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The door to the free bicycle parking at Iwakuni Station - it's always open.
Stan on the platform at Iwakuni Station buying a hot coffee while we wait for our train.
A glass enclosed area has been added recently so you can get out of the cold (or heat in summer). And a sink area was added - not sure why though.
We're on the train now crossing over one of the many rivers or canals. It's getting cloudier as we head north & east toward Hiroshima.
Cute ad poster on the train: bear wearing a fish hat?
And a cute billboard ad at a station. For a photographer, perhaps?
And about an hour later, were waiting for the streetcar at Hiroshima Station.
A 20-minute streetcar ride & short walk into Hondori Shopping Street, we're at Andersen's Bakery downtown. This is the small kitchen of the first floor restaurant where we'll have lunch. There is also a huge group of restaurants on the 2nd floor.
A basket of (thoughtful!) lap blankets for customer's use. Most of the tables are in the window & it's chilly!
Our lunch - After a small cup of soup each, Stan had a small casserole & I had a club sandwich. And we both had cappuccino.
So many fabulous choices of pastries, rolls & breads here in Andersen's bakery! While we're here, we'll buy a couple of small loaves & pastries for the next week or so.
Healthy wheat germ and whole wheat breads for sale.
Look at this pretty snowflake cake.
There's always something interesting happening here! Look what we found . . .a pastry chef is making apple strudel. After spreading the apple mixture, he carefully tears off the edge of the very large, thin pastry crust.
The blue cloth underneath is now used to carefully roll the pastry over the apple mixture.
He makes this look so easy!
Viola!
The large strudel is now washed with butter.
And placed in the oven behind the chef. How fun to watch this entire process - and you can't even imagine how good it smells in here!
Looking down Hondori Street. I love shopping (or just window-shopping!) here. I bought some more cute warm socks today. It's been a long, cold winter here in Japan this winter.
Now we're sitting at the counter in Starbucks - a good place to "people watch." The 2 young women who are sitting beside us, have gone outside (left their bags!) because there's a man giving away free snack samples outside. File this under "Only in Japan . . ."
A lady in fur coat & kimono walks by.
Inside a computer store in the Mac department, we found a large display of books about Steve Jobs . . .
Looking back toward the covered Hondori shopping street. We're walking toward Peace Park, where we haven't been for several years.
As we approached the bridge, I saw a sign about a speedboat ride, so Stan's walked down the ramp to investigate. His timing is perfect - a boat is leaving in about 5 minutes for Miyajima Island! If we hurry, we can just make it. And then we'll be half-way home . . .
And here it comes now!
Margie (me!) on the speedboat. And yes, I AM wearing my knee brace again - this time on my left knee, which needs to be replaced SOON! =o(
From the front of the speedboat, looking back up at the street bridge where we walked down.
Inside the cockpit of our speedboat.
That screen shows the rivers of Hiroshima that all lead out (down on the map) into the Seto Inland Sea - we're about in the middle one.
Margie (me!) looking into the cockpit area. See how long & wavy my hair has become in my old age?
Looking out the window & up at the ramp we walked down to board this speed boat that tours from Peace Park in Hiroshima to Miyajima Island.
Flags on the walkway to the speedboat.
Our boat is now pulling away from the pier. I can't believe they're going to make the trip when we're the only 2 passengers - yay!
Oh look - the Atomic Peace Dome is under construction - covered with scaffolding. Read more about this structure RIGHT HERE
City buildings along the river as we head out toward the sea.
Crossing under one of the many a bridges along this ride.
Stan can't quite stand up inside here - it's a little low for his 6'2" frame!
Looking through the front exit door. This is a really cool trip & we're seeing areas of Hiroshima we've never seen before.
Looking through the windows from inside. Since no one else was on board, I moved around a lot taking pictures.
That's our wake - we're moving right along now!
Looks like a new bridge is being built here.
The river is very wide here in Hiroshima as we travel toward the Seto Inland Sea.
CocaCola West
In the front of our boat, was a TV screen that explained our tour in English. Thank you!
To the left of the TV is the front emergency exit. The rear exit is where we entered the boat.
Out the left side - that looks just like the "floating island" I can see from my BR window at home!
Our boat captain seemed to be texting part of the time - really? Yikes!
Passing a large cargo vessel in the Seto Inland Sea. He's riding high . . .
Sun lowering over Miyajima Island.
Looking out toward famous oyster beds.
Looking out the right side toward mainland shore - there's the high-rise apartments at Ajina.
Beautiful old stone lighthouse as we approach Miyajima Island.
Looking out the window as the boat lands.
Stan in front of the speed boat - see how low it sits in the water?
Me at the back of the speed boat on the dock. The sea is rough, but no seasickness today - yay! Oh you can see I'm also wearing warm red leg warmers. They really helped keep my legs from getting so cold today.
We decided to walk around Miyajima to see if we could get oysters, but most everyone else is leaving. Pretty much everything on Miyajima Island closes around 5 PM. These two girls were enjoying the deer, while other girls and their dad enjoy the view of the torii nearing sunset.
One shot of the famous floating Miyajima Torii against the island as the sun drops. It's been a long time since we walked around Miyajima. We're usually biking, and I realized how much longer it takes to tour on foot!
As we walk back toward the ferry, the deer are beginning to settle down for the night. It gets colder quickly once the sun sets.
There's the ferry, so it's time to go.
Passing another ferry as we return to the mainland. Pretty!
After a 15-minute ride, we arrive at beautiful Miyajima landing.
We've walked the couple of blocks from the ferry to the local train station, where we found this family with little boy in a cute yellow tiger winter coat. . .
And his sister's coat is pink - complete with hood (including nose, eyes & ears) and tail. Cute!
Stan on the train from Hiroshima to Iwakuni. The heat comes out from under the seat, so it's cozy.
The closer we get to Iwakuni, the emptier the train becomes . . .
We're hungry and we've decided to try a new restaurant that opened up just a couple of months ago right across the street from Iwakuni Station bicycle parking. Each item costs 290 yen (about $3.75 USD). I think it's name is Butajiro which translates as "pork soup" - perhaps that's why there is a pig on the menu? We thought it was Italian because there's an Italian flag outside.
Kampai! It's nice & new and VERY cozy in this restaurant. . . it's VERY cold outside tonight!
At the next table, the patrons are having couscous (I think), which was placed into the large hollowed out shell of parmesan cheese, mixed around, and then served hot. That looks good!
This is my salmon cream sauce pasta with little mushrooms - delicious! Stan had meat sauce pasta (both our "usuals" in any Italian restaurant), and we both had garlic toast, but we both got so overheated in here, we ended up rushing our dinner so we could get outside where it was cooler. Can you believe we left without coffee & dessert??? The food was very good though & I would return - but maybe not during winter . . . So our bike ride home from the station cooled us down & we worked off our dinner - win-win!
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