Japaneasy

I'm writing this from a small box five floors up in Hong Kong (well some of it is being written in a much bigger room in the Philippines as I ran out of time and wifi for 5 days so, yeah sorry about that). Apparently it's what the locals call a "bedroom", but I'm fairly sure most people would know it as a bathroom with attached storage area. Still, it serves the purpose, although I assume for Bec it's like sharing a cushion with a rhino.

The second week in Japan was full of highlights, most notably not Kinosaki onsen. While the town was absolutely lovely, neither Bec nor I felt hugely like spending large periods of time bathing with other naked people (GB's stag covered that nicely I think), which is sort of the point of onsen life. In fact the open plan shared showers in the hotel were probably good enough on that front. And by probably I obviously mean definitely..

A clog wearing couple making their way to the next onsen

 Our next stop was Hiroshima, which was full of surprises. It was the most modern of all the cities we visited in Japan, for obvious reasons, but it was also the most western, and the most colourful. A highlight for me was bumping into the Hiroshima Lightning basketball team, one of whom was a 6'11 Bahamian who doesn't realise how close he came to being hugged by a random Englishman who hadn't really looked into a single face in almost a month. Bec also found her first proper wine bar here, so was naturally deeply enamoured with the place.

The A-Bomb dome - one of only a handful of buildings left standing within 2km of the blast site and now preserved as a reminder

Near to Hiroshima is Miyajima, an island featuring the famous "floating" torii gate. The island is filled with temples and the associated purveyors of Japan's finest tat, as well as numerous deer ('cheeky deer') who will eat anything out of your hand given half a chance. The island also has a few walkways to the summit of the main hill, which gave Bec the chance for a leisurely stroll to the top, while I battled death himself to make it to the same spot. Yet I'm still carrying the bag. I'm doing something wrong here aren't I?

View from the top of Miyajima looking out into Hiroshima's island studded bay

Some of the many Mani Wheels found on the island. If they work Bec will be having prayers answered for years to come...

Some lovely behatted statues. I should look into why they're wearing hats, but don't want to be disappointed by the answer

The Great Torii at Miyajima - Think great might be overegging the pudding somewhat but it's very nice certainly

Bec (on the left) with one of the tame deer who is clearly bored with her presence due to the lack of edible material in her hand

 After Hiroshima we headed to Kyoto, our final destination before catching the flight to Hong Kong. Kyoto was apparently known as "The city of Ten Thousand Shrines". We can believe it. At times it felt like you were on a temple themed treasure hunt, but where the end prize had been given away to one of the other 100,000 contestants who were walking around with you. This is despite the fact that it rained heavily every day. Still, at least it meant I could practice my brolly posing:

They don't even smell really

Instead of posting all the temples (so many temples) I've been a saint and limited myself to just posting some of the better examples so that I don't get sent death threats from anyone who ends up wading through them all:

Disclaimer: In every photo I obviously tried to find an angle which hid most of the people from view. Please don't think there weren't hundreds of people just out of shot because there were

Kyomiza-dera - $5 entry (or 1$ for every time you get an umbrella to the face)

Nanzen-ji. Probably. No idea really. Nice garden though isn't it?

I'M SO ZEN RIGHT NOW. I mean Ginkaku-ji's zen garden/poorly raked bunker

Kinkaku-ji. This photo is a huge misrepresentation. There are thousands of people around me and the temple looks not nearly as nice in person. Still, the photo looks good right?

Ryoan-ji's famous zen garden. Bec loved it. I thought it could've done with some nicely mown grass, maybe a five-a-side goal or two, a referee, Wes Hoolahan...

Can't remember. Just seemed fitting that the cherry-blossom season was ending just as we were about to leave. Also I'm sure the more arty amongst you can find so much meaning or something about the new and the old. I can't so...

Fushimi-Inari-taisha. Basically loads of torii gates places all over a hill. I'm sure this symbolises something but I was too busy looking like a dick

A bamboo forest. It was lovely.

After all that hard work we relaxed in a small local restaurant where Bec discovered whatever brand of sake this is in the photo below. I think I had to take this photo just so that she would be able to recognise it if we stumbled across it again. She certainly wasn't going to remember it otherwise.

Slightly flushed cheeks and an empty bottle

To balance things out here's me looking super excited in front of some rock samples which adorn some of the columns outside Kyoto station:

I obviously needed this so I could find the rocks again later if I stumbled across them...

On our last day in Kyoto we had time to take a Japanese cooking course, before catching our flight to Hong Kong after lunch. I'm looking forward to making a complete hash of everything we learnt once we get back to the UK, and maybe killing off some of our closest friends by inviting them round to try it.

The work tables weren't very high

Guess which was mine, and which was Bec's. You'll never guess*

 (*You'll totally guess)

 After an uneventful flight, our first day in Hong Kong was stunning, with clear skies and mid-20 degree weather. As a result Bec decided she wanted to go to do the cable car on a nearby island which takes you up to a big budda statue. Only the lines were very long, so to save time we agreed to go take a glass bottomed one which had shorted queues (and cost more..). One panic attack later we reached the top to discover that Starbucks and the rest had beaten us to it. Unless you like very large Budda statues, this is probably something best avoided. Although it was so bad it was quite funny.

Ferry to discovery bay

Glass bottomed cable car - The only time I got Bec to take her feet off the metal strip to the side.

Bec trying out her new Budda pose

In the afternoon we headed back to the city and walked up Victoria Peak (I floundered, Bec ran, I hate her more with every step). It's easily my favourite place in Hong Kong, mostly because it gives your senses a rest from the full on assault they receive at street level.

The well practiced selfie

The last two days in Hong Kong were slightly different, with heavy pollution and low clouds turning it into a much less picturesque city. On the plus side it provided the perfect opportunity for some tedious admin (haircuts/shopping/climbing Victoria Peak again despite the fact that it was in the cloud and therefore a pointless trip/ etc). We also managed to fit in time to visit the Avenue of the Stars attraction in Kowloon. I last went 5 years ago and it's lost absolutely none of it's charm. Of course if you don't have any to start with that tends to make things easier. Still we found this statue there:

Good times

 Also Bec met her idol Bow Fong which was nice. Weirdly his square seemed to be generally ignored. God knows why.

By the end we were pleased to be getting out and heading off to the Philippines (where we've already spent a week. I really need to catch up...)

Until next time,

Rob&Bec