Doing some siteseeing is great. You follow the instructions you read on the internet or in some guide, you get to see all those nice spots in the town you are in, etc. However, I don't think any of those guides tell you how amazing it is to simply watch Japan from a train. Lot's of people told us that in one month we woulnd't have time to see all of Japan. They recommended staying at specific places for a longer time instead of visiting a lot of places shortly. Thus, we would be able to see everything in those cities, and would not waste so much time travelling.
From what I've experienced here so far, that is plain wrong. If you come to Japan, even if you only have one week, get on a train and keep going as far as you can get. Seriously. Even if you only get to see Japan from a window in a train, you'll find the most amazing landscapes.
We left Osaka in the morning and took a train to Kobe. We didn't really know where to get off, but it somewhere along the way we decided that it didn't really matter if we got off somewhere else. Every station we passed looked like an amazing place to get off. We actually did get off at the right station, however, the primary goal of this sidetrip (to eat some of the famous Kobe meat) got cancelled the moment we found out how expensive it was. Nevertheless, in the end we did have some meat (finally!). We found a small restaurant where we could get shumai and some other stuff I don't really know the name. It looked good on the picture, so we bought it. Food doesn't change it's taste based on if you know its name, you know!
We also stayed some time at Kobe's port. There was some sort of festival going on, so we stayed there longer than we had planned (I told you, it's much better to have a more flexible plan, you can actually do what YOU like, not what the guy on the website or guide you read liked). There was some sort of oversized model train where people could sit on and ride on it around the track. Some meters away we found some sort of dance contest. Some of the groups that participated were really incredible. We saw all sorts of different contestants and groups, from a school class to a group of women in their fifties or sixties. Even the music was very varied. We would have stayed till the end if we hadn't had to take the train to get to Hiroshima in time. Ok, I lied, the overwhelming heat was our main reason to go... If you come to Japan during the summer, be sure to take some sunscreen and an umbrella or a cap! The sun can seriously burn your skin even in cloudy days if you're not used to it. In case you're wondering why I'm saying this, let's just say that, in the last days, our skin turned a bit too reddish.
When we finally took the train to Hiroshima, I unpacked my laptop in order to listen to some music during the trip, but soon noticed that I had left my earphones in the pocket of the pants I was wering yesterday, which were somewhere inside my backpack, buried under a lot of other stuff. Which was good. An old japanese man who was sitting beside me soon started to talk to me. He didn't speak much English, but, once again, using my lousy Japanese knowledge and the help of Kiten, a japanese dictionary I have on my computer, we managed to understand what each other was saying. We kept talking all the way, talking about our trip around Japan, about our occupations, and so on. He was really interested in our small language guide. Apparently it was somewhat hard for him to read romanji, and our language guide provided a great opportunity for him to compare kana and romaji in order to learn it. He really made our trip much more interesting. He even gave us some of the chocolates he had with him! :D
Hiroshima is really great. It is a small city, meaning that you can get anywhere you want to go by foot. Nevertheless, based on the few things I've seen so far, it is a really beatiful and interesting city. We used the last hour of daylight to visit the Peace Memorial Park. From there, we went to the more commercial part of town. We entered a gaming hall, where we found the most cool videogame I could have ever imagined: A capsule simulating the cockpit of a mecha. There were a lot of them in two rows, apparently connected by some sort of network, and a large screen in the middle where you could see the combat live. Unfotunately, it was way too expensive for us (500 yen per play)...
I'm really sorry, but it's 1:21 in the morning, and I'm tired. I'll write some more stuff about Hiroshma tomorrow
From what I've experienced here so far, that is plain wrong. If you come to Japan, even if you only have one week, get on a train and keep going as far as you can get. Seriously. Even if you only get to see Japan from a window in a train, you'll find the most amazing landscapes.
We left Osaka in the morning and took a train to Kobe. We didn't really know where to get off, but it somewhere along the way we decided that it didn't really matter if we got off somewhere else. Every station we passed looked like an amazing place to get off. We actually did get off at the right station, however, the primary goal of this sidetrip (to eat some of the famous Kobe meat) got cancelled the moment we found out how expensive it was. Nevertheless, in the end we did have some meat (finally!). We found a small restaurant where we could get shumai and some other stuff I don't really know the name. It looked good on the picture, so we bought it. Food doesn't change it's taste based on if you know its name, you know!
We also stayed some time at Kobe's port. There was some sort of festival going on, so we stayed there longer than we had planned (I told you, it's much better to have a more flexible plan, you can actually do what YOU like, not what the guy on the website or guide you read liked). There was some sort of oversized model train where people could sit on and ride on it around the track. Some meters away we found some sort of dance contest. Some of the groups that participated were really incredible. We saw all sorts of different contestants and groups, from a school class to a group of women in their fifties or sixties. Even the music was very varied. We would have stayed till the end if we hadn't had to take the train to get to Hiroshima in time. Ok, I lied, the overwhelming heat was our main reason to go... If you come to Japan during the summer, be sure to take some sunscreen and an umbrella or a cap! The sun can seriously burn your skin even in cloudy days if you're not used to it. In case you're wondering why I'm saying this, let's just say that, in the last days, our skin turned a bit too reddish.
When we finally took the train to Hiroshima, I unpacked my laptop in order to listen to some music during the trip, but soon noticed that I had left my earphones in the pocket of the pants I was wering yesterday, which were somewhere inside my backpack, buried under a lot of other stuff. Which was good. An old japanese man who was sitting beside me soon started to talk to me. He didn't speak much English, but, once again, using my lousy Japanese knowledge and the help of Kiten, a japanese dictionary I have on my computer, we managed to understand what each other was saying. We kept talking all the way, talking about our trip around Japan, about our occupations, and so on. He was really interested in our small language guide. Apparently it was somewhat hard for him to read romanji, and our language guide provided a great opportunity for him to compare kana and romaji in order to learn it. He really made our trip much more interesting. He even gave us some of the chocolates he had with him! :D
Hiroshima is really great. It is a small city, meaning that you can get anywhere you want to go by foot. Nevertheless, based on the few things I've seen so far, it is a really beatiful and interesting city. We used the last hour of daylight to visit the Peace Memorial Park. From there, we went to the more commercial part of town. We entered a gaming hall, where we found the most cool videogame I could have ever imagined: A capsule simulating the cockpit of a mecha. There were a lot of them in two rows, apparently connected by some sort of network, and a large screen in the middle where you could see the combat live. Unfotunately, it was way too expensive for us (500 yen per play)...
I'm really sorry, but it's 1:21 in the morning, and I'm tired. I'll write some more stuff about Hiroshma tomorrow
----------------------------------------------------
At the port in Kobe
Finally, some MEAT!
Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park
View from a bridge near the Peace Memorial Park
Mecha cockpit simulator. The quality of the picture is not very good. There are actually some pedals down there you can use to move forward, use the jetpack, etc.
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