Train Hopscotch

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I woke up early to shower before heading on to my next couple cities (yes, I'm ramping up the travel goals now that the guys are gone - I took it easy on them). Unfortunately, I had forgotten to get a towel the night before and the office wasn't open until 8am (a problem since I wanted to catch the 8:20am train out). I didn't want to use the towel I brought and have to carry it around wet, so I skipped it. I hope I didn't smell too bad! I hopped on the bullet train over to Kobe.
Besides good beef, Kobe doesn't have a whole lot for Western tourists. Many Japanese people come because the city has a big Western influence and go tour Western style homes and eat at those type of restaurants. I skipped all that and did the one thing I thought was interesting. The guide book said there was a waterfall just behind the train station, but I couldn't find the path. So instead I went straight to the Cable Cars that took you to the top of the mountain nearby to see the Nunobiki Habu-koen (Herb Garden). This also had a Western flare to it, because it was modeled off a German castle. It had plenty of beautiful flowers and herbs for me to photograph though. The nice thing was that it all went down hill and then I could keep going to get to the Nunobiki Falls. I saw a random assortment of people going to the falls on my way down (granted they were all hiking up, silly people); they ranged from full out hiking gear with poles to some girls in fancy close and heels. As I was approaching the falls there was a big group of young kids on a field trip at the lookout spot, so I hung out at the top of the stairs waiting for them to leave so I could have an unobstructed view. There was a small group of girls who saw me and started waving. So of course I waved back, which got me a picture being taken from their teacher and lots of giggling and pointing.
My mountain loop lead me right back to the train station where I was just a few minutes before the train heading out to Himeji. It would have been sacrilegious not to get Kobe beef while in Kobe, Japan. However, while if the guys were here I'm sure they would have made me go to a sit down restaurant, I went the more efficient route and got a bento box with it for the train ride. I thought it was very tasty, so I'm sure the restaurant version would be to die for. I also noticed an interesting package at the kiosk shop on the platform,s o my lunch was finished off with a bag of M&Ms that were caramel apple flavored. A bit of an odd taste since it was still chocolate in the middle.
In Himeji I had a difficult time finding a free locker at the train station. When I arrived at the Himeji-jo Castle, I completely understood why - it was packed! There was so many people that the estimated wait time to get in the castle was an hour and a half. Lucky for me, I did not have to wait that long. It was quite hot outside so they kept making announcements to drink water. It was important because with all those people, there were even more lines and waiting inside the castle (which as you can guess, does not have air conditioning). I started at the main keep which was six floors high and they shuffled you up these really steep staircases all the way to the top. There was not a lot to look at inside the castle, but the view out the top was fantastic. I preferred being outside, though, because the view of the Himeji-jo Castle is just so impressive and majestic that I couldn't stop taking pictures of it (a problem when you have limited memory card space - I may have spent the morning train ride deleting more blurry pictures from my original card). Walking around the extensive grounds was pretty impressive. The ticket also got you in to the gardens next door (you did have to cross back over the moat). On my walk to the gardens, I had some elementary students stop to talk with me. Their (very smart) English teacher had given them 5 questions to ask a foreigner in English. I kindly replied and in return for my time they gave me some cute little origami.
Done with the one thing to see in Himeji, but having some extra time because the trains stopped there less often, I decided to wander the shops. Being a mainly tourist destination town, there were some impressive long, pedestrian only shopping streets. A bunch of people were walking around eating something that looked like a corndog. So I went to go find it. When I bought one and bit into it, surprise! not a hot dog. Instead it had something white, maybe fish or crab inside - still tasty! Near the end of the shopping street by the station, I found a shop that was selling yukata and kimonos for a pretty reasonable price. I had to stop and browse. I ended up walking out with a really pretty black one with big purple flowers on it, and the accompanying accessories (belts and obi). They were pretty sure I didn't know how to put one on so they included some instructions for me to follow and a website (http://www.yukatalism.com/) to research how to put it on. Should be an interesting challenge that will probably require some assistance at home (if our practice at the Ryokan is any indication - thank to Tyler for that ones success). That purchase wiped me out of cash, so thankfully there are always Seven Elevens nearby to restock up. Done for the day, I headed back to the station to catch the train to Hiroshima.
In Hiroshima, I was a bit surprised to find out that the little train symbol in my travel guide actually meant streetcar here. So, I hopped on a streetcar to take me to the station nearest my hostel for the night. I checked in and dropped of my stuff quick before heading to Peace Memorial Park which is the site of the atomic bomb. I was too late in the evening to go in the hall or museum, so I just walked the park. It was a pretty impressive one with shrines and monuments and statues all over the place representing different aspects of the devastation from that bomb. The whole place made me want to cry. The pinnacle of the park was the A-bomb Dome, the only remaining standing structure from the blast. Since it was evening, I was able to get a pictures of it in daylight, twilight, and nightfall. Waiting for the sun to set I explored the rest of the park. There was a group of school children (middle school it looked like, on a field trip again) singing at the Children's Peace Monument. This monument was constructed when a girl died of leukemia due to the bomb radiation. There are paper origami cranes everywhere. Apparently there is a ceremony you can conduct and drop off even more paper cranes (which is what they were doing). It was a lucky experience to be a able to witness. During my wait I was also blessed with some beautiful violin music from a Japanese guy nearby practicing (can you say one more anime thing come to life). Eventually, I had all my pictures and headed back to the hostel to get a recommendation for dinner.
I asked for a noodle place (love noodles!) and was directed to a tsukemen place called Bakudanya. Tsukemen is a ramen noodle dish that instead of the noodles coming in a soup, you dip it in a spicy sauce. For those who love spicy food, this would have been one of your favorite places to go. I really enjoyed it, but I asked for a number 5 level spicy on the 100 level scale and that was mild but spicy enough that my nose did run. Like all the food before, I absolutely loved it. I walked out of the place with an empty plate and thinking I need to search for a place like that again. By this point it was late, so I grabbed my breakfast at Seven Eleven on the way back to my hostel. I made up my futon (darn I'm sleeping on the floor again) and finished up some blogging. Tomorrow, of course, will be a long day again!

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