2. Set for the 11 hour plane ride. Depart Time: Friday, June 26 @ 3:20pm

3. Arrival Time: Sat, June 27 @ 5:10 pm Japan time difference: 14 hours ahead

4. Our first evening in Japan, we stayed at an airport hotel. We enjoyed ramen noodles in our “Japanese” robes.

5. Caught the early train to Hiroshima. Train time: about 6 hours Sun, June 27th The Shinkansen (Bullet Train) is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. It offers the fastest point to point service of any rail line in the world. The train reaches speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph).

7. A glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the train. This is a rare occasion as it’s usually too cloudy to see in the summer.

8. With the help of someone, we navigated ourselves to Peace Memorial Park

15. After the Hiroshima Memorial, we set out to venture the city for a bit and find dinner. We ended up picking a restaurant that looked lively and had a lot of people flowing in and out. Too bad we didn’t know Japanese and they didn’t know English. It worked out though.

16. SPENT, after a long day of travel and the heaviness of the Hiroshima Bomb museum. We hopped on a bus to our hotel on the outskirts of the city. There was a bit of a confusion when the bus route ended a few miles short of our hotel, but we taxied our way there and figured out the correct bus later.

17. To Miyajima “shrine-island” we go!! Miyajima is famous for its Torii Gate which at high tide seems to float on top of the water. Little did we know it was going to be the rainiest day of our stay in Japan! Mon, June 29

18. The famous shrine on the island, Itsukushima Jinja, is considered one of the holiest places in Japan.

19. There have been deer on the island for years and they were originally seen as divine creatures and were thought of as messengers from the gods of the shrine. During the second world war, because of food shortages, residents were forced to eat deer. At this time the deer population therefore declined but after the war it was decided to import more deer from Nara city to boost the population and increase breeding. Since then the population has grown and the deer have become almost as famous as the shrine itself.

20. World’s largest rice scooper

21. Hiroshima is famous for their Japanese pancake, the Okonomiyaki.

23. Starting the climb of Mt. Misen, the highest peak on Miyajima.

24. This is a view from our rest stop where we happen to run into three friendly Japanese men who were descending from the summit who happen to mention to us that the summit was still another 90 minute climb. As we pondered whether we were going to continue, the rain started…and it NEVER stopped nor slowed down...good thing we didn’t continue!

25. Weather changed our plans. We took the ferry back to the hotel and napped until the next morning. What a great time to recover from jet lag!

26. Tues, June 30 Mazda Motor Plant and off to Kyoto

28. ZOOM - ZOOM

29. Caught the late afternoon train to Kyoto. Train time: about 3 hours