After a C-Store breakfast on the patio of K's House, we headed out for the walk to the station. At the Midori no madoguchi we got seats for Himeji and then onward to Hiroshima. At Himeji, there were new lockers up just outside the Shinkansen gate that were Y800 for the big slots. Luckily, we all could get our stuff in the Y600 sized. Just outside the station by the obento store were some older lockers that were still Y600 for the biguns if ever needed. They'll probably be gone the next time through. We walked through the arcade to stay out of the sun until we got to the newly finished bridge leading to the castle park. They now sell a combined ticket for the castle and the new garden just outside. We put our day packs in the small locker just inside the ticket gate (Drew put his camera in also) and started the tour. Nankaime kono shiro wa . . . Returning through the arcade we stopped at Mac and Don's for lunch. The teriyaki burger reminded me of the Lucky Pierrot burger in Hakodate. After getting our bags out of the lockers in Himeji, we found that our seats were for the 2:30 Shinkansen and we had an hour and half until then. We scrapped our reserved seats and caught the 1:30 Shinkansen for Hiroshima using the free seats where we transferred to the local line for Miyajimaguchi. This local seems to take forever and we always seem to get on the run that makes every stop. It was the end of the school day and elementary school kids were riding home all dressed alike with the same color thermoses and uniforms.
At Miyajimguchi, we headed out the small station to attempt the road crossing to the Youth Hostel. It's the main Sanyo highway and is sometimes end to end traffic. The town has made a nice underpass but then you have to carry your luggage down and then back up some long stairs so we wait for the break to cross and check in. We dumped our bags in the room after learning that it might be crowded the second night and walked to the ferry to Miyajima. The short ferry ride was nice as usual as we watched the big "kaki" sign glide by for those who didn't know all the floating stuff out there was for oysters. We walked down the tourist street, being unsually unbothered by the semi-tame deer. They've stopped selling sika sembe and have signs up stating that if you feed the deer they die of malnutrition. This campaign seems to have worked. We wandered around the shrine and up to the unfinished Hideyoshi Hall and pagoda before heading back down tourist alley. I got some grilled oysters that tasted almost like lobster. Sartha checked out the Hello Kitty Store.

Back at Miyajimaguchi we looked into the 7-11 but this year isn't an obento year, of which I usually eat a lot. We ended up at a Chinese Retaurant next to 7-11 for dinner, where Sartha had Nagasaki Champon and Drew had subuta. Back at the hostel, I watched Japan and Colombia play to a 0-0 tie. This isn't good news for Japan.

On Wednesday, we had a C-Store breakfast and eventually got on a train for Hiroshima, where we took the siden for Gembaku Dome mae and then walked down to the museum. We got there just as 1,000 school groups were arriving, so I looked at exhibits until school uniforms filled up my area and then I skipped ahead to where it was less dense. I quickly exited and sat on a bench in the park waiting for the others to finish. We then walked through the arcade, found the okonomiyaki place on the 4th floor and got some soba-on-the-bottom okonomiyaki.

We walked back to the station and took a local to the Youth Hostel. I headed back over to Miyajima and hiked up to the base of the Cable car and then back down through Momiji-dani, following the small stream slowly until it started getting dark. Drew and Sartha headed into Hiroshima again but didn't know where they were going, got lost, and eventually got directions back to the street car.

When we left Hiroshima, we got reservations for all the way to Kagoshima, just to ride the new Shinkansen.