Japan Day 23: Bus Rides and Business

We were having drinkies on the 25th floor. "I'm glad the men's loo doesn't have a window," said Roger. "I'd be terrified if they had a window like the one in the women's loo." 

I skipped over the obvious question: how does he know that there's a window in the women's loo? And went straight to the more pressing question: why do I not know that there's a floor to ceiling window in the women's loo on the 25th floor? I was in there quicker than you could say "Cross your legs!" 

Loo view. I'm conducting all my loo business up here from now on.

Back at the beginning of the day I'd planned to rest my ankle after yesterday's adventures. Mind you, a quieter  day still involved walking down to the Peace Park to catch the sightseeing bus which we used a lot as it did a convenient loop all around town, stopped right outside our hotel, and accepted our JR passes. And it was always on time except this time it wasn't. We waited with a growing cluster of locals and sightseers, all getting a little jittery because Japan buses always run on time and we wondered had we missed a catastrophe such that the bus was late? 

When the bus arrived it made up for tardiness with speed, roaring through Japanese traffic, lurching around corners, and screeching to a halt at road works while passengers ricocheted around the interior, grabbing at suitcases and children as they tumbled past.

We roared up the hill to Mijiyama Park and jumped out quickly so the bus could continue on making up time without us. Mijiyama Park held all sorts of interesting things, like a sculpture walk;

A 'skywalk' to the local shopping centre;

An observatory to look out across Hiroshima;

and multiple minor gardens with blossoms in full display. Families and friends gathered under the trees to picnic and the air was heavy with the scent of blossoms and charcoal bbqs.

We caught the bus (late again!) back to the hotel and spent the afternoon doing boring but necessary things to ensure that we would be connected and solvent when we enter South Korea in a week or so. That took a long time because 25th floor soft serve ice cream was calling, and I just had to keep running upstairs to take photos as clouds marched across the mountains. And I may have visited the loo once or twice, just for the view too.

Rain over the mountains.

Sunlight on the sea.

No sooner had soft serve finished than 25th floor drinkies started and the toilet window revelation occurred. And along with that Hiroshima turned on a fantastic sunset for our last night.

We had Japanese curry downstairs for dinner, and called it a day.  After yesterday's experience, I'm definitely not getting pudding.