last day in hiroshima

woke up to grey skies and rainddrops today. turns out today and tomorrow are gonna be wet wet wet days. bah.

yesterday i had another exciting day of exploration. morning i had personal retreat (a short one though) at the Cafe downstairs. oh man, all the coffee is japan is so good...

then walked to hijiyama park, which is a park set on a 70m high hill (so kind of like mount faber i guess?) it was quite tiring, cos it took quite a long while to walk there, and then had to climb it. so, me being the fairly unfit person i am, i didn't quite make it to the top =b but at least halfway lah. and i went to the museum of contemporary art there, which was a major disappointment, cos i didn't like most of the artwork, and you have to PAY to go in to see, so quite irritated abt that. but the outer coutyard was nice to sit in and enjoy the view from, and there were some sculptures and stuff there to admire too.

then it was another looooonnnnggg walk to hiroshima station - about 50min - across bridges and pedestrian walkways. hee... it was quite nice, just following the river flow. i met a man and asked for directions, to make sure i was on the right direction, and he was quite shocked i was planning to walk there! hee... but i MADE IT!

finally reached the station, and had a nice, fast lunch in one of those vending machine type restaurants - you order your meal via vending machines, and you get a ticket, and you use the ticket to 'claim' your meal at a counter, and you stand and eat as fast as you can. quite fun!

then i took the train out to Mizushiri, cos i had read in a website about a beautiful beach side town at Saka. But when the train finally trundled its way into the totally ulu stop, i was kind of disappointed, cos yes, the sea was there, but i didn't see no beach side town, and the whole beach was fenced up anyway!! but since i had paid money and spent time to get there, i just walked along the beach, took pictures through the fence, and enjoyed the fresh salty sea breeze =) so it wasn't too bad. but i had hoped to be able to actually SIT by the beach and sip a drink - like those shots you see on tv. silly website.

made my way back to Hiroshima station, and took a streetcar to Katchobori, which is near some big departmental stores. but i knew where i was heading - no big expensive department stores for me. i made a beeline for the information desk and asked for Tokyu Hands and Uniqlo. =) Yay!!!

Uniqlo was FANTASTIC. after a few disappointments in the morning, this store did not disappoint. i came out with a very jappy grey cropped jacket and a tank top - but i had great fun trying on about 20 things in the changing room! (i know, i'm terrible for the salespeople who have to clean up after me =b)

after that, i had no energy to crawl over to Tokyu hands, so i made my way back to the hotel (walking again) and slumped on the bed exhausted. heh.

at night, went with the guys to eat shabu shabu, sapporo beer and sake. i love sapporo beer! but i dun really like the sip of sake that i had. maybe too strong for me... it was a celebration dinner of sorts, cos the project meetings had gone so well, that they don't need to meet up today! they just have individual paper work they need to do.

apparently they'll need to meet up again in loveland (colorado) in august, and doug and john (the americans) asked me to come! hee... they said they'd love to drive us around and bring us to see the black hills and yellowstone park and eat charcoal grilled burgers etc etc. so... we'll see. i have doubts i'll get leave. hee

but it was really nice of them, and i'm kinda sad that we're leaving. i mean, i've only known them for 2 days, and it was intimidating at first, but... they're really nice people. the two americans have kids in their teens, and yobun, the japanese guy, turned out to be 61! haha... the china guy is alot younger - about my age i think. all in all, quite a motley crew, but a nice one. =)

today mel and i have the day free, cos of the project meetings ending, so we're deciding where to go now. maybe to the kintai kyo bridge, which is about an hour train out. we'll see... hopefully the rain stops soon.

(thank you liling! i will.)