Kita-Hiroshima: Sunny and about 26 degrees
Breakfast was massive!! Egg, bacon, salad, soup, pickles, fish and so much more that I can’t remember what was served up. Eating a fried egg with chopsticks is not much fun, but it was the best breaky we have had on the trip!!
After breaky, I took some photos of the area in which we were staying. As I’ve said before, it really is a beautiful place!! Being a national holiday, the Taniide’s had the Japanese flag proudly displayed out the front of their house.
Mel grabbed her Shrine Book and then it was off to the local temple to get in signed. On a crisp, clear and sunny morning, it certainly looked great. I do love a temple!!
The head monk, whose name escapes me, very kindly wrote in Mel’s book and we were then asked to write in HIS book. There were mostly Japanese entries, but there were a couple in other languages. This man was just such a sweetheart and wanted photos with us. Which is just as well as we wanted photos with him!! But who has those photos???
A member of the community had found a puppy that was abandoned and presented him to the head monk. This dog, a shiba ken, which is a Japanese breed, was gorgeous. And so obviously loved his master!
The temple grounds had some beautiful flowers and trees, including the lotus plant (at least that’s what I think it was). As it was explained to be, it grows in filthy water to produce beautiful flowers.
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| Diana, Mel, Kristy and Robyn.... |
Yoko then drove us up to the Oishii or big rock that is up on one of the nearby mountains. At certain times of the year they have festivals around and on the rock. From the top of the rock there are awesome views of the surrounding town.
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| The hostees.... |
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| The hosters.... |
After our trip up the mountain, it was time to head back to our chalet and get our stuff as our short homestay visit had come to an end. Before we left, I took some photos of the back garden at the Taniide’s place. They have a stunning rock pool garden with many (can’t remember how many but it was a LOT) koi. Koi are bloody expensive and from the number in the garden, I think it gave us an indication of how well the Taniide’s are doing!!
After protracted goodbyes from our host families (who has these photos???), we got back in the bus to go to the medieval warlord festival. I was excited about this event, but as the day progressed, my interest waned. We were there for far too long, there was only one restaurant that kept running out of soba noodles and we had to wait for over an hour to eat, it was hot and we were tired. But we MUST stay on schedule. Sigh.
It was a great sight to see and we saw some great performances. But I was tired, hungry and grumpy. Not a good combo at the best of times!!
Some pictorial highlights:
Part of the gang in front of a model of what the old castle and surrounds looked like….
Dressed up like a dork….again….
The outer wall of the castle grounds…..
Making soba noodles….famous in this area, bloody delicious, but it took aaaages for us to have lunch….
The procession in through the main gates….
Cute kid standing in front of the decoys used to enter the castle. The soldiers would dress up as women dancers and then bluff their way in through the defences….
Preparing to fire their guns…..
Firing (literally!!) of the guns….
Me and the boys…..
It was a very interesting day, but we were just so tired, hungry and hot and that kind of took the fun out of everything. And then it was back to HIC for some slop for tea….sigh….
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