Japan Day 19: Matsuyama to Hiroshima.

The day was cold and clear, or as clear as it gets in this part of the world anyway.  We had our last Hotel Dogo breakfast: having covertly observed our fellow diners the preceding day, I had a better idea how to handle my fermented soy beans with their slimy cobwebs and tendency to slither away from chopsticks. (Mix them in with the rice. Although they'll make the rice slippery too. You have been warned).

Farewell shiny hotel lobby.

We caught the Iotetsu train back to Takahma and jumped on a little bus which took us to the Matsuyama Tourist Ferry Terminal to catch the car ferry to Hiroshima.

From the train.

Our ride.

There were not a lot of people waiting for the ferry.

For a little over two hours the ferry chugged through the islands and channels of the Inland Sea and city ran around taking photos from the upstairs deck, taking refuge inside whenever the cold got too much outside.

We passed through the Ondonoseto Strait, under the First and Second Ondo Bridges. Obviously engineers in Japan are just as imaginative as all other engineers when it comes to naming things.

The view was a little more industrial on the other side of the Strait.

After a quick stop in Kure we landed in Hiroshima.

Hiroshima had a network of trams and streetcars that took us almost to our hotel door.

Beautiful old streetcars.

A lovely lady gave me the keys to a room on the 20th floor and left me to drag Roger into the lift as he muttered all the usual imprecations about earthquakes and attempted to check the structural integrity of the building. He was quickly presented with a dilemma: the hotel offered free drinks and nibbles on the 25th floor with expansive views over the city. Risks of pulverisation battled with free drinks, it was agony to watch.

Free drinks won.

We wandered the streets of Hiroshima and settled on a dumpling dinner, causing great consternation in our waiter who was a little too intimidated to try the point-and-smile method of communication and roped the cook in to take our order. Some heated conversations appeared to occur, based I suspect along the lines of "I need to cook! Go and give it a shot. They won't eat you!"  The waiter was adamant. The cook took our order.

Beer and whiskey for less than $3 total.  That will help him relax about earthquakes.

Dumpling restaurant ceiling decorations.

The dumplings were lovely, the chopstick performance a solid P plate. Back in the hotel the 25th floor offered free pudding but we were too full of dumplings to try it.

While we're on the subject of pudding: for the rest of my life I will regret passing up the opportunity to eat pudding in a foot bath in Matsuyama.