Japan - The End

My last blog from Japan. Amazing how time flies. No more free internet at the moment so chasing the clock too. From Hakone we caught a Tozan bus all the way to Odawara for us to pick up the shinkansen once again. This time Odawara - Shin-Osaka (50 min stop) - Hiroshima. The train's top speed on this leg was 285 km/h so definitely not pedestrian. We had time once we got to Hiroshima to walk to the A-Dome site as well as the Peace Park Memorial, very well done and very sobering too. It is quite incredible to see the devastation caused by the bomb. An area of 2 km around the epicentre was absolutely flattened. Interestingly we saw no visible signs of Starbucks nor McDonald's on our walks around the city? Found 7-Eleven though where we stocked up on our breakfast stuff.
The next day we were back on a train bound for Miyajima-guchi, the stepping off point for Miyajima Island. The JR rail passes working overtime for us luckily. By pure chance the tide was still high enough for us to enjoy the classic sight of the floating tori rising out of the sea. Very impressive and unusual too. We walked through the Itsukishima shrine and then on towards the Daisho-in Temple which was set away from the ferry terminal higher up the hill... it was such a peaceful spot we could have stayed wandering around there for hours. Mindful of the fact that we had a train to catch we headed back to catch the ferry. One of the so-called "wild" deer took a shine to us and tried to eat my shirt, Rebecca's ice-cream and drink Kaz's coffee! Anyway, back to Hiroshima where we had sushi for lunch at K's guest house and then wiled away the time reading until we set off to catch the Shinkansen Rail Star to Kyoto, this time a 5 min stop at Shin-Osaka to change trains. Using trains that hit 285 km/h is certainly the way to travel. We are staying at Tour Club in Kyoto, a bit of a disappointment after our K's experiences. It is looking a bit tired and very busy. Anyway we have hardly spent any time here as we have been out and about. There are around 1600 temples in Kyoto so you have to be quite choosy or have a lot of time! We hit some of the more famous one's and also some that have impressive zen gardens so we have seen a nice mix. I am not going to bore you with all the details here (anyway my clock ticks on!)
We also managed to see a geisha or meiko on our way through the Gion district which was quite special. There aren't too many of them still knocking about. We also went to the famous Nishiki Market especially to see the food and the kitchen utensil section but at 6pm they were practically all closing which was a pain.
Today we went to Nara, a 40 min train ride away, which was the capital for about 74 years. On the way, we first stopped at Inari station to visit the Fushimi Shrine. This one was brilliant. It has avenues of thousands of the red toris (gates) winding up and down the mountainside. This is definitely a must-see! In Nara we visited Toda-ji Temple. It is the largest wooden building in the world and houses the largest budha in the world too. It is a world heritage sight as well I think. It is not too surprising that in a country with 120 million people, the majority of the tourists are locals. We came across this in China too. So everywhere is pretty busy.
Anyway, hope all is well and will try to blog again from Borneo!!