Arrived in Hiroshima on Shinkansen and caught a taxi from the train station to our hotel, the ANA Hotel.Checked into our room and dropped off our bags before heading out to see the sights of Hiroshima. Took a tram down to the A-Bomb dome and walked around what is left of the building after the atomic bomb blast.We then walked across the river to the Peace Park and walked through the park past the peace bell, a burial mound for cremated victims of the blast, Korea...

Ate breakfast at Starbucks located in the shopping centre beneath the train station and then picked up our day packs and caught the Shinkansen to Himeji.We walked up the main street of Himeji to the impressive Himeji Castle. Paid for entry to the castle and went on a tour of the grounds and the castle buildings themselves. Had to wear some lovely slippers for the tour of the castle buildings. The tour itself was quite good with rooms done up to look as they may h...

Arrived back in Kyoto and rested, then met Junko and her mother for dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the train station shopping centre with Junko and her mother ordering a number of different dishes for us to try. The food was great and we even had a go using chopsticks without making complete idiots of ourselves.After dinner Junko's mother caught a train home then Junko joined us to check out the shopping centre for a while before she caught a train home he...

Had a sleep in and then breakfast at the hotel before meeting our friend, Junko, who was going to show us around Kyoto for the day.Caught the train out to an electronics store to look for a cheap SD card for our video camera before catching the bus out to the Golden Temple (Kinkaku-Ji). We had lunch at a restaurant on the way to the temple before walking up the hill to the temple itself and the gardens. The temple was located beside a small lake which meant photo...

Arrived in Kyoto by Shinkansen and checked into our hotel which was right above the Kyoto train station.Dropped off our bags in our room then had a late lunch at the train station before heading out for the afternoon to look at some of the nearby temples. The first temple we visited was the Higashi Hongan-Ji Temple. Had to remove our shoes to go inside the temple itself which was freezing. There was a display inside about how the large logs were brought to the si...