week 10

okay now this is just grossly late but anyways...

Tue 23 Nov

PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!
went to the Mitsui Outlet Park near Tarumi (which is another 20mins west of Sannomiya on the JR), which is like a DFO much 50 times better. there were 3 shopping centres full of clothing, shoes, bag stores ==> shopping heaven

i bought a nice navy overcoat for half price =]

and the place is quite nice by the water. you can see awaji bridge and awaji island and a bit of shikoku int he horizon.

Fri 26 Nov

HIROSHIMA TRIP!!!

caught the midnight bus from Osaka to HIROSHIMA!!! =D

Sat 27 Nov

arrived in Hiroshima at about 6.30am and had maccas for brekkie (since it was the only place open with food until 7.30am). then somehow found our way to the K`s House (since we left through the wrong exit). then we trekked it to Hiroshima Castle. instantly felt the memory of the atomic bomb with the marked out patches of where things used to be and remnants of trees that survived the bomb. we also went into the castle tower (nb: FREE entry for foreign exchange students!) and checked out some old stuff and tried on some old traditional Japanese garments for FREE =]

then we bought some bread and iced latte along to the way to Peace Park. AGAIN you instantly feel overwhelmed by the damage the bomb had caused upon the city. it`s just simply amazing how the A-bomb dome managed to survive it as well as the shinto gate (which has been moved to hiroshima castle). we bumped into some guy from Sydney as we were listening to some Japanese survivor guy talk about the atomic bomb and the consequences of it. then we went into Peace Park Museum (only ￥５０ entry peepz!). again felt all depressed and shocked at the amount of ruin the bomb had caused, especially the juxtaposition of the two dioramas of the before/after models of hiroshima city. the life-sized diorama of children with singed hair, melting skin drooping off of them and ragged clothes made an impression, as well as the spooky shadow of the guy on the Sumitomo bank staircase that remained from the time of bombing.

afterwards, we parted ways with guy from Sydney and went into the local shopping centre for some gloves or whatever people people wanted. then finally at bout 9.30pm we went to eat dinner. really wanted to eat hiroshima-style okonomiyaki but we were too hungry and ended up in this really cheap teishoku ramen restaurant.

Sun 28 Nov

slept in till 8.30, 9am packed up and checked out from the room but we left our luggage with the reception to go to miyajima. we took the more expensive but faster route by taking the JR train to miyajimaguchi station, then got on the JR ferry to miyajima. once we got there, we saw wild deer again (this time they dun have spots on their bodies). camwhored a bit throughout the day. checked out the red torii in the water, and tried to make it to momijidani park. spent most of our time in the omotesando (main shopping street), which can be summarised by rice scoops, momiji manju and KAKI (oysters)! dunno why but the kaki in miyajima is just soooooo friggin GOOOOOOOOOOOD

then we went back to the red shinto gate to take sunset photos then made it back to hiroshima and finally got to eat the famous hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. it was GOOOOOD. highly recommended =]

then we got on the 10.30pm bus back to osaka, arriving at 5 something AM. went home, showered, dumped my crap　made my way out again to school for 9am class