Chasing Sakura Day 5 - Hiroshima Station / Miyajima Island

Assalamualaikum. Konnichiwa.

Sambungan from here. 

Naik shinkansen from Tokyo to Hiroshima! Terlewat few hours dari jadual asal sebab si Err sibuk bersushi di Tsukiji! The journey took almost 5 hours(+). Sempatlah lunch macam di rumah sendiri dalam shinkansen.

Asakusa ---> Akihabara via Tsukuba Express ---> Tokyo via JR Keihin-Tohoku ---> Shin-Osaka via Shinkansen Hikari ---> Hiroshima via Shinkansen Sakura

Pengsan! Berapa kali naik turun train sampai aku mau muntah. Luckily it took almost 3 hours from Tokyo to Shin Osaka so bolehlah rest lama sikit dalam train. And another 1.5 hour from Shin Osaka to reach our final destination of the day. Phew! Nasib baik juga station di Jepang ni ada lift facility. Else memang sumpah seranah budak² lain sama aku kalau asyiklah turun naik tangga. Aku yang bawa anak gajah di belakang ni pun sakit pinggang apatah lagi diorang yang sorong beg AF & ada anak gajah lagi. 

Shinkansen ride second time ni, aku bantai tidur. And like the first time, the ladies woke me up when the magnificent Mount Fuji showed himself. Wah sampai dua kali kau tayang muka ah! Kali ni sebab ndak da empty chairs side yang boleh view gunung tu, aku teruslah pecut pi dekat pintu. Cermin lagi besar. Dapat few shots, aku blah. Kasi can pula Ms H pulun snap, dia terlepas masa dari Osaka-Tokyo haritu. She fell asleep. Kami pula al-keji sebab ndak kasi bangun.

"Aku ndak kisah Err, pasni kau kejut aku kalau nampak si Fuji. Kempunan nanti aku tengok gambar kamurang jak."

Gitu kan si Fuji dia panggil. Macam pernah jadi classmate jak dulu.

Alhamdulillah. Thank You Allah. Clearer skies, clearer view! Less geger; paling penting. 

Lunch. Kan cakap buat macam rumah sendiri. Siap buka tin sardin. Nasiblah ndak sembelit sepanjang di sana, hari² ok makan pedas jak kerja aku. 

Along the journey. Sometimes limpas bandar. Hi Meng! Limpas is lalu. Spanish no more. Ngeks.

And sometimes limpas kampung orang. Bertuahnya hidup orang kampung ni, time spring jak boleh cuci mata sakura merimbun. Boleh selca with sakura as background tiap hari.

Again. Rumah semua ala² sama saiz. Design pun lebih kurang. One of the many things yang buat aku sama Ms G wow everytime we passed by their neighbourhood.

Shin Osaka Station. Nampak store ni terus ingat 'kampung'. They have By The Way mart there.

Lost in translation no more. Berlambak electric board with Eng information, mau baca ndak jak. As mentioned in my previous post, for shinkansen with 8 cars only car #1 to #3 have the unreserved seats. So sila queue at the right platform. 

Arrived Hiroshima Station around 3pm. Masa ni semua kelegaan. 

Although we have to take the streetcar a.k.a tram to get to our hostel, at least we know we're in Hiroshima already. Ndak lama lagi boleh sudah taruk anak gajah dalam bilik. 

Just follow the sign to exit the station. Senang kacang pis jak. Every train station ada info board, sesat kalau ndak pay attention jak. 

Double check with the hostel on which tram to take. Ndak pun check website hostel jak senang. Confirm diorang akan bagi direction on how to get there. Our's Tram #1.

Tram station just outside the South Exit of Hiroshima Station. Taxi stand pun sebelah jak.

Our hostel is situated next to Lawson. From the Chuden-Mae Station, it is only a minute away. Pretty convenient & super dekat, yes. 

Let's play the 'teka orang kerja apa' based on their dressing. They ain't primary school students for sure. So our guess was diorang ni budak secondary. Sebab primary students ndak pakai kasut ada heels gitu. 

We arrived at the hostel just in time for check-in. Masuk bilik, rehat lebih kurang...and off we went out. Time is gold when I travel. Mau rest lama, boleh buat malam nanti. Next destination would be Miyajima Island suggested by my blogger friend DJ. Punyalah dia gebang pasal cantik & tenangnya pulau ni even before my trip. 

At first I planned to visit Shukkeien Garden first before the island but since it was already 4pm when we left the hostel, I cancelled the initial plan & headed to Miyajima. I purposely skipped the temples & pagoda in the island. Memang tujuan untuk tengok the floating torii gate & layan sunset.

Chuden-Mae Station ---> Hiroshima Station via Tram #1 ---> Miyajimaguchi Station (last station) via JR train ---> walk to Miyajima Ferry Terminal.

We only paid for the tram from Chuden-Mae to Hiroshima Station; using our beloved Icoca Card. And for the rest of the journey to the island, it's all covered with our dearly JR Pass. Else, we have to pay ¥570 for a combination ticket of the train + ferry. 

It's rather easy to locate where the ferry terminal is once we reached Miyajimaguchi Station. Plenty of signboards.

Access to the ferry terminal is via the underground passage. Good way to burn fats huh. Exercise di petang hari padahal semua adalah kelaparan gaban. 

Mula tu excited tengok matahari yang mau terbenam...sekali aku TERtengok di bawah. Aku ndak da history mabuk laut bagai tapi sejak kejadian naik feri macam roller coaster from Macau to HK haritu, ada sikit fobia. Maka lepas snap few photos, aku duduk diam² di tengah feri. Dalam sejuk beku tu ada hati ah naik terus pi upper deck. 

I stood up upon seeing the Itsukushima Torii from afar. Nasiblah camera boleh zoom super baik so ndak lah aku lagi pening kalau terpaksa pigi tepi deck tu. That's the famous 'floating' torii gate. 

DJ told me about the deer at this island. Mula tu aku macam sceptical mau pigi sebab nanti sedih tengok rusa ndak da tanduk. Tapi aku termakan racun si DJ juga akhirnya. 

Rusa adalah wildlife katanya but they are very friendly. And tame. Tiap kali jumpa, aku bagi salam. Terus diorang datang dekat. Unfortunately kedai semua sudah tutup when we arrived, else boleh lah merasa kasi makan diorang.

Told so, semua tutup. Tapi ntah mana aku baca haritu, it was suggested to visit this island in the late evening. Bila semua orang yang ikut tour sudah balik. Ngam jugalah kami datang lewat, ndak da photobombs merata.

Most importantly, tetap ada view sakura. 

Taken when the sun was about to set. Magnificent view it was. 

Sambil duduk tengok sunset, sambil layan drama sendiri. Muhasabah diri. Bersyukur, merasa berjalan tempat orang. Tengok tempat orang. Other people might not be lucky as I am. Syukur Alhamdulillah. 

Truth is there are times I tend to compare my life with people who are far more lucky than me. I often forget, kalau mau compare pasal rezeki...sila compare dengan orang yang less fortunate than us. Not the other way round. Apa yang Allah bagi ndak kan pernah cukup if we continuously comparing our life with the fortunate people. Suddenly rindu mau layan sunset di Tanjung Aru. Free thing I did back then to soothe my stress. 

Lama aku lepak layan feeling. Masa ni memang masing² buat hala tuju sendiri. Aku turun bawah sikit, dekat sama gigi air gitu. Cuma ndak main sama air laut sebab nanti kasut kotor penuh pasir. Ngokngek. 

Snapped lebih kurang gambar sunset...pastu bergabung balik sama yang lain. Layan group selcas lagi. 

Then we made our move. Singgah the one & only souvenir shop yang still opened at that time. Sejuk gigil masa ni, lepas tulis postcard untuk diri sendiri...aku terus simpan both hands dalam jacket. Whilst waited the rest finished their shopping. Aku sempat rembat FM from Miyajima. A replica of wooden rice scoop. Miyajima is famous for its quality rice scoop. Ms H told me, the cheapest t-shirt of I Love Japan she bought was from this island. Cost only ¥1,300. No wonder lah semua rancak pilih tshirt except for me & Ms G. 

Time to go back to the mainland. Waited the ferry inside the terminal as it was too cold to wait outside. 

Di feri kami duduk dalam kawasan tertutup. Ndak da sudah yang excited mau duduk luar. Gila boleh jadi statue suhu sejuk malam tu. We reached Hiroshima Station 40 minutes later. Dalam itinerary, patut malam tu kami ronda Peace Memorial Park but Ms G suggested to just visit the next morning. Ninja sudah mengigil sejuk time tu. So cancel plan untuk view the park at night. Actually niat mau tengok pokok sakura dengan lampu lip lap. 

Pastu enroute back to the hostel Ms P suarakan idea untuk cari satu Halal restoran that she saw in the brochure the hostel gave us upon check in. Since it was her idea therefore I told her to guide us. Mendera orang kan. From the map given in the brochure, the restaurant should be somewhere near our hostel. Only a tram stop away. Tapi kami pusing the same street dekat few times juga, going back & forth. Sudahlah malam, sejuk...then no one is around for us to ask for the direction. We finally met one guy; hmm actually kami panggil dia keluar from his cafe. Dalam bahasa ayam itik he explained to us. And he said we're at the right area already. So we decided to look once more. 

Alas, hasil kecundang. Gagal misi cari kedai halal. Jadinya kami pun balik hostel. Dekat jak, jalan kaki pun sampai. Stopped by at Lawson. Beli nasi segera & my beloved cafe mocha for tomorrows breakfast. Stok nescafe 3in1 aku makin pupus. Instead of dining outside that night, we had dinner in the room. Dinner cum supper sebenarnya sebab masa tu pun sudah dekat midnight. 

To YOU who think that I travel in luxury. This is how I survived everytime I travel. When I travel I seldom shop till I drop, I rarely dine outside. And reason aku cuma mampu pakai si Fuchy is because I wanted to save more to fulfilled my wanderlust. Get it? So sekian explaination gue. 

Heaven makan nasi panas di kala sejuk...and memang ngam timing sebab perut sudah berkeroncong. Sudah kenyang, semua jadi ular sawa. Habis packing, aku belayar ke alam mimpi. Esok pagi another places are yet to be explored. 

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