Weather: sunny and humid 19°C, high 26°C
Accommodation: woke up at Hotel Sunroute Hiroshima; went to sleep at Ryoso Kawaguchi.
We woke up kinda late, which was lovely! And after rain the day before, we woke up to sun. Nice. We got ourselves mostly packed up (lots of new socks to stash away), when went to Starbucks for coffee and breakfast.
I swear those trousers fit Eskil when we left home!
BTW Japan does the bestest egg sandwiches in the world.
By this point in the trip Eskil wasaddicted to their chocolate donuts and cinnamon rolls, and I was addicted to the iced lattes and reliable WiFi. Scott was addicted to having Eskil off his back so he could rest it for a few minutes. After breakfast we went back to the hotel to complete our packing, then we stored our bags at the hotel to retrieve later since we didn’t need to get a train until later. It was a lovely sunny day.
We took the loop bus to Tokyu Hands. We explored all the floors. In depth.
Eskil became hungry and tired and cranky and desperately wanted a fishing game with which he had been playing and with which he had fallen in love. Oh my, what a mood. We wound up taking him to Tully where he ate spaghetti while Scott and I had coffee. We found we hadn’t purchased all the socks that tutu anna had, so we went back to sort that out and listen to some more ABBA. By this time we were ready to collect our bags from the hotel and take the loop bus to the train station.
We took a local train to Miyajimaguchi and the ferry across to Miyajima island. So beautiful! Immediately off the ferry we got ice cream for Eskil, and a deer tried to get it. The perfect welcome to Miyajima.
We enjoyed the short walk along the waterfront then turned inland one block to our ryokan, Ryoso Kawaguchi – which had come recommended by Em and Marc. I’m SOO glad we stayed there! The hostess is LOVELY. She was very welcoming and gave us lots of information. You can tell she gives the information out a lot as she can write things on the map upside down in English while talking. We settled our bags in our room then went out for a wander around the area, which seems magical with the amazing scenery – the 5 story pagoda overlooking our ryokan and the famous tori gate not far away.
We were back at the ryokan in time for a multiple course dinner. It was very nice, but almost painful having a beautiful meal, a waitress closely attending to us, and a tired Eskil to manage. Eskil was given a HUGE meal made especially for him, but he only ate the kaga-age and some of the macaroni and cheese with prawns.
Afterwards we went to have a family Japanese bath. We thought it would be too hot for Eskil, but he LOVED it. He loved us all having our own place with stool, bucket, and shower nozzle, and the big bath he treated like a swimming pool. And being allowed to splash water all over the wet room certainly suited him. He was red like a little koi by the time he got out. He then startled the hostess by running naked through the ryokan. But you can’t blame him as after a Japanese bath you’re quite warm, and the yakuta provided don’t fit him. Who would want to put on clothes or wrap in a towel just to get to your room?
We had a lovely, huge room (even without taking the mezzanine into consideration) – which seems quite a luxury after some of the small hotel rooms. And Eskil was thrilled to have a futon on the floor between his parents again. Plus he had the thrill of knowing one of his friends had stayed there!
More photos can be viewed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cragg-ohlsson/archives/date-taken/2015/10/02/.