We had a day to do more wandering in Osaka before heading off to Sapporo. Marie' was off to Kyoto to visit friends and we tried to figure out what we might want to see in Osaka without too much work. The couple of things that popped up were the Tsutenkaku Tower, the Osaka equivalent to Tokyo Tower, sort of, and Dotonbori, the riverside food/tourist district. Off we went...

Travel to Osaka was a short Shinkansen hop from Hiroshima. The trip was made to feel longer by the accumulated exhaustion catching up to us after a week of ambitious tourism and lots of walking in not always gentle terrains. Our energy level results in not much tourism stuff and fewer pictures.

Sitting in Narita with hours to kill, I thought I'd try to get one more post out. I'm way behind, but I decided it is time to give my audience what they really want, some FOOD PORN...

After the Atomic Dome, probably the most visited site around Hiroshima is the ancient shrine, Itsukushima Jinja, with it's huge off-shore bright orange Torii (gate). It takes about 30 minutes by what is essentially a commuter train and a short ferry ride to the island.

Time to move on from Fukuoka where we could have spent more time to further explore Kyushu - more ideas for the future. Next stop on the schedule is Hiroshima, another city neither Nobue or I have visited. Exploring the memories that still linger there is top of mind going there.

Hiroshima is a short hour and 30 minute Shinkansen ride from Hakata station in Fukuoka.

Hakodate is the Hokkaido city that we've most visited. Past visits were mostly in the snow, flying up from Tokyo to cross country ski and wander the city in the snow. It is far more interesting and historical than Sapporo - more like Otaru, but bigger. The city has built up the historic areas directly focusing on tourism, both foreign and domestic.

Back to Tokyo for the final stint of this trip and it's so comfortable. We've settled in a residential neighborhood in Nakano-ku, not far from where we used to live before moving to Berkeley.