Long time no see

Things have started to get a little busy here, hence the long break from posting. That, plus I'm a little lazy, and it doesn't help that I have to contend with a celeron equipped laptop that takes 3 minutes to display all my photos in thumbnail format.
To make sense of all the various photos that have been posted, here's roughly what happened.
We went to watch the Yamakasa festival, where basically teams of men run around the town carrying a one ton float in a race that starts at 4.59am. We then went to school and boarded a bus bound for Hiroshima. Arrived in the afternoon, took a ferry over to Miyajima island, visited the Itsukushima shrine, had dinner, went back to the Otori mon at night. The gate was quite remarkable indeed.
The next day was spent at the A-bomb museum and its surrounding, lunch at the Okonominura and then back home. We were scheduled to move from our apartment to our host families, so the next update will probably be on that, as well as a few other activities, such as a nomikai (drinking session), a tea ceremony and others. Stay tuned.

Okonomiyaka, Hiroshima style. They add a huge amount of vegetables to it, in contrast to Osaka style okonomiyaki.
The Okonomimura, with 3 stories worth of nothing but okonomiyaki stores.
The A-bomb dome, now protected by a fence complete with infra red sensors and CCTV.



Paper cranes with wishes for peace.



Hiroshima castle. We only got to see it from our bus.

Another shot of the Otori mon.
The Peace Park and the A-bomb Dome at Hiroshima.
One of the exhibits at the A-bomb museum.

The gahment supports the sewage system on the island, apparently.
No idea what the name of this temple is, but it is a nice shot, no?
The Otori mon at night. As it was low tide, we were able to walk up to it.
The dining hall where we had dinner.

Fancy a Kendo doll for S$300?

The Otori mon. You can actually walk to the gate during low tide, which we did later in the night.
I was thinking that the small square platform here would be nice as a shiai-jo. Incredibly scenic, being next to the water.
Deers on the island will eat just about anything, especially paper. I had to risk my camera cover to lure this critter for this shot.
The platform I mentioned above. Its actually meant for some religious ceremony.
I was taken aback when I found this at not just one, but a few souvenir shops. Bokkens and bokutos.

The tide coming in. The entire temple seems to float on water when the tide is high, making it quite a view indeed.
Some random shot of some buildings.
The entrance to the Itsukushima shrine.
A shot of the exterior of the shrine.

The jetty over at Miyajima. It has an uncanny resemblence to Tekong. Refer to the photo below.
Arriving at Miyajima.
The Otori mon from a distance.
Our first surprise upon arrival was the fact that deer are allowed to roam free on the island.
Not a perfect point of view for comparision, but the resemblence is there.

The Miyajima Grand Hotel, where we stayed for the night. Possibly the most extravagant place I've ever stayed at.
Fancy a ride?
The view right after leaving the ferry terminal.
The first view of the famous temple.
Getting a briefing about the rest of the day from Kozo san.

Trip to Hiroshima

The bridge linking Kyushu to Honshu.
Lunch prior to leaving for Miyajima.