On this fourth day of the trip I woke up in Hiroshima, but we did not really stay in the city. We went to this island that was filled with trees, shrines and deer called Miyajima. It was beautiful. First we walked, then we took a tram, than we took a train, than we took a ferry and then we took a gondola just to end up near the top of the mountain at the island. Honestly, I did not go all the way to the top. Headaches, not feeling like walking so much after having walked many kilometres the past few days.. Plus, I wanted to write a few blogs 😉

Anyway, we did walk down from the midpoint where I was typing for a while, and it was beautiful. I have been to many Asian countries but I have never visited a country that is so beautiful: it does not matter how or when or where you take a pic: they all look amazing. The people are humble, it is sometimes hard to understand if we need to walk left or right (and they drive left!) but it is so amazing. I feel very much at home, while also feeling like an elephant stomping on the street where are this beautiful butterflies walk around.

The walk down was beautiful. The big segoia trees were leading us downwards, back to where the cute little deer were waiting for us. It is amazing how overwhelming nature can be. It is so overwhelming: you can’t even take a good picture of it to really show it off. The way down was just a few kilometres, but my legs were shaking because of all the steps down, hihi.

It was nice though, I really enjoyed getting out of the city, being right into nature. There was a woman that fell on the ground and she had to be picked up with a helicopter: pretty intense, we did not have any accidents luckily; we just had a really good time. It is nice spending time with my parents like this, I think we all enjoy it equally.

When we were down the mountain again, we did not just see the deer: we also saw the gate being on dry land! The tides were set so people walked around it, taking pictures. It was a funny sight, seeing as it was surrounded by sea just a while ago. I tried to make a selfie with a deer which was pretty difficult, but then there was one laying down so I went for it, hihi, what do you think?

As it was afternoon and we did not really have lunch, we went to this tiy super touristy place where they made the local specialty called okonomiyaki. To my great surprise they actually understood that I did not want meat or fish, which was amazing. Okonomiyaki is really good: it is a pancake filled with cabbage, egg, soy, noodles, seaweed, and other things I forgot. A very Japanese flavor that I hadn’t had before, so good!

After dinner we went back on the ferry, were I was looking at a few kids playing their Nintendo 3DS’s. It is very strange how I do not see any Nintendo Switch’s anywhere. I do like it that often grown ups are playing Pokémon Go on their smartphones, hihi. Other than that I haven’t really experienced a lot of video game life out here. I saw an 8 Bit café, I have seen a few Konami Sports places and one arcade place, but that is about it.

Also, people do not stare at me as much as I thought they would. I mean, I am super white, I am tall, I am huge, so I would imagine they would be like: wtf is walking there?! But they do not really stare. Sometimes little kids do, and then I play around with them, but grown-ups don’t stare. Could also be a polite thing perhaps, cause they do not really look around much in general, they really mind their own business.

The Japanese style of going about things is very lovely, it really speaks to me. I am seriously thinking about how my life would be if I’d lived here instead of in NL, and if I could do it. I really fall in love with Japan more and more every single day. Apart from the fact that they do not understand what vegetarian means, everything is so perfect.

Anyway, in the evening we went to a restaurant called Onegiya Fukuromachi, which was amazing. You enter through this super tiny door, take your shoes off and then sit down either at the bar, or at this special little booth. We got lucky: we ended up in a booth, and it was great. The waiter was the cutest Japanese guy I ever laid eyes on, and especially when he said sorry five times when he finally understood I did not want to eat the omelet he gave me cause it contained fish (and I told him I do not eat fish or meat), I wanted to call his parents to ask for his hand in marriage. Haha, just kidding of course, but he was -just like all other Japanese people- so freaking cute!

The food was really good, just as Tripadvisor promised, and I was happy that my parents were enjoying the dinner as well. I am their dinner captain: I always pick something from Tripadvisor, guide us there and then we enjoy good food (well, until now, who knows where we will end up later this holiday, hi hi). But it is a good thing it played out nicely, the restaurant was really something, and there were a lot of local Japanese people there. Some of them smoking inside, cause that is normal here (outside though, not cool!), and many of them drinking way too much beer and getting a bit loud, which is hilarious cause most Japanese act so timid.

After that we went back to the hotel and I was pretty knackered of walking all day. Plus, we have to get up at 06:30 tomorrow, so I really need to go to sleep now… Besos!