2016年 12月 23日 (金)
Wouldn’t it be nice if the world was my way, then I can take dusk/dawn pictures all day. But it’s not, so a saddened me sat gazing at the gorgeous pink sky as the fleeting moment passed by as the train wheels rolled on.
The trip out to Miyajima/Istukushima was simple and clean, with the trams working in our favour (still despise them) and the ferry ride short and sweet.
Walking towards the grandest of all torii (citation needed), I came across the only legitimate art piece that blows anything else out of the water.
a literal nutsack
Coming to my senses, we moved onto the tori to trump all torii – the Itsukushima Shrine. Like the high tide, any hopes to see it were washed away. Instead, we were met with its little sibling which compounded my dissatisfaction of missing out on the early morning light.
In uplifting news, we happened to bump into another Adelaidean! What are the chances of that?! Going the extra mile and uplifting the spirits even higher, deer ‘ol Carolyn decided to give us a show. All was the usual, we were minding ourselves and enjoying the sights. I was tending to my camera when I heard a deafening shriek coming from our mischievous star. Turning around, the sight before me was something ripe for a YouTube video. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Carolyn decided to have a little tug of war against a local deer... with her JR Pass, a $727 non-refundable or exchangeable piece of paper. It looked like a losing battle. All you could hear were Carolyn’s cries for help and us laughing our arses off.
Narrowly claiming victory, she collected the spoils of war - a revised JR Pass, fresh with bite marks and dripping saliva. It's all the rage.
Image courtesy of our deer star
Our stay in Itsukushima was as short as the stint Carolyn had with her deer friend. We only ventured into the market/stalls. It definitely warrants another thorough visit.
Returning to Hiroshima, we collected our things for our departure later on. Wilson and I were the last to leave and stumbled into a man at the elevator just by the door. He asked for the apartment key and without any resistance, I gave it up. Re-joining the others below, Alex questioned the legitimacy of that person. I messaged our host and bolted back up to the bnb. Alex and I tried to confirm some things but saw the futility in no one understanding anything. We did see the guy with cleaning gear, but still had some doubts. Could be a guise for the thief. The host promptly responded, clearing up any misunderstandings. He was indeed the cleaner.
With the heavy burden of our luggage, we visited Hiroshima’s iconic landmarks. Bringing around the luggage was a draaag. However, that burden doesn’t remotely compare to what the city had to burden. Seeing what the city has flourished into was incredible.
Rumbling louder than the wheels of our luggage were our empty stomachs. Lunchtime!
Carolyn and I went to eat at Art Café ELK (エルク) and the others ate at a soba place we passed earlier. While I did enjoy ELK, I wanted to eat at the noodle place... it smelt really nice and as the others gloated to me, “tasted sooo good”. arses
ELK is found in a nondescript building with minimal signage to stand out, unless you were looking for it. Inside, the space was lovely and welcoming. Seated by the window, we were given the opportunity to view the gorgeous... shopping street below.
While I did want to eat with the others, the food here was very delicious. Do note, this place is very vegan friendly and thus I ordered the fried oyster roll with a healthy side of salad and chips. Sweetly finishing the meal with decadent chocolate desserts. It was texture town and flavour city left, right and centre.
ELK was a wholly positive experience. The food was amazing at an amazing price (paid ¥1480) and the staff/owner was fantastically friendly.
ELK is also host to English conversation nights as we found out when chatting to the owner and her friend. It was here that I met Shin, and had the loveliest conversation. His English was self-taught and he sounded no different to a native-born speaker. Absolutely awe inspiring. As pleasant as our meeting was, it had to be cut short. We needed to get moving for Nagoya.
Returning to Shin-Osaka, a love story better than Twilight was budding. Before we get to this special occasion, we must go back...
Back to a night in Kyoto... As a joke, all the sexy free singles decided to mess around on Tinder. However, one of them found much success from the service. That single matched and had been flirtatiously communicating with them ever since.
Back to now and these two lovebirds decided to meet in the short half hour layover. At the station’s McDonald’s. Doesn’t get more romantic than that. So… Wilson departed the group to meet miss connection and the rest of us headed for the next train.
Our shinkansen arrived and we boarded, sans Wilson. That is… until we turned around from the sound of one goofy faced Wilson… 🤦 Our mouths agape, he stared at us blankly like the dunce he was. It was strongly alluded that he was going to stay the night in Osaka with the now missed connection. We heavily discussed this and didn’t hear from him until literally the last second. When looking up the definition for ridiculed, you’ll find ya boi Wilson accompanied by:
Laughing our way to Nagoya, we arrived at our egregious bnb. Much to my displeasure, I had learned of this fact much later (place was well rated but reading through some reviews showed the off-putting negatives). And seeing it in person...
Meanwhile, Cadbury’s newest edition of Flake was going on about how he should/could/would go back to Osaka. Even the resident vegan was egging him on to go back. And much to everyone’s surprise, yet again, Wilson actually left!
Truly sans Wilson, we ate at Meshiya (めしや食堂尾頭橋店), a place just minutes around the corner. Meshiya looked/felt like a cross between a soup kitchen and school cafeteria. (Mainly fried) food was served by the dozen on the shelves. Water/tea/coffee was freely available, alongside a microwave and other utilities, to enhance your eating experience. The food was all right and priced reasonably. Meshiya was a unique and peaceful experience that I wouldn’t mind doing again. Great for a midnight snack.
Back at the bnb, we cussed out the filthy place some more before clocking out. Thanks for reading and join us tomorrow where we head for the Kiso Valley, a beautiful region that manages to preserve the Japanese days of old.
Want more? Head on over to Carolyn's post for her take. Orrrr perhaps you'd like the pictures to move for you? Watch Vivian's video here.