful to encounter as a regular part of their day to day life. 

These memorials are dotted around the building. All of them have water bottles as a reminder of the poor desperate people begging for water, there is still a sense of guilt at not being able to get it for them or getting it for them & actually killing them with the toxins. 

The museum in this precinct is confronting. It’s the square, blocky building at the back. There are no ‘quiet please’ signs and no need for them. The huge crowd moved through the exhibits in almost total silence. Perhaps if the crazy lunatics waging war out there spent some time without these walls they might re-think? 

This whole area has a strong focus on the desire for peace. A perpetual flame burns until all nuclear weapons are abolished. The children make paper cranes in an effort to ask world leaders for peace. We placed one too, that our wonderful guide made for us. It was such a privilege to spend the day with her. And hear her stories so generously and gently shared. Such a privilege, a memory to be cherished. 

Travel day: Osaka - Hiroshima

A full day in the bus today with a stop at the very pretty Kurashiki for lunch and a walk, which we managed to fit in before the rain, almost (bit of a hasty retreat to the bus - no time for counting people Ken lol).

Hiroshima is a very pretty place. After dinner Sandy & I put on our fancy dresses to go for a walk through the Christmas lights.

Which are amazing. It was chilly and a lovely way to end the day.

Rooftops & rain in Osaka

This is always my favourite window view, I love him so much, it’s just the best way to start the day.

And my favourite days on this tour are our free days, where the four of us plan our own route and launch off to see and do our own activities. First on our list, after a later than usual start, was the Umeda Sky Building. A fascinating bit of architecture, particularly the glass escalators and the rain held off long enough for a roof top view.

That was the end of the rain holding off though. Didn’t matter. We had the best day. We started here with the idea of working back to our evening go-cart adventure. Yes that’s right go-carting on the Osaka city streets! We have been warned by the proprietors to journey by train only. All other forms of transport being subject to traffic congestion causing tardiness that would void our booking.

To ensure this did not happen we started our day far out and worked our way in. Osaka Castle was next. We were all excited by the prospect of this magnificent building.

We did not know it is a museum inside. I mean it’s very interesting but a modern central stairwell around a lift with museum exhibits on eight floors is not what we were expecting. We climbed all those stairs, the lift queues were prohibitively long, and walked around the top open floor, nice view of the keep. 

There’s an eating hall on the grounds where we gratefully sat our weary selves down for a spell before pushing off into the rain for a spot of shopping at the king of $2 shops Don Quijote.

My friend Jo told me, get in the lift, go to the top, shop each floor (seven in total) on the way down otherwise you’ll get overwhelmed. And so that’s just what we did much to the chagrin of Mike & Geoff who had had enough shopping half way though the 7th floor. 

It was raining pretty hard by the time we were done shopping but no contact from the go-carts to say they were cancelling so off we trotted, we were just a 15 minute walk away by now having spent the near getting ever nearer, to arrive in plenty of time. 

The thing to do is to get dressed up when you go-cart in the city and, as we are nothing if not things todoers we chose our costumes … Pooh & Piglet for Mike & Me, Spider-Man & Mini Mouse for Sandy & Geoff & then we were off racing around the streets of Osaka in what was an extremely damp brilliantly fun experience we will never forget.