Post #15 - October 26, 2012 - Hiroshima, Japan

We will be adding pictures as soon as possible. Internet is still too slow here.

Jeff here. I can't believe we are just about ready to say good-bye to Japan and head to China. We still don't leave until Monday, but I think both Patty and I sense that our time with the Japanese is coming to an end. I won't try to sum it all up, since we still have a couple days here, but it's definitely on my mind.

We had a great day today. Our intention was to do a hike in Sandan-kyo, which is a gorge about 50 km northwest of Hiroshima, so we had a relatively early start to our day at 7:30 am. We bought eggs the night before, so we had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, bananas, and oranges. While we were intending to leave as soon as possible, we got talking with a bunch of other travelers in the lunch room, so we actually didn't end up leaving the hostel until around 9:30 am, and this only because one of the other travelers had informed us that the bus service to the gorge wasn't very frequent and that it was quite lengthy.

So we kind of rushed out the door, hopped on a tram, and went in the general direction of the bus depot where we would catch our bus. We had some difficulty finding the place since we forgot our city map, but Patty quickly spotted the building and we were on our way. We had a little time to check out a department store before getting onto the bus. I think Patty almost had a heart-attack when she saw the row upon row of shoes. It was pretty crazy. I've never seen so many shoes in one place before! Everything was extremely expensive though, so I don't think anything really piqued Patty's interest.

As usual, our bus was exactly on time, so we jumped on. We realized that our stop was the last stop the bus made, and checking the schedule, the ride would take a little over two hours. Our book stated 1.5 hours. Stupid book. Anyway, we made the most of it by sleeping a little and eating some of our packed food, which included some Subway sandwiches. The ride there was also incredible. Patty said at one point that the cost of the ride (about $15 per person, each way) was well worth the price. It was truly rural Japan. The hills rose up all around us. It seems that the slopes of many hills are too steep to build on, so the resulting view is spectacular: above a certain point on these hills, they are completely covered in forest.

We arrived at the gorge around 1:15 pm (exactly on time), and set out on our hike. It wasn't an overly touristy area, with only a couple of shops. Some plates for soy sauce grabbed our attention pretty quickly, and we would eventually end up buying four of them on our way back for quite a good price (less than $10)!

Pretty much immediately as we started the hike we knew it was going to be special. The hills of Japan are absolutely stunning and we would be walking along a river in between them. Interestingly, the path was paved, but I don't think that bothered either of us. I think the natural beauty of it all immediately had an effect on Patty, who had never been on a hike like this in her life. I've been on quite a few, but have to say that there was something very special about this particular hike. We arrived at mid-day so the sun was directly above us, but the hills were high and steep, so we were moving in and out of shadows. It was quite cool at first and neither of us had brought a jacket. But we quickly warmed up. The hike took us right down to the river and high up into the hills. It was a wonderful walk that I think has inspired us to do other hikes when the right opportunity arises.

Unfortunately, we didn't make it far enough to see a huge waterfall, which is one of the attractions of the hike. As well, these is apparently a spot on the hike that takes you up to the peak of one of the hills. It would have been nice to see those things, but we really just didn't have the time, since we got there so late in the day. Overall, we spent out 3 hours hiking around, which I think was enough for the both of us. It wasn't an easy hike, either, so we were satisfied.

We caught the bus home at 4:30 pm, hit rush-hour and didn't arrive back at the Hiroshima station until 7:00 pm!! That was a long trip. We were very happy to say good-bye to that bus! Then we went on a little adventure looking for a place to eat dinner.

We tried a pub the book recommended, but they apparently were all reserved. It felt a little odd being kicked out like we were, but on we went. Patty had been wanting to try the oysters in Hiroshima, which are a specialty here, so we went looking for a place that offers those. Often restaurants have pictures outside so we could check out their menu. One restaurant had oysters, but as we approached the entrance, we were literally looked up and down, and essentially denied entry, with the guy claiming they didn't speak English....in perfect English. So, feeling just terrible about ourselves at this point, we continued on, until we saw another picture of an oyster. This time, no one denied us entry, even though it looked like they wanted to. They even told us that we needed to leave by 9pm because apparently they had a reservation for that time. By this point we were pretty disgusted with everything because it seemed that wherever we went, people were judging us by the way we looked. Which, I must admit, was not pretty, but it's not as if we looked like bums off the street either. We ended up having a very expensive meal, but enjoyed some excellent oysters. The oysters came in their shells, one was cooked in a butter sauce and the other in a vinegar sauce. We also got a very interesting potato dish, which was essentially fries covered in a fishy/mayonnaise-y sauce. The fries were amazing.

Unfortunately, by this point we felt pretty embarrassed because of what we were wearing. We did note that everyone else on the street was pretty much dressed to impress, so perhaps we were just in the wrong neighbourhood! We headed back to the hostel, picking up some cheap soups in a 7-11 that we made once back in the kitchen. There we chatted with some very friendly travelers. We ended up going out for drinks with them at a local German pub. It was hilarious seeing Japanese people eating German food with chopsticks!

Overall, a mixed bag of a day. The hike was wonderful, but for the first time we experienced a negative side of Japan. I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised that people can be superficial!

Hope all is well back home. Bye for now!