Hiroshima to Kyoto

Today we woke early but had a lazy morning before heading out for coffee at 9am. We walked to Hiroshima Orizuru Tower which has a really cool rooftop area with great views of the peace Park and the atomic bomb dome. We then went down a level and made paper cranes (with video instructions, luckily, though mine still looked a bit special). We then got to drop the cranes through a glass opening that flowed down the side of the building, all while standing on a glass platform watching the cranes fall beneath us. We then used a slide to slide down all the levels to ground again - how cool! We then headed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags and got a taxi (it was raining) to the station for our Shinkansen to Kyoto. We had sandwiches on the train for lunch. When we arrived in Kyoto we saw a buddist temple and explored the station before catching the subway to our AirBNB apartment. We headed out for a food and drink tour of the Gion district and saw a Maiko (geisha in training) crossing the street. We went to two restaurants and a sake bar and had a great time learning about Japanese food and customs in a relaxed environment. 23000 steps today - my feet are definitely ready for bed!Read more