On the 6th we caught the train from Kyoto to Himiji so we could go to see the castle.� It was a magnificent white traditional japanese building that is one of 12 surviving buildings from the feudal era - books are great!!!!� It was raining so we spent about 1 hour there before heading back to catch our train to Hiroshima.� We arrived in a storm in Hiroshima but soldiered on to the A Bomb dome via the Tram.� The dome is one of the few surviving buildings from when the bomb was dropped.� We then went to the Peace Garden and the Museum which was very interesting and hit a nerve with both of us.� Lots of relics from the bombing which have been identified by families as their childrens things.� That night we headed off to cook our own Okonomiyaki - which is a pancake made with egg, cabbage, beans and meat.� Very nice

On the 7th we headed off to the island of Miyajima by train and ferry.  The trip over to the island was very nice.  We decided to hire bikes to get around the island for ease.  We visited a number of temples - at Itsukushima-jinja there were two wedding parties having their photo's taken overlooking the sea and it was a gorgeous day.  The temple is red and sits on the waters edge on stilts.  It also has a red gate which comes up out of the water - the photo's will show you that   We then headed off to Daisho-in which is a temple on the hillside with lots of levels - it has lots of small buildings and ponds and even had a cave like area with hundreds of lanterns hanging from the ceiling and hundreds of buddha's for worship.  We ate out little packed lunch over looking the temple.  We went off to see the 5 storey pagado and then did a 2.5km bike ride to go and see some of the northern beaches.  Neen went for a dip whilst Jacqui sunbathed.  That night we headed off in search of oysters for Neen - he says they are good but not as good as the Irish one