In the morning I headed off to the Nintendo offices.

Having enjoyed a number of the things they’ve been part of, I wanted to see their building.
If I didn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered to me, but as I had time to spare, I decided the best course of action would be to see it.

It reminded me of a building made of tiles.

It was fairly plain in appearance.
Quite frankly, I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe something far beyond reasoning.

Instead it reminds me of bathroom tiles.

Still, it was a nice building.

Once I was done with viewing the Nintendo offices, I headed back to Gojō Station as Gabe and I had to check out soon.

I still had some time to spare when I got there, so I decided to see 東本願寺 (Higashi Hongan-ji).

I did plan for this as it was only a few minutes from where Gabe and I were staying,

Unfortunately there was some construction work, but what was visible at the time was very impressive.

Apparently 東本願寺 is the largest wooden structure in Kyoto.

It certainly was impressively large.

It felt somewhat understated in its design and a bit more humble than expected.

I didn’t spend too much time there though as unfortunately I managed to waste a bit too much getting to the entrance.

After about ten minutes of seeing what I could, I made my way back to the guest house and subsequently managed to not find it for about fifteen minutes, despite knowing where it was.

Once I was back, I saw Gabe downstairs. He said that he was ready and that he had cleaned the room.

He was ready.

He had not cleaned the room.

This annoyed me as, instead of making for a quick departure, I spent about ten minutes cleaning.

I’ll admit that it’s not much time to spend doing a lot of things.
I’ll also admit that the room only needed to be tidy and not perfectly presentable.

The problem was that there was still rubbish lying about and Gabe had only put some stuff on a table and folded up the futon he slept on.

If someone says they have cleaned, you expect that they actually have.

Complaining aside, we checked out and then made our way to 京都駅 (Kyōto Station).
Our next destination was 宮島口 (Miyajimaguchi).
We chose to go there as it was easy to get to 厳島 (Itsukushima, also known as 宮島 [Miyajima]) and Hiroshima from there.

We arrived at 京都駅 pretty quickly and managed to find our way to the 新幹線 (Shinkansen) office to get our tickets to Osaka Station in a short amount of time.

The line, however, was not short.

A few minutes beforehand, I suggested catching the 新快速 (special rapid service) as it wasn’t going to make much of a difference in time (about ten minutes) in getting back to Osaka.
Gabe was insistent on catching the 新幹線 to get back though.
Once we saw the line, I advised that it would be quicker to go for the 新快速 as we wouldn’t have to line up.
Gabe said that the line would go quickly.
It did not.

I went up to one of the ticket machines but it didn’t seem to have an option for JR Pass holders, so I went back to Gabe.

The line moved occasionally, taking slight steps forward when it did.

I waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited until eventually I felt I could not wait any more, which lead to more and more waiting beyond what I thought I was able to do.
This lead me to realise that there was a very good chance that I would not see the end of the line and possible end up seeing the very real battle between the fitness of my buttocks and the burgeoning girth that was growing on the couch I would end up sitting on, never to return as the days would slowlyslipslipslipawayintoagreyingnothingnessthatwouldensurethatatleastoneburgerwouldslowlyslipitswayoutofmymouthandescapetofreedomasIleftthisworldforsomethingbeyondlifeandbeyonddeathexceptitwouldreallybeadeathofsorts.

I imagine the burger would be sad to see a soul so innocent perched on the corpse of avarice, but glad to know that it could finally follow its dream of being a door-to-door insurance salesman as it would be able to wear a snazzy suit and, as we all know, if you aren’t wearing a snazzy suit, you are doing yourself the greatest disservice known to reality.

We did actually wait a fair while with very little movement. At one point, I suggested that we go for the 新快速 again, but Gabe didn’t want to, suggesting that it would take less time to get our tickets and catch the 新幹線.

After about twenty minutes of standing in line (I’m pretty sure it was actually longer) and still not reaching the stanchions (which were only a few metres ahead of us the whole time we were waiting), I told Gabe I was going to catch the 新快速 and that I’d meet him in Miyajimaguchi.

So off I went, into a world not yet known to me or my very being.
At that time I didn’t realise just how important the journey to the other side of wherever I needed to get to was, for it seemed like immaterial extraneous excess at the time and I was merely trying to get along with the harmony in my mind as my baggage rode my coattails into the wide open future.

There could have been a moment that I could have realised, but whose to say what future would have awaited me had I heeded the sounds that were trying to draw me to a more open realisation?

But I digress.

After leaving Gabe and the line, I reached the platform I needed to be on pretty quickly.

There was a slight delay with the train arriving, and there were a lot of people around which lead to the 新快速 being fairly packed, but as the journey was short, it didn’t really matter.

Once at Osaka station, I went to get a ticket for the 新幹線 that would take me to Hiroshima.
When I reached the office, I saw something about tickets being for reserved seating only.
There was a very short wait to speak to someone. I asked if I needed to get a ticket seeing as I had a JR Pass.
I was told only if I wanted to sit in a reserved section.

I thanked the person and headed off.

I then got something to eat I was a bit hungry (I had the same thing when Gabe, Tim and I left Osaka) and once I was done, went straight to the platform I needed to be on.

The unreserved seating on the 新幹線  was much more packed than the reserved seating when heading to Osaka, but that probably had a lot to do with the time of day.

It was, once again, an enjoyable trip, although I didn’t spend too much time looking out the window.

Changing at Hiroshima Station was pretty quick and it wasn’t long before I reached 宮島口.

Soon after that, I reached Backpackers Miyajima (where Gabe and I were staying) and checked in for the both of us.

On a slight side note, they liked my shirt.

They thought it was cute.

That makes me happy.

But anyway…

Soon after checking in, I made my way to the ferry that would take me to 厳島.

Whilst on the ferry, I looked out to the island. It began to warp a slight bit.
Never had that happen to me before.
I imagine it had to do with being tired as my last sleep wasn’t as much as I probably should have had.

Oh well.

Once I was off the ferry, I made my way to 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Shrine) to see the torii gate so I could get it out of the way as quickly as possible.

It was low tide, but I didn’t walk through it.

Well, it certainly was tall and majestic as well as fairly sturdy in appearance.

I walked around the island for a little while until I came across a sign advising of a walk that lead to somewhere.

Yes, somewhere.
I shit you not.

That somewhere happened to be 弥山 (Mount Misen).
I think I was more interested in 紅葉谷公園 (Momijidani Park) at the time, but I can’t quite remember.

Anyway, I ended up going there and heading up the mountain.

It was a nice walk up, with much vegetation and a small stream on occasion.

It had a certain special feeling to it.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but that’s what it felt like it had.

There were also a lot of stairs.

Eventually I reached and area containing the Misen-Hondo, Reikado and Sankido It was very quiet and calm.
I had a brief rest there before continuing on.

There was an observatory that was not far from there, with it being my goal (as I wanted to get to the top and that is, I imagine, the highest accessible point on the mountain).

The view was one of the best I’ve seen.
It was overcast, which gave a great intensity to the view without reducing visibility.

I spent somewhere around twenty minutes up there, soaking it in and taking photos of the surrounds.

Once I was done and had gotten back to the path I used to get up, I decided to jog/run back down.
It took me about an hour to go up.
It was about nineteen minutes to get down.

I did it partly because I wanted to and also because I thought it would be easier on the knees.

Once I was in the town on the island, I made my way back to the ferry.
On the way, I saw the torii gate again. This time it was high tide, which provided a better and more interesting view, so I took some more picture of it before continuing on.

When I got back to the hostel, the staff asked me about what I got up to, so I told them.

There was a person who was staying there that I started talking to before I headed off to the island.
It may have actually been after, but I can’t quite remember.
Actually, I’m pretty sure it was after.
Anyway, I offered to show my pictures to them when I came back, but unfortunately this did not eventuate.

Gabe was there. I found out that it took him a little while to get there, but he arrived in one piece.

We were in a shared dorm again, but I wasn’t bothered by it at this point.

I told him about my adventure and, after resting for a little bit, headed downstairs to write before going back up to sleep.