Day 10 - Submarines

 Thursday 30th October

It’s a bit of a weird time in Japan round October.  They are big on Halloween with pumpkins and balloons everywhere …. But there are also a load of bloody Christmas trees …. Come on people - I thought I was safe here as the Japanese don’t celebrate Christmas… but it looks like they are getting in on the act 😳

Anyway - today we are going to Kure.  Kure is a city on Japans Seto Inland Sea and is best known for shipbuilding and the Japanese Defence Force.  It’s about 30 minutes from Hiroshima by bullet train.

This is also a place that is not on the usual tourist trail and we were the only foreigners getting off at the station …. But we are waiting for the Japanese Shearings crowd to find us 🤣

One of the main attractions is the Yamato Museum which has a scale replica of the Yamato Naval Battleship and looks at the Japanese maritime history.  Fortunately we checked the opening times of the museum the night before and discovered that it’s closed until March 2026 for renovations ….. bugger!  However we are still going cos there are other things to see and do.

The other attraction is the JMSDF museum (Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force).

…. We came out of the station with our trusty maps and set about looking for said museum.  Now at this point, you should know that the museum houses the Akishiro sub from the 1980s.  Coming out of the station we saw this ….

I’m not an expert, but I think that’s where the museum is ……

A short walk later and we were there and even better … it’s free!  I wasn’t too sure about this, but it was really interesting.  I learned all sorts of things mainly about minesweeping …. The JMSDF are experts are finding mines and getting rid of them.  There were thousands of mines dropped in the waters during the war and still a few that haven’t been found …. Enter the JMSDF.

There were quite a few people kicking around in the museum, but they were a bit older and most of them looked to be ex-military.  But they were prepared for any foreigners as all of the history boards had English translations.

On a slight tangent … while going up the stairs, I peeked out of the window and saw this …

It’s a big lemon van and it was parked in front of a stall selling …. Lemons!  Lemons are a big thing round here … I’ve had lots of lemon drinks …. Lush!

Anyway - back to the submarine…. At the top of the museum you can actually go into the submarine… lots of warnings before you go in - basically if you are tall or wide be careful …. And they were right…. It was a bit of a squeeze,  it we managed to get round.

Who on earth can get through this door 😳

Can’t believe how anyone managed to stay and work in a sub … I only managed 10 minutes before I had to get out.

We came out of the museum and found ourselves at port where there is a smaller yellow submarine … can’t go in that one - thankfully 😃

We are now making our way round to the Irifuneyama Memorial Hall.  This was the residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Kure Naval Station.  There is still a Naval Training Center in Kure and we could see people running round … doing exercise… tho it’s not marked on the map we have … so I think it’s supposed to be a secret 😳

The Irifuneyama Hall is a two story western style wooden building which was used by the Commander for his socialising (big parties) and we found out half way round that the British Commonwealth Occupation Force made this their home when they occupied Kure after the war ended.

We’ve now got a bit of a walk back to the station to catch the bullet home ……

Grabbed some food and then we had to discuss what we are going to do tomorrow as it scheduled to be peeeeeing down the whole day.

I’ve been told to find something to do inside …. Guess we are shopping tomorrow …. Where’s that Donki ….🤣

Until then … oyasumi nasai ❤️

Day 9 - Bridges and Castles

Wednesday 29th October

As yesterday was such a big day with lots of walking and a lot of travelling, we needed today to be a bit slower and closer to home.

So Iwakuni it is.  Iwakuni is about 15 minutes away by bullet train and is famous for its bridge and castle.

It’s at this point, I’m going to point out that we are going to places that are away from the usual busy tourist spots and going to places that have more local tourists.  We were the only foreign tourists that got off the train at Iwakuni …. Which is a good start.  However, there is a small downside to our cunning plans ….

We seem to be going to places that are popular with the Japanese Shearing Coach Holiday crowd.  If it’s not school kids following us - it’s groups of the older generation men and women on a bus trip.  More on this later …..

Anyway - After a short bus drive from the station into the main part of town … we are met by the bridge … Kintaikyo Bridge.  It was first built in 1673 by the lord of the Iwakuni domain.  The bridge kept getting washed away by the rising river, so he came up with a cunning plan and a new idea …. Hence the Kintaikyo hump bridge was born.

And now it costs ¥300 to get across it ….. 😳

You can just see the coaches parked on the river bed ….

It’s not too steep and going up is more stairs than a slope, so it’s slightly easier … and you have a lovely view of the river from the top of the humps.

Over the other side, the first thing we come to is an ice cream shop …. Iwakuni is known for its soft serve and has hundreds of flavours … some are more than a bit suspect (Garlic, soy sauce, radish) but there are other more traditional flavours …. It would be rude to pass it by….. so one vanilla orange yoghurt cone later and I’m raring to go.

We are now making our way to the castle via a lovely walkway and park.  Everywhere we go, we can see we are the only foreigners and we can hear the Shearings crowd.

On the way to the castle, we passed the Japanese Corormant training ground.  These are fishing birds…. Fishermen use these birds to catch fish.  They put a fin round the birds neck so they can’t swallow it.  Now bless them - but they are ugly birds and make a hell of a noise.  I don’t like birds at the best of times, so this was not pleasant ….

But then we decided to jump out of that frying pan and throw ourselves into the fire and go to the Iwakuni Shirohebi Museum …. AKA the White Snake museum (cue us singing ‘Here I go again on my own’ …. If you know - you know).

These are albino snakes with ruby red eyes and a shiny white body.  They are very rare and are only found in Iwakuni.  They are cherished by the locals and are said to be very lucky and bring good fortune.  There were live snakes in the museum …. Fortunately behind a cage… not as bad as the birds, but still slightly freaky.

We are now at the Ropeway which will take us up to the castle ….. it takes about 3 minutes and when we got there, we were the only ones waiting so we got it to ourselves.

We got to the top and lo and behold, the Shearings crowd are there … these people can move!  

There is now a bit of a walk to the castle …. And you’ll never guess … it’s all bloody uphill…. My calf muscles are still screaming from the mountains we climbed yesterday (well yeah OK, the slightly steep hill), but still it’s quite a steep hike.

I did swear at this point, if any of the Shearings crowd skimmed past me, I was going for them ….. even tho I wouldn’t be able to catch them …. I’d wait for them in the way back 😆.

However, once we got to the castle, the views were fantastic ….. 

We went in the castle and there are a lot of swords and armour from the late 15th - early 16th century and were fascinating.  Three steep floors up we reach the observation deck…. Have you noticed we like an observation deck 😉

Now it’s back down the hill to get back on the Ropeway and potentially make our way back to the station.

At the bottom, I really needed 10 minutes and a drink ….. and guess what we had …

I have to say - it tasted like home, just not in a Costa Cup.

So now we are back at the station just in time to catch the next Shinkansen and within 15 minutes, we were back in Hiroshima.

Grabbed some food from Lawsons as I was starving and got home to rest our aching legs and work out what to do tomorrow …..

This was a great day, especially as we were pretty much the only foreigners there and it wasn’t busy … lovely weather, lovely walk, scary birds and snakes, but a great castle and great views …. What more could you ask for.

So for now …. oyasumi nasai ❤️

Day 8 - Wabbits and the Death Island

 Tuesday 28th October

We went on a bit of a trek today …. Ever since we decided to spend time in Chugoku  - I knew I wanted to go to Okunoshima.  Okunoshima is about 2 hours from Hiroshima and would require two trains and a ferry.

Okunoshima is also known as BUNNY ISLAND …. 

The island is covered in rabbits, they are everywhere.  No one can live on the island, there is only one hotel and one small tea room…. That’s it.  And as no other animals are allowed on the island, the bunny population keeps growing.

The most widely accepted story is that the local school children released 8 rabbits on the island to act as the island mascots …. And the rest they say - is history ….. bunnies doing what bunnies do …. So now there a hundreds of them all over the island.

At the ferry port, there is a gift shop (of course) where you can buy rabbit food.  You can also bring your own food … cabbage, carrots etc, but I didn’t have any of that, so rabbit food it is!

Bunny island from the ferry

We got to the island and immediately we see rabbits hopping around.  There are strict rules, one cannot chase, pick up or scare the rabbits and you can’t feed them by the road.  I removed the bag of bunny food from my bag and as soon as it rustled . . . Bunnies came a hopping!  They actually come right up to me and some of them jumped up at me. 

As I bent down to scatter the food, the rabbits would grab the bag… there are signs telling you to be careful as the little buggers will nip at you.  Still so cute tho…..

Sooooo cute

There’s a path going round the island and as I’m with Scott, we are going round that path.  All the way round there are rabbits under trees, under tables… everywhere!!!

Now - the island also has a horrible history.  During the war, the Japanese used this island to produce chemical weapons.  There was a secret Imperial Japanese Army facility on the island used to produce a significant amount of mustard gas and tear gas for use in WWII.

The island was chosen because of its location so it could be very secret and was the largest poison gas factory in Asia.  After the war, the island was removed from maps and all the workers sworn to secrecy.

There is a museum on the island showing what they did and the affects of the gas on the workers …. Needless to say, there were no photos allowed which is just as well, as I didn’t feel the need to take shots of that.

Back to the happy part…. The bunnies.  They are really not scared of the humans, especially humans with bags of food.

Bunny ears… you could listen through them and hea8 things behind you

Going round the island, there are old storage areas that were used for the gas, battle fronts that had cannons and guns to protect the island and at the end there is the remains of the power plant.  It’s in a shaded area and is realllly creepy.  This is the stuff of Stephen King novels.

I’ve now successfully made myself happy with bunnies and completely freaked myself out with the poison gas, so now time to get the ferry back to the mainland and start the long trek back.

We timed it really well and managed to go home during rush hour so every man woman and child were going home after a long day.  Bit of a squeeze on the train.

We didn’t get back home until late, so there was just time for food, a quick chill out, sort out tomorrows travels and then bed……

So for now …. Oyasumi Nasai ❤️