Sunday 10 May 2015
Highlights:  Shukkeien Garden, Miyajima Island Hike, Okonomiyaki dinner at Atom Restaurant.

About half our group enjoyed the optional activity of a visit to the Shukkeien Garden a short walk from the hotel.  The garden was tranquil having a very zen like feel.  The fish were not afraid of man and were almost jumping over themselves to be feed by us humans.

Shukkeien Garden

The entire group then met up at the hotel and left to visit Miyajima Island which was a train ride and then a short ferry away from Hiroshima.

The first thing you see as you approach the island is the famous floating Torii Gate in the ocean.  The second thing you notice is the deer walking wherever they want, apparently deer are good luck.  On dry land we visited the Toyokuni Shrine and got to see a wedding party taking photos of the happy day.

The rest of the day on the island was optional and most of us decided to take the ‘Ropeway’ or aerial tramway to near the top of Mt Misen.  A 25-30 minute hike got me to the observation point at the top so I could enjoy the fabulous views on these beautiful day.  With fellow G traveller Helen I then hiked down which took around 1 hour 30 minutes to complete.

This allowed me to visit the Daishion Temple and climb into a basement area which was totally dark.  You walk around a room by touch and eventually emerge into the light, reborn a new person.  It definitely gets the other senses operating.

Torii Gate

On our return to Hiroshima our CEO / Tour Leader took us out to a small restaurant that could only serve our party and cooked our meals on the table on front of us, an Okonomiyaki dinner   A delicious meal which went down well with the beer on tap served in an ice cold glass.  Top job Ted!