Saturday 30th June - onward to Hiroshima... with a bullet!

I was up at the crack of dawn the next day at Henjoko-in... well 5am, anyway, because at Koyasan there are morning prayers at 6am which visitors are allowed to sit in on, and it wasn't something I was going to miss - unlike my neighbour who completely overslept and missed practically all of it. I chatted with her briefly later and was left wondering why she'd come to Koyasan at all, since she didn't seem to have liked the place or the food very much - and honestly, I didn't find anything that differed from what you should expect having read plenty of travel reviews, so... I suppose it takes all sorts.

Buddhist prayers take the form of a lot of chanting and a great deal of incense - personally I found it all pretty captivating. Not being a Buddhist myself, I didn't kneel on the tatami mats nearer the front, but instead sat cross-legged at the back throughout the half an hour or so the prayers lasted. Afterwards, the  more senior priest, who had a bit of English, took us on a tour of the room and explained some of the statuary and art. He was a complete sweetheart actually - in my head I wanted to nickname him Yoda, despite the eyeglasses.

By the time we got back to our rooms it was breakfast time - another way-too-large for me meal delivered to the room, though thankfully it was slightly lighter fare than the night before with a good amount of fresh fruit, so I managed to eat most of it. When the Black Coat came to take away my trays, I asked him if I could please see the Japanese Garden before I left, and he actually seemed very pleased I had asked, escorting me all the way there and leaving me to contemplate it in my own time while he went about his business. I didn't actually go out into the garden as I had no outdoor slippers with me, but I did sit on the steps down from the verandah and admire it for a good while. It's largely a courtyard water garden style, with many plants and rock features. But it's set off nicely by the mountain itself which rises up steeply behind it in a burst of greenery at this time of year, and there's the constant sound of water, frogs, dragonfly and carp to bring it all to life.

Unfortunately I had to keep my eye on my watch, since I had trains to catch, so I couldn't stay as long as I might have otherwise. Also, before I left Henjoko-in, I wanted to make a donation to their roof repair fund, which I had established they were collecting for from some information sheets they had handed out during my stay. I have NO IDEA if it is rare for foreign tourists to make donations, and it was only 1000 yen since I had no notes smaller than a 10,000 at that point, but had a couple of 500 yen coins put by (for B-T concert drink tokens actually but this seemed like a good cauise)!. Anyway, when I explained to the Black Coat as I was checking out that I wanted to donate, he led me back to the hallways just newar the entrance and ushered me into a room (luckily I remembered to step out of my slippers). Rather unexpectedly I was confronted by four of the priests sitting round a low table all smiling and nodding/waving at me to sit with them. Haha, talk about not knowing what to do or say - they clearly were minimal on the English and I was obviously EXTREMELY minimal on the Japanese. Anyway, I rather awkwardly assumed the best seiza kneeling position I could muster (not a very good one considering I had sprained my knee a little in Nara walking up that bloody mountain), put my donation in the provided envelope, filled in the information on it in as neat a hand as possible and then handed it over (with both hands - I remembered that bit of etiquette)! In return, they presented me with two pairs of chopsticks in a box, which I wasn't really expecting but accepted gracefully (I hope) all the same. They were all really nice guys, and I made them all laugh when I plainly had trouble getting up from kneeling and made a face indicating I was too unfit for this kind of thing.

Before I had the chance to embarrass myself further, I made a (hopefully) unhurried but efficient escape, then finished checking out. Since I had paid in advance before arriving in Japan, that basically just involved telling the Black Coats I was leaving now, then thanking them and saying goodbye. Then it was off for the bus and the long train journey back to the busier urban sprawls.

This time, I switched at Shin-imamiya to a train for Osaka, rather than Kyoto, which provided me with some great views of the Pacific side of the coast and of the ocean as the journey progressed. It was the first time I had actually seen the ocean from a train, since the train to Kagaonsen earlier in the week didn't offer those views due to the landscape (even though I know it's quite near the Sea of Japan). As on the previous day, the skies were amazingly blue as we left Koyasan, with cloud formations that were a dream to photograph. I don't know whether it's the high altitude or I just got lucky but it made looking out of the train window well worth it in both directions.

It was weird as hell being plunged into the chaos of Shin-Osaka station after Koyasan - it's a major bullet train hub and landing there was like going between a sleepy countryside station in rural England to Kings Cross. After reserving a seat on the train I wanted to catch later for Hiroshima, I went off and found a cafe that served half-decent coffee and better snacks so that I could kill time for an hour or so and get away from the milling crowds until I adjusted to them somewhat.

This was another time when I kind of wished I had been less strict about my travel timings - I had been half-inclined to add in some daytripping in Wakayama prefecture between Koyasan and Hiroshima, but concern over whether I would make the train times I had set myself had held me back. As it turned out, I had plenty of time, and was scheduled to arrive in Hiroshima way earlier than I needed to. Ah well.

I got my first sight of a bullet train - one of the superfast Nozomis (which the JR Pass does not cover) as I walked up the stairs to the platform I needed to catch my regular Sakura-style train. It was actually quite exciting, and I'm not even a railway buff. They really are an aesthetically pleasing design, and I had absolutely no shame about taking pics, just like everyone else.

Typically for Japan, the trains ran to almost perfect timings, and I didn't have to wait long before mine was ready for boarding (Shin-Osaka being a terminal, many journeys start and end there, so we all had to wait for the train to be cleaned and checked before we boarded). Only one and a half hours to Hiroshima, which if you look at the distance travelled on a map, is pretty bloody impressive.  And when I boarded I unexpectedly found that I had been upgraded to the Green Car (first class) despite not having a Green Car JR Pass. On the one hand it was nice because the car was only half full and the seats are exponentially bigger and have more leg room than the regular class, but on the other hand it reduced my people-watching opportunities immensely since the only other people in there were businessmen and fellow tourists. I bought a snack from Shin-Osaka to eat on the way - just some sandwiches from a small concession at the station, but they were tasty anyway - tuna and crab salad, I believe.

It wasn't long into the journey before I realised that the rainy season had finally caught up with me, despite my charmed life with it up to this point. After the glorious sunshine for the past few days, I had barely seen any rain since the day I left Tokyo, except for a few drizzly evenings that never turned into anything much. But the coastline to Hiroshima was as grey and rainy as you could imagine, and I was slightly regretting that I didn't have an umbrella , especially considering that I had a tram-trip and a walk ahead of me.

But, as luck would have it (and my luck on this trip for the most part was pretty amazing, weather-wise), the rain had stopped by the time we actually arrived in Hiroshima. Apart from the morning I left Tokyo,  my entire holiday had been pretty dry, and I'm grateful for it. It made sightseeing much easier and less hassle not to be grappling with a brolly and wet shoes while trying to take photos and travel around the place. I would have managed fine I am sure (I went mentally prepared for rain) but I wasn't complaining about the fact that I didn't have to deal with it after all.

Public transport in Hiroshima is by streetcar/tram, and while it's very comfortable and frequent, it's certainly not the fastest or most efficient. You pay as you get off, so everyone has to walk up from the back of the tram (they can be four or so carriages long) to get off by the driver at each stop and drop the required money into the machine. You have to give the correct change too - there's a conductor on board whose sole job is to give change. Go figure. The system is fine if it's not crowded, but a bit of a pain if it is. Also a pain if you have too much stuff to carry, I noted, as everyone squished up to get off at the busier stops. Still, it was pretty cheap at 100-200 yen or so a ride in the city limits, and I quite enjoyed the times I used them while I was there - just be aware that it's all a bit confusing when you first get on, though at least the stops are announced in English as well as Japanese and Chinese/Korean.

My hotel, the Daiwa Roynet, was out by the Peace Park, which is about 20 mins. by tram from the station. However, the journey took in the shopping/city centre areas of Hiroshima on the way so I got to see plenty of it from a comfy seat.

It was only around 4pm by the time I arrived - though the rain was threatening to return. Given that and the fact that I really, really wanted to use Hiroshima as a staging point to catch up on laundry, email and other personal admin. before hitting Tokyo in three days time, I decided to spend the afternoon making good on that intent. Luckily the Daiwa Roynet had one of the biggest rooms of my trip (barring the tatami rooms) and lots of hanging space, so laundry was a breeze (just as well since as I was about to find, the heat in Hiroshima meant that laundry-time was not going to be a one-time thing as I had hoped).

The other nice thing about the Daiwa Roynet was that I was offered a selection of toiletries from a basket at reception when I checked in - among which were some bath fizzer/bath salts things. One of those was the only thing I took, since for the most part I was self-sufficient with toiletries plus there was always a set of basics in every hotel room anyway (shampoo, body soap, toothbrush etc.). It turned out that the Daiwa bathrooms (and so, the baths) were bigger than most and perfectly ample for a decent soak - hence the bath salts, no doubt. I still have no clue what the scent of mine was supposed to be (mint or herbs, perhaps?), but it was pretty nice and turned the water a very satisfying marine green. If you ever stay there, give them a try! The other smart thing that the Daiwa provided against other places was a multi-adaptor for charging mobile phones and Apples devices, which was in the same drawer as the Internet cable. If I'd been staying there after I lost my iPhone cable there would have been no worries at all!

Anyway, apart from doing laundry, having a long soak in the bath and catching up on a ton of email, photo downloads, blog updates, direct Twitter messages and Facebook stuff, I deliberately did absolutely nothing else of any moment - not even dinner. And while I planned out a sightseeing schedule for the next day, I also knew from the fairly reliable weather report online that it wasn't due to stop raining until mid-morning. So, since I'd had a large breakfast, sarnies on the train, plus relatively little exercise, I settled for just having a quick snack then taking to my bed at a pretty early hour, and for once on this trip I didn't even set my alarm.

• Pictures of Koyasan and Hiroshima are on my Flickr here
• Today's choon is of course, Ride a Rocket by Lithium and Sonya Madan, in honour of my first trip by bullet train!