明けましておめでとう

The coughing etc. turned out to be bronchitis. On boxing day I decided to take a day off from Yishi's travels and went to the local clinic. The doctor prescribed me with a 10-day course of medicine, including antibiotics. I'm glad to say that I'm now recovering and have my voice back. All the pills etc. didn't cost as much as I thought; with the national health insurance I only had to pay around 2,200 yen for the medicine and consultation (compare to last year when I had to pay a tenner for a freakin' inhaler). Here's the list of medication I've been prescribed with:

- Clarithromycin 200mg (antibiotic)
- Ambroxol hydrochloride 15mg
- Dextromethorphan 15mg
- Tulobuterol 2mg (a patch that I stick to my chest, back or upper arm)

**********

Yishi's flight was delayed by a day because of the snow back home. And Mark's flight was cancelled so he didn't arrive till Christmas Eve.

This was our itinerary:
23/12 Shopping and eating in Namba and Shinsaibashi
24/12 Nara
25/12 Arashiyama and Kyoto
26/12 Kyoto
27/12 Himeji, Okayama (Kurashiki)
28/12 Okayama, Hiroshima
29/12 Miyajima (Itsukushima shrine)
30/12 Hiroshima, Iwakuni
31/12 Return to Osaka
01/01 Osaka

We used the 青春１８きっぷ to travel between Osaka, Himeji, Okayama and Hiroshima. The ticket costs 11,500 yen for 5 one-day travelcards which allowed us to travel on all JR local and rapid trains. Obviously it's not the most time-efficient way to travel but it's cheap. I'll definitely buy the ticket again in the coming spring holiday.

We went to Himeji solely for the castle (seems to be the only thing there). It was my second time (first time was summer '08 with John, Christie and Piotr) and still it was worth going. I overheard this 20-something tourist from HK who moaned "there was a lift in Osaka Castle", which amused me greatly.

There wasn't much to see or do in Okayama. It's a very provincial town and we stayed there mainly to take a break from travelling between Kansai and Hiroshima. Koraku-en is supposed to be one of the three best gardens in Japan but because it's winter, all the trees were barren and the grass was yellow. The historical quarters of Kurashiki weren't very impressive either, maybe 'cause we went in the evening and it was all dark and quiet.

The best day was definitely the day we went to Miyajima. It was a 30-min train ride from Hiroshima to Miyajima-guchi, then a ferry from there to the island itself. Obviously it's a very touristy place as Itsukushima jinja is a UNESCO World Heritage site plus it's one of the 日本三景 (the other two being Matsushima in Miyagi prefecture and Amanohashidate in Kyoto prefecture). The shrine wasn't the only interesting thing. The view from the top of Misen (at 535m) was very pretty, and you could see Shikoku in the distance), plus there are many lovely deers around, and for fellow foodies - oysters and conger eel. Hmmm...yum.

The atomic bomb site was an obvious choice for sightseeing in Hiroshima. The site itself is quite mindblowing, considering it's the only building in the 30km radius that survived the atomic bomb. The museum is supposedly give us more details on the bombing but it was closed for the New Year... ah well, I'm going back to Hiroshima (and Miyajima) in March so I still have a chance to go inside the museum. Because the museum was closed, we spontaneously decided to go to Iwakuni in the neighbouring Yamaguchi prefecture and see the Kintai-kyo. The wooden bridge looks quite impressive but they charge 300yen to cross, so we took another bridge to cross the river and took photos of Kintai-kyo from other angles. The weather was rather miserable that day and I had to keep wiping the camera lens because it kept getting wet from the drizzling rain.

On our way back to Osaka we stopped by Sannomiya for lunch, 'cause Yishi and Mark wanted to try Kobe beef. So I took them to Misono, a teppanyaki restaurant my mother and I went several weeks ago. It was rather satisfying, although now my purse is lighter than ever...and I have four more weeks 'till my next scholarship payment. Oops.


More photos from the past week:

(from top to bottom)
1. Okonomiyaki on Dotombori
2. the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen (taken from Todaiji in Nara)
3. Okayama at night
4. Koraku-en, Okayama
5. the red-light district of Hiroshima at night
6. Itsukushima shrine
7. View from Misen, Miyajima
8. Lunch on the island
9. Oysters (and oyster cards)
10. Sunset over Miyajima, as seen from the ferry
11. Kintai-kyo, Iwakuni
12. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki
13. Kobe beef teppanyaki at Misono, Sannomiya