Day 7 June 30

Not much to write about today as we travelled by JR Train to Osaka. It was only a short trip but pretty wet when we got there and it was too early for check-in so we dumped our cases at the hotel and went to a very long arcade with hundreds of restaurants for lunch. Tara and I did a Tacoyaki cooking course then we met up again and had a bit of a look through the shops. We then found a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner – good wood fired pizzas, quite a pleasant change from all the Japanese food we have been having and a good chance to practice our knife and fork skills again! We also managed to get a bottle of Italian wine – our first wine on the trip!

But now let me tell you about the toilets! The Japanese toilets are worth writing about.

Even the public toilets have bells and whistles of all kinds. There are two wash buttons – front and back bottoms, automatic lid lifting and flushing, and some even have a massage button (using different water pressures)! There is a privacy button that plays music or flowing water sounds to disguise any sounds you might need to make in the toilet. They often light up and automatically lightly spray the bowl with water before you start – we are guessing so nothing sticks to the bowl. Not sure I am a fan of the heated seats in summer though!

Day 6, June 29

Sight seeing is hard work when it is so hot and humid! Breakfast was just around the corner at a whole foods cafe where we enjoyed Granola. Muffins and biscuits. Tess had a traditional Japanese breakfast which had rice, soup and pickled things that we dont know what they were as well as a small salad. Toast and Jam is so much simpler!

I had a hot drink which was amazake and orange juice served hot. Amazake is a fermented rice drink. It was actually quite nice.

Off to see the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and then the Kinkaku-Ji Temple. We walked through the lovely Japanese gardens at the temple and then found a tiny restaurant down a side street and had some Japanese currys for lunch – very cute place that could only seat 10 on the floor – this was our first seated on the floor restaurant.

After lunch it was off to the Kyoto Imperial Palace set in the large Palace Gardens.

Dinner was another very small Restaurant in the Gion District. A teppanyaki restaurant run by husband and wife. Delicious sake, wagu beef and black sesame ice cream. We had a walk through the Gion district and spotted some Geisha’s,

Kinkaku-Ji Temple

Kyoto Imperial Palace

Day 5, June 28

Today has been a bit of a sight seeing day. Tess found a Vegan restaurant for breakfast which was actually very nice. First time I have had a salad for breakfast and first time I have eaten a salad with chopsticks! Tess and Tara had pancakes and Gerard had a vegan cheese risotto which tasted really good and even a bit breakfasty.

Then it was off to find a market. A lot of the food over here is really unusual and we had no idea what most of it was at the market. Also everything is in plastic packaging.

For lunch Tess and Tara went to a vegetarian restaurant while Gerard and I went to a restaurant next door which specialised in Tonkatsu – a Japanese dish of deep fried pork cutlet served with cabbage and freshly ground sesame seeds (that we ground ourselves.

After lunch we took a train to the Fushimi Imari-Trisha Shinto Shrine. There are 10,000 torii gates here – quite impressive!

Tess, Tara and I went off to a vegan ramen and Gyoza cooking course for dinner.

The writing on the Torii gates is from Companies that have paid for the gate, kind of like a sponsorship, they believe it will bring them luck and good fortune for their business. There are no more vacancies for business to sponsor Torii gates. If the gates get old and need replacing the businesses usually replace them rather than give up their spot.

This was at the shrine. Apparently if you guess the weight of the rock then lift it, if it is lighter than you think your wish will come true!

Day 4, 27th June

Today was really just a travel day. We took the Shinkansen (fast bullet train) to Kyoto. It was quiet wet when we got off the train in Kyoto. We must have looked a treat walking through town in our rain poncho’s, wheeling our suitcases. We offloaded our cases at the accommodation office and went back to the station for some lunch. The station is an architecturally designed building featuring lots of glass and a central set of escalators taking you up to the 11th floor observation deck. Unfortunately views were not so good because of the rain.

Our accommodation is very quaint! It is a traditional style guest house. It is in the old Kyoto area which is very photogenic at night!

Tess found another place for dinner and she finally got her vegan ramen and even vegan dumplings!

Day 3, 26 June

Today we headed off to Miyajima. We jumped on the electric streetcar (we would call it a tram) and headed to Hiroshima Central Station. We had to purchase our train tickets so we joined the queue at the ticket machines, after some time, and with the help of google translate and Tess, we realised we were in the line for the ATM’s……..so, off to find the train ticket machines which fortunately have a button for English! Must learn the kanji characters for the ATM’s

It was then a train ride and a ferry ride out to the island. There are lots of deer on the island.

Here we walked to The Great Torii Gate. The iconic wooden structure was first built in the 16th Century and has been rebuilt 8 times in it’s history. This current version was constructed in 1875 using 600 year old camphor trees. Without any physical attachment to the sea bed. The structure remains in place entirely under its own weight. We had a look through the Itsukushima-Jinnah Shinto Shrine where we had to wash our hands before entering. We then wondered down the main streets of Miyajima. Lunch was in a small cafe and very traditional food. Red Snapper sashimi with green tea broth and rice. Oysters were everywhere there. Street stalls sell them grilled with various toppings. They were pretty good for those of us that didn’t drop theirs on the ground!!

Back to Hiroshima via the ferry, train and trams for a look through some shops – they have gadgets for everything over here.

Tara purchased a top from Uni-Qlo and the checkout was very high tech. It is a self serve checkout, you put all your shopping in a pile in a cupboard underneath the checkout station and then magically, each item appears on the screen ready for payment!

Dinner was at a Ramen restaurant that Tess chose as she found it on a vegan blog which suggested you could get vegan ramen there. Sadly no vegan ramen and Tess had a bowl of rice. But ours was delicious!! After our dinner we returned to the Udon restaurant that we went to the previous night as they had a vegan menu – very rare in Hiroshima. Tess had a delicious tempura/udon bowl!

This deer really wanted to eat at this restaurant!

Hand washing facilities.

Tess tasting soy sauce in a shop full of soy sauce.

Gerard’s Snapper in Green Tea.

Days 1 and 2 – June 24 and 25

Yesterday we flew into Tokyo Narita Airport. We left home at 4am and finally arrived at our hotel in Haneda 21 hours later. This morning we had to fly out of Haneda Airport to Hiroshima. Sight seeing began today in Hiroshima after Tess found as a great Okonomiyaki Restaurant which had a vegan dish for Tess. Vegan food is very scarce over hear and they dont really understand what it means.

We went to the Memorial Peace Park today. A park dedicated to the victims of the Atomic Bomb dropped on the city near the end of WWII. 140,000 people died as a result of this by the end of 1945. The Memorial Park was a moving tribute to all the victims and a call to abolish all nuclear Weapons world wide.

Mt Fuji from the plane window.

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BYE BYE TASSIE!

We had a good trip home today, although the Spirit’s system at the Melbourne was a bit stressful to get through! Today the ship was actually running early! 

Some Stats…

Oyster eaten (by Mum and Dad only): 72

Fish and Chip meals: 6 

National Parks visited: 8

Free camps: 2 nights

Kms travelled: approx. 2000km

Road kill: sadly too many to count (but we avoided adding to the total)

Today we got up and drove to Devonport. We had a massive brunch at House Of Anvers …again! Even though we only got three meals instead of four, we still all over ate. On the way we also saw a white wallaby! We then went to the caravan park (same one as when we came over on our first night) and set up. We then took a lovely drive to Burnie , there went went to Maker Workshop. It’s set up for a whole lot of creative artist and you can see them at work. We did a paper making tour. They make paper out of strange things like towels, jeans and…POO!!! We got to have a go at scooping up the watery mush and making it into paper with a Tasmanian animal on it! It was really fun!

We then took a drive down the coast to have a look at towns such as Penguin. We drove a short while back to Devonport before going to an Italian restaurant for dinner, it was very nice!

    
A white Bennets Walaby, quite rare.

  
A lighthouse at Devonport.

  
A bushfirey red moon.

Tess

Today was a rather exciting day, because at 9 o’clock, we headed off to Hollybanks Forest, where we went on a 3 hour zip line tour! We were a little bit nervous to start off with (some more than others!) but it was incredibly fun and exhilarating once we got the hang of it! 

For dinner we went to a lovely restaurant in Launceston called Stillwater. 

Launceston has been in a continual shroud of smoke from bushfires the last few days, so unfortunately we haven’t been able to take many good photos!

  
25 metres up a tree!!!!

  
Do I look terrified?!?!

  
Got the HANG of it now!

  
Lovin’ it!

  
Just hangin’ around!

  
Phew! Made the 250m one, now just the 450m one to go!

Tara