Day 17- Miyajima & Fireworks

Easy start this morning, left the hostel just before 10 to go to Miyajima.

The train and ferry it took to get there were both covered by my JR pass which was great. When I got to Miyajima, what struck me was just how many Deer there were. They were everywhere, trying to eat everything. I had to wrestle my map away from one of them. The number of times I turned round to find a deer nibbling on my rucksack was ridiculous.

They were so cute, however unwilling to take a photo with me.

I walked straight to the beach so that I could walk up to the arch before the water got too deep. It was really beautiful.

I then wondered around the temples for a while, it was so hot so I found a lovely place to sit.

It was only 100yen to get in and so worth it. I stayed there for a couple of hours and had a nap.

Not a bad place to sleep.

Around 3 I figured I should probably eat something, so I wondered down the main high street.

I had a beef filled bun which was delicious, I've tried making that bread at home before but it's never quite the same.

I also had an oyster with octopus on it. It was so tasty, really spicy.

I then saw a rose and green tea flavoured ice cream, naturally I had to try it. It was so good, definitely going to be trying that flavour combo when I get home.

After, I walked back to the beach and watched the tide come in, it got to high tide around half 4.

I then hopped on the ferry and then a train and got back to my hostel around quarter to 6.

I met a British girl at the hostel, first British person I've met. She was really nice but was unfortunately just leaving.

I had heard about a fireworks festival that was going on and it turned out that it was tonight. The guy told me not to go on my own because it's really busy but there are only really Scout groups in my hostel so I went anyway.

The fireworks were amazing. Some of them were in shapes like a squid or a cat and other displays were just spectacular. Apparently 10,000 fireworks were set of tonight. At the festival I met 2 American ladies, they were really chatty and nice.

After the fireworks there was a mad rush to get on the trams. I somehow managed to push my way on but it was so packed, I couldn't move. I met 2 British guys on the tram and we had laugh about how ridiculous this all was. It took an hour to get back on the tram, it wad going really slowly, probably because of the weight.

When I got back to the hostel, I met a woman from Austria. We talked till about half 11 when I decided to finally go upstairs get ready for bed.

Off to Kitakyushu tomorrow.