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Published: February 17th 2009
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The travellers shrine
Travellers pray here for a safe journey I went to a place called Onomichi today which is on the southern coast of Honshu the main island in Japan. It took me a good hour and a quarter to get there by the local train again, but it was actually good to see the rural Japan that was in between Hiroshima and Onomichi. I haven't seen much of that. Onomichi is only a small town and doesn't have much infrastructure set up for tourists, there is a very helpful map you can get just outside the station but thats about it. The main reason its a good place to visit is because it has lots of beautiful scenery and also has lots of temples and shrines. The map that I got has a specific route to take where you can see all the temples and go up to the top of the mountain and see the view. It's quite long, I didn't actually finish it. Anyway, so I visited all the temples and shrines that were there. One of them was a shrine where in olden times travellers would go to rest and pray and as a result there is a big gate at the front with huge sandals
hanging on it representing travellers, it is said that if you want to have a safe and successfull journey you should pray here. So that's what I did. I'm not really a religious person but I thought if I came all the way here and didn't pray for a safe journey and then something happened, well I would be kicking myself!
The temples and shrines were all set in beautiful places that overlooked the ocean from the hillside and had really nice trees and stuff surrounding it. The walk also took you to yet another ropeway where you could go to the top of the mountain, I've ridden so many ropeways in the last few days its not funny! It was actually a bit embarassing actually, I entered from the side of the building to go up the stairs to get in the little car and as a consequence didn't see the ticket machines, I thought maybe you pay when you're on or something, when I got to the top of the stairs the car was about to leave and the lady waved me on so I got on, and then at the top of the mountain I completely
forgot and just casually walked off, the lady had to shout after me to ask for my ticket which I then had to say I didn't have one cos I thought that I bought it on the car, oops! It was no big drama there was a ticket machine at the top where I could pay instead but like I said a bit embarrassing in front of all the other tourists and especially because the lady escorted me to the ticket machine to make sure I paid! Stupid foreigner!
The top of the mountain was really nice, the view was of the islands in the ocean just off the coast, the ocean and the town of Onomichi, I also did a quick little walk around the top through the forest and then caught the ropeway back down, thank god it was a different girl this time!
Today was really hot again, I watched the news yesterday and it said that it would rain today and be a bit cooler, but no rain and I actually think it was hotter than yesterday. I set out nice and early this morning, caught the 8.20am train so that it wouldn't be
that hot, but it was still hot when I arrived just before 10am. If it wasn't as humid as it was I would have finished the walk but I decided to head back to Hiroshima early, and spent a nice refreshing hour in an airconditioned train.
It's so nice to be able to catch trains that are on time, nothing like damn cityrail! When I tell people here that I am going on a day trip by train that will probably take about 40 minutes to an hour, they say thats a bit far isn't it? Well when you have to commute from the central coast to Sydney almost every day by unreliable transport, then talk to me about it being far. This is nothing.
I thought that navigating myself around the train transport system in Japan would be a bit difficult, I heard it can be sometimes but so far no problems, everything is very efficient and clearly marked, at some of the smaller stations its probably a bit harder but I just double check by asking the train station staff and I'm usually right in the first place anyway. The service of the train system is
Onomichi streets
It just looks like my stereotypical image of an old Japanese street really good in Japan, the staff at Gosford station need to learn a thing or two from these guys, there is even a guy who walks up and down the trains, sort of like the cityrail guards and when they leave one carraige to go to another they bow, and then bow again when they enter, amazing! Actually on a whole the service anywhere in Japan is a lot better than Australia I think.
Anyway, Onomichi was a really cute little town, very beautiful and peaceful, because I went early I spent most of the day walking around by myself, except for the ropeway part when there were other tourists, that'd be right! And it felt, once again, like I had stepped back in time, for the most part the walking route wound around the village along stone walkways that were just big enough for maybe two people side by side, with steep stone stairways and those really skinny typical Japanese houses. There were little old women walking painfully slow with heavy bags of fresh groceries under a sun umberella, smiling a cheery Konichiwa as we pass, THIS is the real Japan. It was surreal.
You know I
only found out the other day why Japanese houses were built so skinny in the olden days, and because I'm a nice person I will share my knowledge with you! The government used to tax the people by the width of the front of their houses so as a consequence they made them as skinny as they could and then could go back as far as they wanted, pretty clever actually hey?
Well as my last day in Hiroshima comes to an end I will leave you. I'm actually a bit sad to go, I've come to really like this place, not only is it beautiful and has lots of history but the atmosphere is terrific, I love it! I am looking forward to the rest of my trip though, but I would definitely like to return here one day.
Before I go, I just want to mention one thing, a foreign guy just sat down next to me at the cafe and reminded me of it. I was expecting to miss quite a few things about Australia, of course all the people, but the food and weather and so on, but one thing I was not expecting
to miss was the smell of aftershave! Japanese guys don't really wear it you see, not that they smell bad, they just don't have a nice aftershave or deoderant smell following them, but being in Hiroshima and constantly walking past foreign guys who smell good makes me miss it! I don't mean that in a I'm attracted to them way, just its good to be able to smell nice aftershave. I didn't even know I missed it, sounds funny doesn't it? They always say its the smallest things you miss...
Ok, off to have a last walk around the city before I go back to pack my bag, one disadvantage of staying somewhere for 5 days is that you gradually get everything out of you bag! Leaving for Matsue on a 7am bus tomorrow, gotta love the early starts while on holiday!
I'll write again when I get access again!
Alana
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