This post commemorates the last week or so of my holiday overseas.
This week started off with us catching a train to Hiroshima. What I love about travelling long distance on the trains, in both Japan and Korea, was how smooth it was. You literally sit down in your seat and are able to just fall asleep for a couple of hours until you reach your desired destination. When arriving to Hiroshima, the biggest difference that I found was that they used trams to get to and from the main station, Hiroshima JR Station. Hiroshima was a really nice breather from Tokyo as the air seemed clearer, the skies were bluer and brighter (in my opinion) and had a more relaxed feel than in Tokyo.
On our first full day in Hiroshima, we went to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum. It was astounding to think of what happened almost 70 years ago to the area that I was standing in at that very moment. While going around the area and the museum, I found myself getting quite down while reading and seeing about what happened and what people had to through. The worst part had to be when they had a statue/sculpture depicting what people looked like after the blast with their skin melting. It still brings shivers down my spine thinking about it. When we exited the museum, my friend and I were actually feeling quite depressed and had a very heavy feeling within ourselves. To alleviate our somewhat dark mood, we had to take in some retail therapy which was made easier as we were staying right by the main shopping area and decided to dye my hair for the second time that night.
The next day, we decided that we would go and visit Miyajima Island. I'm not really a fan of animals so seeing the deers roaming around made me a bit uncomfortable LOL. My favourite activity that we did there was the nature walks that we took further up the island. I did not realise how much I liked nature or moving waters in rivers or mini waterfalls until that day. I must have taken way too much photos LOL. However, it was such a nice, relaxing day after the somewhat emotional day we had the previous day.
The 17th marked us leaving our hotel in Hiroshima and making our way to Osaka, our final city in Japan. For our last hotel, we decided in a traditional Japanese style hotel - a ryokan. If you have ever stayed in a ryokan, you would know that there is one room that is your living room by morning and bedroom by night. And man, were those beds comfy LOL. Luckily, someone would come into our room and do the transformation for us because we had absolutely no clue what to do.
Highlights from our stay in Osaka had to be going to see a traditional tea ceremony, visiting Universal Studios (highly recommend the street shows/performances. So much fun, even the kiddies ones, and they are done in English for the majority with some Japanese scattered about), the Illumination Festival at Osaka Castle - especially when they got the lights to switch on and off to the music and the 3D light show that was depicted on the Castle itself. An absolute must-see if you are in Osaka when the 3D Illumination Festival is held.
Sorry about the abundance of text and the rush of activities that I took part in while in Osaka, but I realised that this post was getting way too long. I may do an "In-focus" post about the Osaka 3D Illumination Festival but if I do, it will most probably be a post filled with photos. Also, this Friday will have a "Foodie Friday" post about the food that I ate in Japan.
Hope you somewhat enjoyed this post so until next time, see you.
This week started off with us catching a train to Hiroshima. What I love about travelling long distance on the trains, in both Japan and Korea, was how smooth it was. You literally sit down in your seat and are able to just fall asleep for a couple of hours until you reach your desired destination. When arriving to Hiroshima, the biggest difference that I found was that they used trams to get to and from the main station, Hiroshima JR Station. Hiroshima was a really nice breather from Tokyo as the air seemed clearer, the skies were bluer and brighter (in my opinion) and had a more relaxed feel than in Tokyo.
On our first full day in Hiroshima, we went to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum. It was astounding to think of what happened almost 70 years ago to the area that I was standing in at that very moment. While going around the area and the museum, I found myself getting quite down while reading and seeing about what happened and what people had to through. The worst part had to be when they had a statue/sculpture depicting what people looked like after the blast with their skin melting. It still brings shivers down my spine thinking about it. When we exited the museum, my friend and I were actually feeling quite depressed and had a very heavy feeling within ourselves. To alleviate our somewhat dark mood, we had to take in some retail therapy which was made easier as we were staying right by the main shopping area and decided to dye my hair for the second time that night.
The next day, we decided that we would go and visit Miyajima Island. I'm not really a fan of animals so seeing the deers roaming around made me a bit uncomfortable LOL. My favourite activity that we did there was the nature walks that we took further up the island. I did not realise how much I liked nature or moving waters in rivers or mini waterfalls until that day. I must have taken way too much photos LOL. However, it was such a nice, relaxing day after the somewhat emotional day we had the previous day.
The 17th marked us leaving our hotel in Hiroshima and making our way to Osaka, our final city in Japan. For our last hotel, we decided in a traditional Japanese style hotel - a ryokan. If you have ever stayed in a ryokan, you would know that there is one room that is your living room by morning and bedroom by night. And man, were those beds comfy LOL. Luckily, someone would come into our room and do the transformation for us because we had absolutely no clue what to do.
Highlights from our stay in Osaka had to be going to see a traditional tea ceremony, visiting Universal Studios (highly recommend the street shows/performances. So much fun, even the kiddies ones, and they are done in English for the majority with some Japanese scattered about), the Illumination Festival at Osaka Castle - especially when they got the lights to switch on and off to the music and the 3D light show that was depicted on the Castle itself. An absolute must-see if you are in Osaka when the 3D Illumination Festival is held.
Sorry about the abundance of text and the rush of activities that I took part in while in Osaka, but I realised that this post was getting way too long. I may do an "In-focus" post about the Osaka 3D Illumination Festival but if I do, it will most probably be a post filled with photos. Also, this Friday will have a "Foodie Friday" post about the food that I ate in Japan.
Hope you somewhat enjoyed this post so until next time, see you.
