2013 - OCEANIA - HIROSHIMA & TORII GATE AT IKSUSHIMA

Now moved on the Hiroshima...

.......where there was just about nothing left at the end of WW2.

Maybe just the RO on the embankment like there is now...

& I now know that Hiroshima is pronounced Hiroshima & not Hiroshima or can be pronounced either way it seems.

Confused??

But I will not be spending any time outside the bus in the City.

I am heading to a ferry to go to Itsukushima more commonly known as Mayajima island - Isle of Shrines.

We pass these Oyster beds.....

.....waiting for the ferry, it's a tad chilly.

The Torii gate from the ferry... you will be heartily sick of photos of this in a while, but I make no apologies.

Wild deer roam the streets of the small village...

This is Zora? .She is the tour leader for a university alumni group on board. Quite the job.

Zora again... She was very pleasant

More deer...

& this is possibly Japan's most famous Shrine - iksushima.

There are plenty more on the island which is bigger than I realised & I saw only a fraction.

the Torii gate leading to the shrine...

And this classic shot of the Tori - gate.. Pity the tide was not fully in, but still a nice shot.

Lot's of posing as per usual....

Bags of rice...

Zora making friends...

A walk through the village.

Check out the little girl in the foreground.. Quite the outfit.

Along the street I tried Baked Oysters, Octopus & leek rolled in something, Rice cake wrapped in seaweed & some really nice ice cream with a lime sauce.

School kids out for the day...

and the ferry back towards Hiroshima....

...where we were not scheduled to go here, but the guide made a detour so we could get a shot of the only building left standing after the bomb dropped.

We were scheduled to be in Hiroshima til 6:00 pm & this tour to end at 1:00 so I had organised a walk around Hiroshima for a couple of hours starting at 2:00. It was with a 76 year old retired Architecture professor named Yoshi. The group he belongs to offer free tours in Japan. You just pay the guides expenses so that they are not out of pocket.The night before arriving in Hiroshima I was playing roulette in the casino on board & mentioned my schedule for the next day to the croupier. She told me I would not be doing all of that as we set sail at 2:00. Somewhere along the way the ships schedule had been changed. I was unable to contact Yoshi from the ship as the Japanese do not allow the ships Internet to work in their waters.

Anyway - I never did get to meet him. We have been E mailing a lot since I got home. Shame I missed him & his wife.

Our guide. Quite the chatterbox...

A nice touch on the dock as we left was the local tourist board broke open a barrel of Saki & gave away paper cups full. Cold Saki - usually it's hot. Not to my liking as a rule but this was excellent. I went back for seconds.

Here the boat is in the Inland sea. A really nice stretch of water to sail through, a lot of which we did at night.

So - that's it for Japan. My reason for this particular cruise was to visit Japan & it was not a disappointment. Just a little bit too early to see the Cherry blossoms. It was not available when I booked this cruise but I see Princess now offers some really interesting looking cruises in Japan. Yoshi & Yushiko will be on one in July with 6 or 7 stops in Japan from Tokyo plus one stop in Russia. Maybe next year.

I won 200 dollars on the roulette. Jenny & I were playing & the croupier gave Don a roasting for taking our photo. A big no-no in casinos.