Day Two - Hiroshima (Part 2)

Because we were too full of oysters, we decided to take a stroll around the island.



A traditional Japanese house.



Check out the car park. Just enough height to fit in this car! This guy better not change his taste to an SUV.



Suddenly, this kid came up to me, expecting me to give something. The father immediately took her away, thinking like I'm some sort of pedophilia or something.



You don't need to be a good photographer to take a good picture when a sakura tree is in it!



See what I mean?



Yay, another long perspective shot. This time, it's the staircase leading towards another shrine.



You thought that the staircase handrail is just a handrail? Think again!



My mom, ringing the bell. Hideyuki-sensei said that it wasn't the way to hit the bell. Oh well, my mom is just not cut out to be a bell ringer.



Oh man, the sakura is soooo beautiful. And yes, that's my mom.



We entered a small shrine. It was so quiet and serene, you could hear a Japanese pin drop.



And l-o-o-k at this view in the shrine! Isn't it amazing?! Now THIS is what I call a Japanese garden.



A dragon motive on the sliding door. Looks like Mushu from Disney's Mulan, don't you think?



Uhhh, not interested in touching your body the same way I touch my delicate, thank you very much.



Had to access my laptop coz the camera's memory stick was almost full. I just can't control myself when a digital camera is in my hand. What more with a laptop handy, I can easily snap a million photos if I wanted to.



Man, what pressure... had to put my mom, the tree, the flowers, the pond and the structure all within the same picture. Stress-nya...



Actually the girl in black was quite cute, so I made these stone scriptures as an excuse to take her picture. A little too far though :(



My mom, trying to act cute among the already cute statues.



Check out the dazzling effects of the cleverly arranged lanterns at the ceiling of this mini-shrine.



Another view of the lanterns.



It's me and Tanuki (raccoon-dog)! My mom said that I look very much like a Tanuki... *grumble*... *grumble*...



We walked up the hill to check out Miyajima Island from a higher perspective. Cannot imagine that we were walking between these houses today.



Oh another sakura tree!



A scenic view with the five-storey pagoda included.



And another scenic view, this time with the O-torii.

We finally reached the top of a small hill, where there was a house cum coffee shop. So guess what we had...



... that's right, coffee. What better way to drink coffee...



... than to drink it just below the cherry blossoms.



The three backpacks symbolizing the three of us resting in the coffee shop.



A line of Sakura trees. I knew that this was coming!



The view from the reverse side. The tree trunks are dark, the flowers are bright... simply beautiful.



What if I crawled? How long will that take?



I saw Ben's sister taking very nice photos of flowers in Kyoto, so I thought I'd give it a try as well. This picture doesn't do her skills justice, of course.



Me and the five-storey pagoda. This picture could be similar to any tourist's travel pictures on Thailand, so Mama had to include the Sakura flowers a little to make it more convincing :)

The below are more pictures of the Sakura blossoms. Again, need no explanation (and again, I'm a little lazy)









Another flower composition.

The sun was setting, but we realised that the tide was getting higher. So we immediately went back to the O-torii to take a picture of it submerged in sea water.



Success! Man, I wanna make a postcard out of this scenery.



Ah, the sea breeze... how refreshing!

But still not refreshing enough to relieve us off our full stomach. So we decided to walk somemore. Hideyuki-sensei suggested that we should take a stroll around the residential areas (my favourite! :D) of Miyajima Island.



A traditional Japanese street. Narrow road with carefully space-managed houses. I like it :D



Check out the inside of this house. Although the house is small, the owners really make use of the garden area.



Well a few people are in a habit of taking their picture in the mirror, so I thought I might as well join the fun.



Yay, another yeng picture of me walking down the street of Miyajima.

We walked and walked and walked, and finally we reached the Island's port. We decided to go back to a shopping complex near the Hiroshima train station to have a light supper. Both the ferry and the train were managed by JR (Japan Railways), so our two-week pass took care for it.



Arigatou Japan Rail Pass! For 1,600 ringgit each, we get to use any JR services for a period of 2 weeks. Just for your information, a trip like yesterday's (Narita Airport to Tokyo, then to Shin Osaka, then to Hiroshima) would cost us 850 ringgit each. This pass is only available to foreigners, and its price is so low that even the Japanese are envious.



Wah Stella, you also here ah? Somemore become Auntie baking cookies already, hahaha



It is only with this kind of advertising that I can be motivated to go to McDs and eat. Wow, prawn burger and prawn nuggets. Too bad I have gout, darn.



For light supper, Hideyuki-sensei belanja us for the third time! (hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita, Hideyuki-sensei!) This time, it's Chicken Udon, which is really delicious! What a way to end my day.

Alright that's all. I hope that I won't take this many pictures for the following days. Or else it'll be hell to filter them out again. see you tomorrow! mata ne!