昨日は広島、今日は東京

We got to Hiroshima about mid-morning yesterday. We didn't know that JR runs buses between the station and our hostel, so we bought a one-day pass and boarded a city bus for 新牛田町 instead of using our JR Passes. And when we got off, it turns out that the one-day pass is good only for the streetcar, not the buses!! Arrrrgh! Then, we failed to notice the signs leading to the hostel and walked in the hot sun for about fifteen minutes in the wrong direction. After turning around and finding the signs, we then realized that we had to walk up a mountain, which added another twenty minute walk to our day, this time uphill. When we finally dropped everything off we were hot, sweaty, tired, and hungry ...

After being kindly instructed by the receptionist that we could use our JR passes, we headed back down the mountain and boarded a JR bus to the bus centre. There, we decided to use our streetcar passes, since they had cost us 600円 anyway, and were kind of more convenient than the JR buses which hardly ever ran inside the city. First, I found us a building that only housed okonomiyaki restaurants. It was the first time in two years that I had had Hiroshima's wonderfully cheesy okonomiyaki, all fried up and yummy ... a little expensive, but considering we only eat one real meal per day I defy anyone to say it wasn't worth it.

We then went to the Atomic Bomb Dome and Museum, and then took the streetcar to Miyajima which was at the end of the line ... a long, long ways away. On the way there, though, there was a drunken old man swinging from the hand rings ... who screamed at the conductor about how when the streetcar turned a corner, he swung around. I should have offered to toss him off like we were on the TTC - the poor guy looked thoroughly confused about why he was being accosted by this old man. I think Chris got it on tape.

We left for Tokyo this morning, and since even on the Shinkansen it's about five hours from one end of Japan to the other, today was designated as a 'travel/rest' day. We had some yakiniku for dinner, which surprised some people when the final price was totalled, but did we ever eat a lot. We'll go to the post office tomorrow and take out some money from our bank accounts to make up for a few shortfalls, although I think I'm going to come out of this trip with some money still left in my pocket.

When I was in Osaka, I also picked up a birthday present for my dad. I won't be able to give it to him until my graduation ceremony in June, but oh well. It should be better than last time because I got one that has English.