Yay! Rabbit Island! This was one part of this trip I was really looking forward to. It's an island not far from Hiroshima that is overrun by wild rabbits. And the rabbits are tame enough that when people are on the island they race towards them and beg for food.

We woke up with the alarm at 6:45am. Okunoshima is about an hour by train from Hiroshima so we wanted to make sure we made it there. We showered and dressed and went out into the brisk air to make our way to the station. Before we hopped onto the Shinkansen we purchased some baked goods for breakfast.

It too two trains to get to Tadanoumi and then a five minute walk to find the port. We purchased tickets for the ferry and also six bags of rabbit food. It was a 35min wait for the ferry (we had just missed one) and there wasn't much to do but sit in the sun and try and get warm.

The ferry arrived and it took 10mins to get across to Okunoshima. There were a fair few other people on our ferry that had big bags of food for the rabbits including carrots, cabbage, spinach and bananas. As soon as we walked up the dock and onto the island the rabbits were upon us!

They are obviously used to being fed because they knew exactly what we were there for and instantly ran up to everyone. Some of them even try to reach up your legs. We walked a bit and they kept following us because they could see we had a bag of food. Shannon took out a bag of pellets and started to feed them. They are pretty cute! They gather around your feet and you can hear them munching away. Other rabbits from further away might see that grubs up so they race towards you. We finished off one bag before deciding to walk around the island.

The island has ruins on it of old war batteries and also used to have a poison gas laboratory. As we walked a few rabbits would start to follow before stopping but there was always more rabbits up ahead that would race toward you in the hopes of being fed. We kept an open bag of pellets in our pockets to feed them as we went.

We also climbed up this hill to get to an observation deck at the top. It was quite a steady climb and we were puffed out when we finally got to the top. I didn't expect to see any rabbits up there but low and behold one single bunny snuck up on us so we gave him some food. Further along the top we found another small group of rabbits who were quite sweet. We got to pat a fair few of all of the rabbits but most didn't really like being pet so it was more a quick touch here and there.

We continued our walk around and stopped at the hotel cafe for a coffee. It was fairly breezy on the island so it was good to warm up. Directly outside the hotel is a large number of rabbits and Shannon sat on a fire pit wall and became the rabbit king whilst the rabbits swamped him for food.

After coffee it took another 40mins to walk around the last part of the island and back to the ferry. We stopped at one point to finish off dishing out our pellets.

Back at the dock it was about a half hour wait for the ferry and we sat in the waiting room for a bit but also went out and pat this tiny little guy who was all cozied up and trying to keep warm.

Once we got back to Tadanoumi we bought a few snacks from Family Mart to tie us over until we could get back to Hiroshima for lunch. At the Family Mart they were selling carrots and other veggies for the rabbits.

The first train came quickly but when we got to Mihara to get into the Shinkansen it was a 40min wait. Once the train arrived we hopped on and had a nap before arriving in Hiroshima.

To find lunch we took the street car down to the city area and had to search around for a bit before finding a curry cafe. The curry came with a side salad for a cheap lunch set and it was tasty curry so it was a good late lunch, once we finally found it.

We headed back home to have a bit of a rest after that and after a few hours headed back into the city for dinner. We had a look in some shops and Shannon bought some more pants before we had Ichiran ramen for dinner. Shannon had ordered some extra meat and onions at the ticket booth but when they brought his ramen out it hadn't been added and we spent a few confused minutes trying to explain to the waiters that it was missing.

After dinner we walked around some more, played a few games and then walked back home to watch a movie on the Surface. I was very much looking forward to getting to bed because I had slept pretty badly last night.