Japan Part 2

Since we left Japan last night and are headed to China this morning, maybe it makes sense to tell about the last few days in reverse order, so this post is titled Part 2. Our experience in Japan was wonderful, intense, exhausting, and highly memorable.

Yesterday (Thursday), our last day in the country, we were based from the ship which was docked in Kobe. We had done a lot of touring of historical sites up until then, so we gave Jr a break and went to the Osaka aquarium, which was about an hour and a half away from Kobe by the time we took the 4 trains necessary to get there. We have been to quite a few aquariums in the US and elsewhere over the years, this one definitely rivaled the best in size, and probably exceeded them in the quality of the sealife exhibited. Jr loved it (Shawn, you would have, too!). He liked the cuttlefish best. Right outside the aquarium was the world's tallest ferris wheel (think London Eye then add Miracle Gro). We convinced Jr to go up it even though he claims to be afraid of heights. Osaka is a huge metropolis that spans a river, the views did not disappoint. The final, exciting moments of our trip to Japan happened when Grandpa realized he was missing his wallet just as we were standing on the train platform to go back to the ship at the end of the day, with only a little more than 2 hours to spare before we absolutely had to be back on the ship. Many tense moments later, he and I arrived back at the last shop we had visited near the aquarium, to be greeted by the shop owner who took us to the complex's information center to retrieve Grandpa's wallet. Only in Japan! Jr and Sr had waited on the train platform, sweating bullets. We made it back to the ship on time and in tact.

On Wednesday, we split the day between Miyajima Island, where we had arrived Tuesday night, and Hiroshima, where we spent the afternoon. Miyajima is a small island near Hiroshima that was recommended to us by our friend Mari. At one time, the shrines there were reserved just for the emperor, and commoners could only get close by boat, rather than set foot on the island. We got the chance to spend the night in a lovely traditional Japanese hotel ("ryokan") and climb a mountain on paths several hundred years old. Along with the hotel stay came two Japanese meals. The picture below is of our traditional Japanese breakfast, dinner was even more beautiful and complex. We took a ferry to the island on Tuesday late afternoon, then on Wednesday afternoon we left via rapid ferry for Hiroshima. I think I'll stop this post here and write Part 1 about Hiroshima and Kyoto a bit later.