Boxing Day.

Not that you'd ever know it, living in Japan.

Emily and I headed to Hiroshima today, woohoo! I love Hiroshima. I think it was one of my favourite places here in Japan. We took the Shinkansen at 9:40am to Hiroshima, riding a Kodama train. This is the slowest of the Skinkansen, as it stops at all stops. (However, this worked for us, as I live in an itty bitty city.)

The Nozomi train came screaming, literally, by us a few times while we were waiting at NishiAkashi shinkansensen platform number 11. It was quite startling to see this thing go hurtling past in a blur of white and grey. To all family and friends, the train crash on December 26th occurred in NORTHERN Japan, and as such, did not affect me, so no worries. Anyone wishing to see what I'm talking about can go here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4559308.stm


Arrived in Hiroshima just after 12 noon, and got ourselves a quick lunch, before taking the Hiroshima Sanyo line down to Miyajimaguchi. (about 30 minutes) We then took the ferry over to Miyajima, which has a beautiful shrine and red tori gate.











This is a building with the characteristic maple leaves of Miyajima all over it, located in lovely Miyajima.





















An odd little laughing/screaming cat sculpture in Miyajima. (Some things in Japan just leave me wondering, "why?")





















The lovely Otori in Miyajima. This the gate you see on all posters for Miyajima, usually ones bearing the word "invitation," for some odd reason. I try not to question things like that TOO much, because reallym there doesn't need to be a reason. It was a really nice day out there, and the tide was just starting to come back in, so the gate looked a fair shade different than it did when mom and I visited.




















Emily and the famous Otori gate.






















A shrine lantern blowing in the wind at Miyajima.






















This is the five storied red pagoda, also famous in Miyajima.






















After leaving Miyajima, we returned to Hiroshima proper. (Via a nice little streetcar.) We got off right in front the bridge leading to the A Bomb Dome. So we took a few pictures.

Hiroshima right before sunset.






















This is the A Bomb Dome. Emily and I spent a good half an hour shooting pictures all over the place here. It was a beautiful time of day, very peaceful. Very few people were around.


















This is Emily getting a picture from behind the security fence.


















A Bomb Dome as the sun sets on Hiroshima.
















After that, we had dinner at Subway and wandered around a little bit, before deciding to check out Hiroshima Castle by night.



















The actual castle by night. It was a pain in the *** to shoot these, however, I think they all turned out more or less passable. This one I particularly liked.

















This is a shot I call Octopus Tree. I think it's very Christmas-sy and pretty. I miss Canada looking at things like this.
















This is the end of our trip, Emily asleep on the shinkansen.


Happy Boxing Day!!