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Lucy & Hannah's Adventures!
Konnichi wa!
Well, the tour has commenced and we are now on our fourth day of travelling down Japan! Making an early start on Wednesday our first stop was Hiroshima, which has definitely been one of my favourite cities so far. We arrived late afternoon after taking the very sleek and beautifully air-conditioned Shinkansen (the bullet train) and wandered down to the Memorial Park to see the Dome and the numerous statues and memorials and the Peace Bell. It was amazingly tranquil despite being a large city, and absolutely stunning along the riverside and by the T-bridge which was the target for the atomic bomb.
Hiroshima is famous for the dish okonomiyaki, which originated there, so we obviously felt obliged to eat it in a special okonomiyaki village! It's an amazing dish made on a huge hot surface right in front of you, with a pancake-like base, numerous vegetables piled on top, meat (for those who want it), egg and garnished with green onion. It's very impressive to see it made and packed together so swiftly, and very practical to be able to keep it hot while you enjoy it! We also visited the Memorial Museum of course, before jumping onto our next train to head down to Kyushu, the most southern island. The scenery here is absolutely stunning, and thankfully the climate is somewhat cooler (though only slightly), which is a welcome break from the humidity and stickiness further north!
Yesterday was incredibly exciting, as we ended up camping in Aso, a beautiful town with a real-life active volcano! The last eruption was in 1993! We of course enjoyed a quick Onsen before heading up the mountain to pitch our tent somewhat hurriedly, as it had started to rain and the lightning was striking :s But we enjoyed a lovely FATTY meal cooked on a proper fire surrounded by beautiful bugs, grasshoppers and an evil wild cat that appeared from nowhere and decided to haunt us for the night! Having adjusted to going to bed around 3am it was very strange to go to bed with the sun, and we found ourselves waking naturally at 5am! Clearly we had another short nap before heading up to see the volcano and the spectacular scenery that surrounded it.
Having roughed it last night, we are now relaxing in a beautiful riocchan in the interestingly-named city of Fukuoka! We're very much enjoying wandering around in our yukata! Looking forward to having breakfast served tomorrow morning at 6.50am(!) and then it's yet another shinkansen to Kyoto! Bring on the geisha!! xxx
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