When we first got off the ferry, the first thing we saw, was all the deer! They are not quite the same as the ones in Nara, they have had all their antlers taken off - and are much more docile. Even though you are not supposed to touch them, people seem to. I was happy enough to have my photo with this one who was sitting under a deer sign! He's so cute!
Once you get to the station, you have to take a ferry to the island of Miyajima. Emily told us that at one time, the island was the home of the Gods and noone was allowed to live there. The ferry was just very short, but I had fun taking photos in the mirror!
On Sunday, after an awesome Saturday shopping in Hiroshima, we took the trip to Miyajima, which one of the most famous sights in all of Japan. We got to the station, and we found that there were no lockers free. But as we were walking away, the station manager came running to us, to tell us there was a locker free, and he gave us these cool Shinkansen fans. They were super cute!
11-11 is National Pocky Day in Japan...which I found out the morning of the 11th of November! It apparently is advertised on TV and stuff! At lunch I went out and bought these, because I thought they would make for a cool Japanese photo!
We had a long wait for my bus in Shin-Yamaguchi, but we had heard (from several sources in fact) that there was an alright Mexican place right near the station. It was tiny, and cute, and the tortilla chips were really good! It was only slightly strange when our burritos were made of hot dogs and avacados thought....
Turns out that Tsuwano has a festival (I think in January) where people dress up like these large birds, complete with massive wings. I thought, according to the map, that there would be actual people there dancing, but instead there was these statue people, who were just as cool!
Tsuwano is a lovely little place, mainly catering for the tourists that come on the Steam Train. We had lunch in a little Udon shop, and then wandered around the town, looking in the Souvenier shops for a while, and Tsuwano is famous for paper dolls, so there were a lot of them there. They also have streets a little like Hagi, white washed, but these had little streams on each side, full of massive Koi, and even a duck with a bow tie! We mainly did some shopping, and followed some tour groups around. There was a German band exhibition at the craft centre (strange eh?) so we had to get some photos for Julianne's boyfriend who speaks both Japanese and German. Sometimes the craziest things happen in the weirdest, off the track places! I loved all the paper dolls everywhere, and I had to buy some, and have my photo with this massive one - we even got some free in our presents we bought!
