From Kyoto we went to Hiroshima, more to the south of the island, and the last minute we got the confirmation from Noriko, a Japanese girl, that we could do couchsurfing at her place. We had a short time with her because she had a super busy life, but she was very friendly.

There is not much to see in Hiroshima, but it is clear that the city is much quieter than the others big cities we’ve seen so far. We tasted the typical local dish called Okonomi-yaki, which is made of crepe, noodle, egg, bacon, cabbage, various spices and a type of barbecue sauce. We spent a rainy afternoon at the museum about the atomic bomb and it was interesting to know a little more about the details of their history.

In a sunny day we went to visit the island of Miyajima, where there is one of the most famous symbols of Japan, a red tori in the water, but we were a bit unlucky and the monument was under renovation so we did not see it right. Too bad! But the island has a few temples and beautiful gardens and we enjoyed it anyway.

Then we started going back to Tokyo, stopping for two nights in Kyoto again, where we visited the city of temples called Nara. It is there that you can see the famous Todai-ji temple, with the huge Buddha made of bronze and gold, within the largest wooden building in the world, which has a super beautiful architecture. And in the main gate there are two impressive pieces of eight meters of Nio guardians carved on a piece of wood in the thirteenth century.

It was a sunny day in Nara and had a pleasant stroll through the park. On our way back to Kyoto we stopped to see another famous temple called Fushimi Inari Shrirne where the 4km climb to the top of the mountain has a tunnel formed by a few thousand red Toris.

Our days in Japan are coming to an end and tomorrow we return toTokyo. What a pity!