Hiroshima, Day 25~.
Today, the Shinkawas brought me to nearby prefectures called Shimane and Yamaguchi. On our way to our first destination, we stopped by the Kintai-kyo(bridge) located in Iwakuni City. Initially I did not want to cross the bridge because first of all, it cost 300yen(~SGD3.90) to take a 5minute walk across the bridge and secondly, the arches scared me. (I'm afraid of slopes remember?)
In the end, however, I managed to muster up the little courage in me to cross the bridge. Surprisingly, the arches weren't as steep as I thought they would be so it was pretty alright.
Wonder how would this place look like in winter? Was supposed to come to this place during Winter 2006 but instead, I went shopping because my legs were aching from wearing boots. In case if you were wondering, shopping can still take place even though one's legs are painful okay!
The Iwakuni Castle? Not very sure but according to Okaasan, you got to take a cable car all the way up to that castle. wtf. Build so high for what anyway?! Staying at higher altitudes probably gives some people a sense of security but eh, what if your enemies surround you? The only way you can escape is to jump down lor!
Went to the Taikodani Inari Jinja/Shrine in Tsuwano next. According to Wikipedia, an Inari Shrine is a Shinto shrine used to worship the god Inari who uses foxes as his/her messengers. Bought aburaage(deep-fried tofu) as an offering as it's believed that foxes like it. When my host family handed me the aburaage, I seriously thought that it was for me to eat okay. Somemore it smelt damn nice. -__- Luckily I didn't ask "Is this for me to eat?". Phew~
Obaachan donating money.
Miko-san(shrine maiden) in the shrine.
What's a Inari Shrine without fox statues?
Next, we went for lunch but I shall not blog about lunch in this entry. Will blog about all the food I ate in a single entry~ =D
After lunch, we went to see an exhibition on Jingdezhen porcelains. Damn cool can~!
We also went to the Anno Museum of Art where there were cool replicas of Anno's atelier and a classroom. Too bad we didn't have enough time to see the planetarium. =(
Instead of returning to Hiroshima today, we stayed at this hotel called Hotel New Tanaka. The cool thing about this hotel's that it has an onsen at the top level and it's open-air~! Went to the onsen twice somemore.
Had dinner before going to the Ichinosaka-gawa(Ichinosaka-river) to look at fireflies. Damn cool lar! I've never seen so many people gathered along a river to look at fireflies before. Everyone got so excited when the fireflies appeared. =D The streets were really dark(I guess you need really dark places for fireflies to appear in bunch or something) but it wasn't scary. :)
Was supposed to return to the hotel to sleep but the over-zealous taxi driver kept introducing us to places to go so yup, we followed him. He first brought us to part of Kouzan Park where echoes could be heard. Next, we went to this temple called Rurikoji, which is famous for its five-storey pagoda.
The taxi driver even provided us with a disposable camera and helped us take photos...without us asking. Wow...either business has been really bad or he's a really nice guy. In the end, I think my host family gave him a 7000yen(~SGD90!!!) tip or something. wtf.
Obaachan and Otousan pulling the bead thingy. If you manage to drop eight of the beads, no more no less, something good will happen to you...or something like that. One year ago okay...can't remember exactly.
Okaasan doing the same thing.
The stone with buddha's footprints. Woah~
After the night tour of Yamaguchi, we went back to the hotel to go to the onsen and sleep~ Whee~
End of Day 25. More pictures at http://mizu-kioku.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=167.
Today, the Shinkawas brought me to nearby prefectures called Shimane and Yamaguchi. On our way to our first destination, we stopped by the Kintai-kyo(bridge) located in Iwakuni City. Initially I did not want to cross the bridge because first of all, it cost 300yen(~SGD3.90) to take a 5minute walk across the bridge and secondly, the arches scared me. (I'm afraid of slopes remember?)
In the end, however, I managed to muster up the little courage in me to cross the bridge. Surprisingly, the arches weren't as steep as I thought they would be so it was pretty alright.
Wonder how would this place look like in winter? Was supposed to come to this place during Winter 2006 but instead, I went shopping because my legs were aching from wearing boots. In case if you were wondering, shopping can still take place even though one's legs are painful okay!
The Iwakuni Castle? Not very sure but according to Okaasan, you got to take a cable car all the way up to that castle. wtf. Build so high for what anyway?! Staying at higher altitudes probably gives some people a sense of security but eh, what if your enemies surround you? The only way you can escape is to jump down lor!
Went to the Taikodani Inari Jinja/Shrine in Tsuwano next. According to Wikipedia, an Inari Shrine is a Shinto shrine used to worship the god Inari who uses foxes as his/her messengers. Bought aburaage(deep-fried tofu) as an offering as it's believed that foxes like it. When my host family handed me the aburaage, I seriously thought that it was for me to eat okay. Somemore it smelt damn nice. -__- Luckily I didn't ask "Is this for me to eat?". Phew~
Obaachan donating money.
Miko-san(shrine maiden) in the shrine.
What's a Inari Shrine without fox statues?
Next, we went for lunch but I shall not blog about lunch in this entry. Will blog about all the food I ate in a single entry~ =D
After lunch, we went to see an exhibition on Jingdezhen porcelains. Damn cool can~!
We also went to the Anno Museum of Art where there were cool replicas of Anno's atelier and a classroom. Too bad we didn't have enough time to see the planetarium. =(
Instead of returning to Hiroshima today, we stayed at this hotel called Hotel New Tanaka. The cool thing about this hotel's that it has an onsen at the top level and it's open-air~! Went to the onsen twice somemore.
Had dinner before going to the Ichinosaka-gawa(Ichinosaka-river) to look at fireflies. Damn cool lar! I've never seen so many people gathered along a river to look at fireflies before. Everyone got so excited when the fireflies appeared. =D The streets were really dark(I guess you need really dark places for fireflies to appear in bunch or something) but it wasn't scary. :)
Was supposed to return to the hotel to sleep but the over-zealous taxi driver kept introducing us to places to go so yup, we followed him. He first brought us to part of Kouzan Park where echoes could be heard. Next, we went to this temple called Rurikoji, which is famous for its five-storey pagoda.
The taxi driver even provided us with a disposable camera and helped us take photos...without us asking. Wow...either business has been really bad or he's a really nice guy. In the end, I think my host family gave him a 7000yen(~SGD90!!!) tip or something. wtf.
Obaachan and Otousan pulling the bead thingy. If you manage to drop eight of the beads, no more no less, something good will happen to you...or something like that. One year ago okay...can't remember exactly.
Okaasan doing the same thing.
The stone with buddha's footprints. Woah~
After the night tour of Yamaguchi, we went back to the hotel to go to the onsen and sleep~ Whee~
End of Day 25. More pictures at http://mizu-kioku.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=167.
