08:03:24 I'm not really sure which way round this is supposed to be. This was taken as we were leaving the ryokan where the onsen was. You can just about make out the steam from the onsen behind me.
08:03:34 I'm not sure what the reason for the strange poses was here...
08:04:09 The Moriwaki family, again with onsen steam behind them.
08:51:24 The gardens around Adachi Museum of Art. In my opinion, much better than the actual exhibits.
08:53:23 More of the gardens.
08:54:01 A waterfall.
08:55:36 Yet more gardens.
08:55:44 The vivid blue sky gave the whole thing an almost unearthly quality - it felt like we were in a terraform dome on the moon or something...
08:56:46 Inside the museum, the Japanese answer to Jimmy Saville.
09:02:07 There were lots of carp in the various ponds and streams in the gardens.
09:04:29 Another waterfall.
09:04:41 A waterfall much further away.
09:38:57 In the museum cafe. Suffering from something of a hangover, I tentatively tried to eat some green tea ice cream.
09:51:03 I really rather like this picture. The cafe was entirely surrounded by glass, so it looks like I'm sitting outside here.
10:13:25 The Moriwakis in front of one of the "living picture frames" the museum was filled with. Elsewhere they generally get called windows.
10:13:42 Me and Chie, a bit dark.
11:14:54 After the visit to the museum, the coach tour continued on to a fish market. Understandably somewhat uninterested, I decided on going for a walk down to the seafront instead.
11:15:15 The sea again.
12:25:46 For lunch, the tour took us to Yuushi-en gardens. Lunch was distinctly fishy, so I skipped it and took an extended walk around the gardens, which were very nice.
12:26:20 Here's me childishly venting a bit of frustration about the overwhelming fishiness of Japanese food.
12:27:53 A view through the gardens.
12:29:10 A waterfall, next to which I sat for a while and pondered vegetarianism.
12:37:28 A good old zen garden. Can't beat 'em.
12:47:42 There was a building with lots of exotic looking flowers in (Peonies perhaps?).
12:47:51 Another flower.
12:48:02 Another flower, but this one is white.
12:48:30 Kana and Chie and some flowers.
12:49:08 Me in an odd pose, and some flowers.
12:49:46 Wrong!
13:45:00 A sign for what I assumed to be a hairdresser's, seen from the coach.
13:45:14
The English part of the sign reads:
We want to direct the pleasant space for you.
When you come here, You will able to be happy.
So let's enjoy your hair life with us.
15:27:56 At one of the stop offs on the way back to Hiroshima, we had our first (and more or less only) chance to play about in some really decent snow...
15:28:00 ...albeit only for a few minutes. I love the universal language snow brings with it. People from just about any country in the world that has snow, as soon as they see it for the first time in the winter, they'll start making snowballs.
15:28:28 Yuka gathering up snow. Not a particularly safe colour of coat for snowy conditions!
15:31:17 Poor Chie's hands were probably freezing!
16:54:34 On the coach again. A fairly bizarre profile picture of me.
18:00:06 Finally, back in Hiroshima. The Moriwaki family, with our coach behind them.
18:00:22 I wanted to be in a picture with the coach in the background, and only Chie's Mum seemed to want to be in it with me.
18:52:56 This is in Sushi Tei, just round the corner from Hiroshima station.
18:53:20 Me and the Moriwaki girls. Lovely picture!
19:27:38 Me, Otosan and Okaasan.
19:29:29 The young folk again. Sushi Tei is surprisingly really good for me. As the food is prepared by hand in front of you, with usually very simple ingredients, it's a lot easier for them to put together vegetarian sushi. And they're very good at it - this was one of the best meals I had during my stay in Japan.
19:29:38 Perhaps a second one taken by accident? There were quite a few vegetarian things to choose from in fact. I particularly enjoyed the shitake nigiri, and the ha-wasabi (wasabi leaves) temaki sushi. I also had a couple of seaweedy things which were also very good.
19:29:57 Hmmmm I don't think this was supposed to happen!
19:30:06 ...and this definitely wasn't!
19:33:15 Sasakisan, our chef for the evening, who was very good indeed. He was really nice about me taking a picture, although he seemed a bit confused as to why I wanted to in the first place. So this is him "acting naturally". Little does he know of the strange brand of celebrity he will receive as a result of appearing in my picture collection.
19:34:48 I think this guy here is the head chef, and coincidentally was our chef the last time I went to a Sushi Tei, even though that one was a different branch. Absolutely smashing bloke. In fact all the chefs in this place are really good at what they do, and seem to be really happy doing it, which is really refreshing to see.