Japan – Himeji
After we left Hiroshima, we headed north again for a four night stint in Kyoto. We stayed at a fabulous place there called Gojo Guesthouse that we really enjoyed. The day after we arrived in Kyoto, we decided we'd leave the city to take a day trip south to Himeji Castle - the most splendid castle in Japan - and to Kobe, for the most splendid beef in the world (more on that later).
Himeji castle is truly stunning, and absolutely enormous. Construction began in the early 1300s, and after coming into the hands of different rulers over time, was completed, I believe, in 1609.
The sloped walls, as seen below, are absolutely stunning, and the masonry is phenomenal.
These were a couple of girls we bumped into on our tour of a garden that was located next to the castle. Peace sign prominent, as per Japanese style (I think it might be a law or something? 
).
This was a gorgeous flower that was in the garden beside the castle, we took about 10 shots, the stamen on it was amazing. I don't recall what type of flower it is.
Carly and Krista, chilling out in the garden beside Himeji-jo, complete with decorative carp.
Japan – Miyajima
While we were in Hiroshima, we took a bit of a side trip to Miyajima island, famous for the Torii gate in the ocean and tame deer, among other things. This is a shot of the Torii gate from the ferry, taking full advantage of the 10x optical zoom on our camera 
From the ferry, you can also get some great shots of a stunning pagoda that is off behind some trees.
We happened to be lucky enough to bump into what seemed to be a traditional wedding that was wrapping up. A shot of the bride and groom in the cart. They had quite the entourage along with them as well.
And as you can see here, the deer do seem to cause a bit of distress for some of the local merchants at times, and maybe also for the tourists
There were lots of cake and ice cream shops, and some great walking paths on the island as well. All in all it proved to be a great little side-trip.
Japan – Hiroshima
After a couple nights in Nagasaki, we jumped on a train and headed north to Hiroshima where we spent two nights. We stayed in a great spot called Aster Plaza, which is basically a youth hostel, but hotel style. Very close to some cool shops and restaurants, one of which we ate dinner at both nights we were there. I wish this picture weren't so hideous, and maybe that I wasn't in it.
The A-Bomb Museum in Hiroshima was an eye-opening experience, and very informative. There were a lot of educational opportunities, everything from official documents to recorded interviews with bomb survivors. This pocket watch was destroyed and stopped the moment the bomb dropped, 8:15am.
These doors (made of solid iron, if I recall correctly), were bent and twisted out of shape as you can see in the picture. Again, if I remember correctly, they were approximately 1.2 Kilometers from the blasts epicenter.
The A-Bomb dome, pictured below, along with the memorial, is the only building that remains that was a part of Hiroshima prior to the bomb blast in 1945. Only a handful of buildings survived that blast (I think there were three or so), as most buildings at that time were made of wood. Those that weren't completely obliterated by the bomb were burned up in the fires that raged the city for days after the bomb was dropped.
This is a night shot of the A-Bomb Dome. I was trying to get creative with the camera settings to get a longer shutter speed.
We very much enjoyed our time in Hiroshima. It's a beautiful city with a lot of culture, really friendly people, and lots to see and do.
Japan – Nagasaki
After 3 trains and about 10 hours, we made it down to the southern portions of Japan to Nagasaki. We found our accommodation easily enough, and the host of the establishment will forever be known as "sorry sorry hi hi sorry hi sorry hi". Those were pretty much the only two words he knew in English, but he was immensely friendly and helpful. This is a shot of Carly and Krista flopped out in bed in our room, complete with tatami mats and rice paper doors.
We traveled around in Nagasaki on these trolly things.
And there were lots of nifty narrow alleys for pedestrians, scattered with shops and restaurants.
At one restaurant, I we stopped to try some okonomiyaki, which is basically a Japanese "savory pancake". The lady in this restaurant couldn't speak a word of English (actually, it was like that most everywhere) - but it made it especially fun since we were still pretty new at the whole "Japan" scene. We cooked these ourselves in the middle of our table. Mmmm tasty.
Nagasaki also happened to be the site of a crucifixion of 26 Christians back in (I believe) 1597. The Japanese government was trying to outlaw Christianity, and having done a poor job, it seems, they decided to crucify a bunch of them to make a statement to the public.
Eating time again, or drinking time, this shot is a waiter preparing some sake for us, something we all drank, but none of us enjoyed.
Nagasaki at night.
This is a shot from inside Glover Garden, which is basically an open air museum, showing off the mansions of former Western residents of Nagasaki. It is located on the hill where Western merchants settled down after the end of Japan's era of seclusion in the second half of the 19th century. We also toured an area of town called the Dutch Slopes, but we don't seem to have any super interesting pictures of that part of town.
The spectacles bridge - this series of bridges in Nagasaki represent some of the oldest foot bridges in Japan. Very pleasant walking.
As far as I can remember, we weren't supposed to take photos from the bomb museum in Nagasaki, which would explain why we don't have any photos of that. The bomb museum here and in Hiroshima were both an eye-opening experience.
Japan – Upon Arrival
Well, let me try this again. It would appear that Blogger is being stupid today, so you just might be getting a whole lot of entries, 4 pictures at a time. Sorry about that. Now where was I? Oh, right. Well, Carly and I are back in Singapore, and now we must carry on with our duty of blogging our adventures to the masses. Or at least to the three people who read this rubbish
We had quite the whirlwind tour of Japan, hitting up a ton of places in the 15 days we were there. We'll post the entries in the order that we traveled, and try to remember any neat stories.
To start, we arrived in Tokyo in the late afternoon, got our bags together, picked up our Japan Rail Passes, and grabbed a train into the city. We were spending one night in Tokyo before jumping on the Shinkansen (translated as "New Trunk Line" - the bullet trains) to head all the way south to Nagasaki.
Finding our hostel in Tokyo proved to be a heckuva challenge, as addresses in Japan are not sequential, but based on construction dates or some such nonsense. After about 45 minutes, and asking about 12 people for assistance, we happened to ask a young couple and an old guy on a bike, and they took a detour from their walk, taking us directly to the front door of our accommodation. We found the Japanese to be very polite and hospitable, and thoroughly enjoyed the cultural part of the trip to Japan.
Accommodation was great (in my opinion), we were in a 4 bed room, and listened to some very amusing conversation outside our door that a couple Aussies were having with a really dumb American guy. It provided a couple hours of amusement before we fell asleep.
We went to Denny's for breakfast that morning, before heading back to Tokyo Station. Unfortunately for me, there was no Lumberjack Breakfast to be found. At least we didn't have to eat sushi for breakfast. Although, at this point I have no recollection whatsoever of what we did eat for breakfast that morning.
Throughout our entire time in Japan, one of the most amazing things was the trains. Trains everywhere. Every minute. All the time, and all on time. No fanfare, just get on the train, or it will leave without you.
The logistics behind the train systems is something to behold. We arrived at a platform sometimes only 5-6 minutes before our train was supposed to leave, and so we naturally assumed that the train currently in the platform was ours. Quite often we were wrong, ours was the next train, everything down to the minute.
Oh, and good luck figuring out how to flush those toilets. 