Miyajima should be famous as the resting place for Kobo-Dashi, where he founded his flavour of buddism, however in reality it ia famous for it’s gate, the Floating Tori, reckoned to be the third most fmaous and photographed site in Japan. Most the time the tide is out so people just get to see it sitting on the mud, however when we got there the tide started coming in so we went to explore.

The Daishoin-Ji is the temple where Kobo-Dashi formed his brand of Buddism. It’s a large and impressive compaund, though ahrd to photograph. It is also not much visited by tourists, so aside from about a half dozen of us, the only other people there were the monks and a worshipper. It is worth going to. After that Dave ran to see if he could get on the cable car to the peak. My left knee was playing up so I went down to the bay to watch the tide come in while taking photographs. With sufficient water around it, the tori is impressive.

We didn’t leave till close to 7 p.m. so seeing the 2nd of 3 baseball games was off. Instead we went straight to a decent tempura restaurant. This was a revelation, and fortunately our cook (it was one where everyone sits at the counter) could speak English and tell us what to use with which morsel (salt, salt and lemin juice, curry powder, and tempura sauce with grated radish were the options). It was superb though the squemish could be put off. Our set meal included fresh prawns, which were promptly fished out of the tank in front of us, killed by having their heads snapped off in front of us, and then while chilling we could see mandibles and tales still moving. The heads were also cooked and serverd first. These were nice – a crunchy experience with a slight prawn taste.

Now we’re back at the hotel. It has it’s own onsen (mineral water bath) which I was looking forwards to, however last night it was just too late, and today I’ve come down with a stinking cold. While the hit water would help, Japanese bathing etiquette means with some thing like a cold I really should stay out of it. Ah well.

The yukata I’m after stays illusive.

We ate at Moss Burger this lunch time. Been along time since I had this sort of junk food, but boy was it awful. Supposedly it’s the premier Japanese rival to McDs.

At least the rain has now stopped, so we’re off to Miyajima.

It is presently absolutely pissing down in Hiroshima. The long time forcast is sun, so it’s just for today. Good job we did the Peace Park and Museum yesterday.

We’ve decided to put off Miyajima till this afternoon under the hope the rain will stop, and instead this morning we will shop – maybe for more umbrellas …