A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & Languages Usage Arc 🇯🇵 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇵🇱 [NOW IN JAPAN!]

I’ll reply via Dms unless you don’t want me to forward your blog after all? It could be awkward

lol, cultists are easier to spot usually I think. They have a certain demeanor where they seem to see people like dinner/opportunities

Tbf, most sightseeing stuff dies off at 6pm and then it’s only nighttime stuff after that.

Which reminds me, if you spend the night in Osaka, I recommend the Team Labs in the gardens

Miyajima~

Curious - which Nikon body is that?

For my upcoming 3-month summer trip to Japan I’m debating leaving my camera equipment home and using only my phone camera - I have purchased a used Sony Xperia 1 V, which supposedly incorporates excellent camera hardware and app support based on Sony Alpha technology, and will use that with a gimbal as well as with a ligtweight carbon fiber travel tripod.

But I will also be on the lookout for used lens and camera deals.

I’m unsure of whether you will be headed toward Tokyo, but if so, consider a visit to the Nikon Museum (located near Shinagawa Station).

As an enthusiastic Nikon fanboi, I really enjoyed it. IIRC advance reservations may be needed.

Wait, is.. is that yours :eyes:

I hope you’re enjoying your time in Osaka :heart: I’m catching up with your adventures there :cherry_blossom:

:rofl:

This cracked me up, because this is literally gonna be the problem I would have :rofl:

Did you get to keep it? :eyes:

This is a very calm Pikachu :sob:

This remind me of the cake in Portal

Those are the heroes we need but don’t deserve

These are the kind of things that are good to learn, but not while you’re there :rofl: Such experiences are usually wild and I would prefer to have that knowledge beforehand :rofl:

Hope things will get better :heart: (one day I’ll finish reading your study log, but I’m making my way through it slowly, but steadily :heart:)

I like how many people are from the ocean or the sea :rofl: We had many atlantians among us without us knowing :rofl:

Congratulations on becoming both of them :heart: You gave me an idea of what to do when I travel there someday :sob:

Naruto took that long, because he wanted to provide us with as much content as possible :rofl:

This is so pretty :sob:

Did the note on the right apply to all the products? :rofl:

The cake looks delicious :face_savoring_food:

Oh no. I don’t know how I would react in such a situation to be honest, but I hope it doesn’t get repeated for you :heart: Here’s a Sakura to prevent that :cherry_blossom:

It’s astonishing how many pilgramiges you can fit in one day :sob:

This looks so relaxing :heart:

Those were my thoughts, too. I wouldn’t trust myself not to buy a lot of the stuff offered there :rofl:

The watermelon looks delicious :face_savoring_food:

Were those for sale? or just to read and learn from them?

The coloration of the sunset is magnificent :face_holding_back_tears:

May I ask what the subscription entails?

This is what I’d like to call a nice / friendly curiousity :heart: not like some of the unhealthy ones you may encounter elsewhere :sob:

Taking a look back at all of this, you seem to have had much fun so far and as usual squeezing in as many adventures as you can within th epossible timeline :heart:

Enjoy the rest of the trip and can’t wait to see what you’ll encounter next and what adventures you’ll share with us :heart:

These are ema. They’re prayer/wish boards. You can buy blank ones and then write your wish and name (and city) then add them to the rest.

I tried, but when I arrived, the final train of the day has already departed for Miyajima, booo :sob:

D5200, you can use the search functionality on this study log with this keyword to find a bit more about it, I tried writing more about it too!

This is a very unique setup and I’m really curious to see how the photos from it would look like, ping me when they start coming! ^^

…they are insanely good compared to the western world and I’m not even overexaggerating.

Uuu, that sounds really cool! :eyes:

I’ve set one rule for this trip though not to spend more than half an hour (Shinkansen layover) in Tokyo, so probably not this time, but I’ll definitely throw it on the pile of things I’m upset are not outside of Tokyo as well ^^

Nope, selection of a manga cafe! Think private library + reading room where you pay for the amount of time you spend in there, but you can do everything over that time, including reading their books ^^

i feel like such a boomer because I’m like “what? osaka? when was that? that was ages ago” xddd
(today at 12:30pm btw xddd)

Unfortunately, it’s one off payment and the only benefit is that it allows for you to go to any manga cafe across the whole country and pay less and not register yourself with the card again ^^

I hope I never get used to them and that they’ll always remain a novelty to me ^^

May 5th, 2026

So this is a book that both @Jintor and @shitsurei have been (i hope that) hate-reading for a while xddd
I’ve heard nothing but bad things about this book (well, there’s character development apparently!!!), so I decided to snag it from Book-Off and find out if I can join the fun xddd


It’s said to be an easier read than most of the other light novels, so I’m hoping I won’t need too many lookups to get through it, but I genuinely wonder how many words have I learned to misread just because I didn’t check their reading and was like “that’s gotta be the correct one, right?”


Life

Yes, I also was in Osaka today, Enigmaxprincex was right xdd

Shin-Osaka is an interesting place, because it’s really crowded, really busy… but also pretty small? It reminds me of if Berlin Hbf were smashed onto a single floor with 50% more platforms, 100% more people and 50% less space ^^

But I already got my money’s worth from the JR West pass I’ve gotten and it’s just day 2, so, woo, Hiroshima!

Had a cute ekiben today and some crisps that look like cracker crisps, but had a lot of sugar in them too, interesting taste ^^

And there we go! My first experience of Hiroshima has been a bit bizarre, because there are tram stations at the main Hiroshima station, and locked down trains stand there and you have to stand for 10 minutes and wait until something like 40 seconds before the departure to start boarding it, and before that there’s a line of like 100 people waiting to board it, why couldn’t they do it like in Germany and just keep the trains open at the first station of the line until the trains depart??? xddd

But hey, I arrive in the city center and there’s a huge 祭り going on today! In part, because of Golden Week/こどもの日, but its name is “Flower Festival” and has been going for the last three days ^^

So I did what I do best and I walked from stall to stall and begged them to give me freebies xddd

(Actually, the red doggo has been made by me, I was taught how to make one and followed steps to make it, so cute C:)

And because 広島 is the city where NHK is, the NHK had a day of open doors and a lot of attractions there! A stamp rally, autographs of celebrities, marketing for newest series, but from the really cool things: on one of the floors there was a TV broadcast stage where a script was put on a desk and kids could come over and read from the script, straight at a 4K camera, together with the news show interface, that was really cool C:

AND A STAMP RALLY, I got a cute document folder for finishing the rally ^^

Multiple times over the course of the rally I was asked to pose for pictures and people were taking pictures with me with different attractions related to NHK, which, like, eee, explaining how my camera works and why it doesn’t have zoom (35mm lens) has been interesting to do in Japanese ^^

And - fooooood, lots of food, I tried looking whether prices would differ for it between stalls, but no, they didn’t, get the banana at the beginning or the end, it’s always 400 yen, or 500 yen if it’s a Minion one :thinking:

Also, WOO I FOUND THE EMBASSY OF POLAND IN HIROSHIMA (i have no idea why xddd)

Setting sun has been absolutely beautiful here C:

Various pavilons…

I thought the yukata sets were pretty, but minor spoiler, I might get to wear one in like two days from now ^^

Also, Japanese learning section at the Book-off, I’m genuinely curious about this manga, but it was in plastic, so I couldn’t get to see what was inside ^^


…and this was when I ended up getting to the significantly less fun part of Hiroshima, because as it turns out, this is a city that did have a bit of a terrifying history.

Between a girl who wanted to make a thousand cranes, but leukemia after the explosion took her away faster than she finished those, a building upon which a bomb was dropped at such an angle to kill everyone, but make the walls stay, I’ve been reading the informational plaques and following the self-reported discussions of people being divided whether something like this should even exist or not, and being more and more… solemn? I think solemnity is the correct word to use in this specific context, I feel.

I went all the way to Yokogawa to grab some food today, as I really wanted to grab some 広島お好み焼き, and I did find them, it’s just that they were pretty far away :eyes: xddd

And, tadaaah!

The person cooking them didn’t know any English, and even when I kept reaffirming him that 全部分かります、翻訳が必要じゃない, it took him a little to realize that I was speaking Japanese to him xdd

But it was a very lively and 賑やか place and people eating were bantering with the cook, and I started joining the banter and people were like “WOOOOOOAAAA”, they asked me a couple of questions about 大阪のお好み焼き, ポーランド, ベルリン and 明日の予定 and I was even able to say a few fun things about my culinary adventures, so hey, the adventure with DIO-Berry started opening me up ^^

I think I saw almost everything I wanted to see in 広島 for now, I have a really weird idea for what I could do tomorrow, and I hope I’ll be able to make it come true ^^

See you tomorrow!

I think it is slightly overrated, but even I would say a visit to Hiroshima without Miyajima is not a complete visit.
And god, I love this city. Was there only for like 2 1/2 days but also had so many great interactions with the locals. Btw, since you kept mentioning sports teams (Die Bären) they are crazy about their baseball team (the karps https://www.carp.co.jp/)

Continuing the discussion from A Certain Bidoof's Multi-Language Travel & Friends & Languages Usage Arc :japan: :germany: :canada: :poland: [NOW IN JAPAN!]:

I did a bit of doomscrolling through your ‘DSLR arc’ above, and noticed a few things, in no particular order, such as…

  • the D5200 body looks quite manageable and petit in comparison with my D850 (which I have not yet even begun to scratch the surface of understanding how to take advantage of even a small fraction of its features) - your new lens seems to dominate the front view of the camera in a way that just screams ‘this is what industrial design should be all about’, while the D850 is more clearly an embodiment of ‘function over form’ with its utilitarian approach to slapping features however and wherever they may be able to be squeezed in.
  • you seem to have a much more definitive approach to prioritizing visual impact than I do - something to which I really need to pay much more attention

The matching still-photo camera app has a full range of manual controls, which I’m intending to deliberately exercise, with its accompanying learning curve (even though I’ve been doing photography ‘forever’) - and the gimbal itself will require some patient experimentation to use productively, let alone to master - so it may take some time and trouble before I end up with anything worth sharing, but will keep that in mind

I just picked up a 1 TB microSDXC memory card to use with it so no need for me to be shy when snapping images

I stopped into a used camera shop in Kyoto when I last visited in 2018 and walked out with a couple lenses, but the exchange rate at the time was nowhere near as favorable as it is now, so I may need to be physically restrained lest I do some serious damage to my wallet…

The 8th grade English textbook has a whole chapter dedicated to her story it’s important obviously but reading about a dying 12 year old every day for a week is an awkward read. Also why do 8th graders need to know words like “atomic bomb” in English? :sweat_smile:

I haven’t seen that particular chain in a lot of places, but 快活 has a similar system. If you sign up via their app, it’s 無料 registration

Yay!! I’m glad to hear that. I hope you continue to have fun!

Agreed^^^

I heard there’s a story about an Ueno elephant dying during WWII in the elementary or middle school textbooks. I’ve never had the misfortune of seeing them in person though.

Oh, just in case, I’m from Poland, so I’m traumatized for life for having to read about concentration camps and holocaust-adjacent things in schools :melting_face:

I’m sure that the goal is to make people never do those hideous crimes again in all of the cases, but it also means that every time I watch something like A Real Pain, my tummy sinks and I’m like “all right, this is probably not my favorite film” :melting_face:

Oh. That sounds interesting :heart: I should maybe stay away from them, so that I don’t curse the other wishes :sob:

:rofl:

Time is a soup :rofl:

That seems interesting, but I’m not sure how much you’d get out of it :heart: I’m pretty sure you’ll find a way to get the most out of it :rofl:

:heart:

You’ll always find a way :heart:

:rofl:

I told you, time is a soup :rofl: (and maybe I’m a timetraveller :eyes:)

But it wouldn’t be fun if they did that :rofl: That’s bizarre though.

:rofl:

But the stickers are cute :sob:

You’re really trying to do your best to gather as many stamps as possible on this trip :rofl:

Thank you for sharing these stories with us :heart: even the tragic part :heart: I really appreciate it :heart:

If only :sob:

That’s the 9th grade textbook. Still not sure why the textbook creators decided the sentence “they were so weak they couldn’t even lift their trunks, but the zookeepers could see their eyes were full of hope” (or something along those lines) is a good way to learn English. Thankfully in the editions that came out last year they removed that story. The Sasaki Sadako story is still in the 8th grade book, though. There’s also a chapter about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch so I think they just decided everything has to be serious and depressing.

I’ve read about that too as well as the endless wars the US got itself into. Japan obviously goes into more depth about the horrors faced on their side so I’ve gotten a new perspective and do a lot of awkward apologizing :sweat_smile:.

It does and I think teaching it is important, but why in English class :sweat_smile:. The kids already hate the class and I don’t think reading about dying children is really going to motivate them to do the reading homework.

hey, it’s a learning opportunity, not doomscrolling, doomscrolling would be if you didn’t get challenged in any way by it and you still kept on being stuck in the same thinking tracks ^^

with 35mm lens and a cropped sensor you’re getting something similar to >50mm, so it’s hARD NOT TO, I have to hold my hand directly straight ahead of myself when I hold an A4 sheet of paper to be able to get it all into the lens xdddd

But yeah, I really like focusing on the item that I want to draw people’s attention to ^^

I’m not, and here’s a bit of trivia! Both in Tokyo and in Kansai every station of JR has its own stamp right next to the exit so that you can collect unique stamps from everywhere that you go ^^

JR and konbinis also sell those nifty little empty notebooks with train decorations so that you can put a ton of stamps into them ^^

I did it the first two times when I was in Japan (I actually kept forgetting to bring the notebooks with myself most of the time xddd), so this time I just decided to clear my head and not collect them ^^


May 6th, 2026

i’m sorry i didnt mean to burn wanikani down now everyone will have to suffer because of me aaaa :sob: xddd


Life

I’m actually just looking through the pictures for the first time right now ^^

The view out of the Shinkansens is beautiful ^^

For the big part of today I went back to the 18mm-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens because I was dangling it off my neck and I wanted to take lots of pictures fast ^^
I arrived in a city called 尾道 that is famous for one specific thing, a local tourism thing organized by the city…

瀬戸内しまなみ街道! A very long bike trek that I heard about my a complete accident, but it was on the shinsansen route between 広島 and 大阪, so why not give it a shot? It’s a trip from 本州 to 四国, that I still have never been to, it crosses through many bridges and rural areas, so should be cool, right?

Before I set off, I looked around the city and tried to take a few pics, a big part of the plan of the city is build around BIKE RENTALS EVERYWHERE, but it also has its own identity and cute things as well C:

I LIKE CUTE THINGS xddd

But yeah, eventually I got myself a bike (just after 1pm) and I had a big goal: arrive at the final station in 今治 city by 7pm, before the bike rental station closes down in there ^^

And with almost 6 hours time, it shouldn’t be that bad… But one thing that needs to be kept in mind about the trek… is that it’s 76 kilometers as designed on a line.

So yeah, you jump on an initial ferry that takes you to the beginning of the course…

…and off you go! 76 kilometers, 5.5 hours to go!

The first section of the road felt like it was the weirdest to me, the bike felt really small compared to mine, I forgot to change my skirt into pants before I left my suitcase in a coin locker, so I was worried it’d get tangled in the brakes, but as I kept going, my worries were getting unfounded ^^

Then, after 10km, you arrive at the first bridge. Fun fact, over this ride, only something like 30% of the whole road was actually dedicated secured bike lanes, for the rest, you ride on an asphalt and there’s cars everywhere ^^
Fun fact two, until recently, where in order to boost the tourism they gave up on it, all the bike-only roads and bridges were actually tolled roads, so asphalt: feel free to drive on it, protected bike lane: pay for it ^^

And out of each bridge as you go, there are steep roads down at which you can easily develop speeds of 45km/h, that was really fun, less fun as you climb the bridge though ^^

This is also around when I started getting INCREDIBLE weather, and it kept throughout the rest of the track too ^^

On the second island, I got a little lost and miSSED THE HUGE ASS BRIDGE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, and then I needed to backtrack a few kilometers to make it, but I understood the mechanism behind the bridges after that ^^

The third island was the flattest, and cycling through it felt pretty consistent and smooth, though the dehydration started kicking in and the third island started my intense cravings for stopping at vending machines to get another 600ml of any liquid into my veins xdddd

I had a lot of people wave at me along the way to say hi, and because I had a camera on my neck, they were posing for the photos as I was crossing them by, but I possibly made some of the worst pics of any pose I could think of xddd

Aaand, midpoint! When I saw it, I got really excited, island 3 clear, time to get on the fourth one!

I actually felt like the bridge to the fourth island was SO HARD TO CLIMB, but maybe that was the dehydration I was feeling xddd

At the start of the fourth island, you get to something like a “cyclist sanctuary”, where you can sit down, grab something to eat, take amazing pictures and enjoy the view ^^

And they had booths and stalls too! The German one had a guy who was really curious about me and what I’m doing here, ALONE, WITHOUT ANY FRIENDS, but the guy wasn’t German, even though he looked like one, and only wanted to speak English, even though I was excited for the opportunity to speak German with him xddd

And yeah, at the food stop, I had a Japanese person stop me and ask me questions about languages that I’m learning, I showed him the キミゼロ light novel and tried to read a bit, told him about learning Swedish at the university, knowing how to mostly speak English, German and Polish and he was like “damn”, as he only apparently knew Japanese aaand programming languages xdd
Apparently he was frontend, so we had some topics in common as well, he gave me a postcard with Hiroshima on it and after the cute exchange, I still had ways to go!

By comparison, island 4 felt uneventful, and it was a quick road to island 5 after that ^^

And as soon as I arrived at 大島, the rules changed, protected bike lanes showed up, inclines started being really big and long and I really started feeling as if I’ve gotten a second wind and was pumping my fist in the air as I cycled down really fast C: xddd

The final obstacle was to climb the bridge to 四国, and that one was GIGANTIC as a bridge, and a GIGANTIC incline just before that

…and… I’ve made it?

IVE MADE IT. 4.5 hours of time passed, 4h8m just cycling alone :DDDDD
This was the third longest cycle I’ve ever done (after Ireland midlands at over 100km and Ciechanów to Warsaw at 90km) and one of the most hilly ones (after the Zittau-Czech Sudetes mountains), and it combined all the fun elements of those bike rides. I think the sights were by far the best out of those four (also thanks to the weather!), but I just slightly preferred the Sudetes one because they had dedicated protected bike lanes along the way, rather than riding on the asphalt roads ^^

I was so stupidly happy when I arrived and my legs were still dancing, so I went around 今治 to rest my legs a bit ^^

A lot of restaurants were closed after Golden Week, so it wasn’t easy to find one, but I found one ran by a Japanese person who’s been to Hawaii and been a Hawaiboo xddd

Apparently, despite the weather, today was a meh day for the business, so he was happy to see me, and though in English, as I was dead by then, I still managed to chat with him a bit ^^

AND LOOK HOW TASTY IT LOOKS, 焼き豚卵飯, I’m getting pretty good at taking food pics xddd

Got myself a LOOOOT of food to replace carbs and was slowly eating at it ^^

…and came back to 尾道, not without surprises though, because the bus just put me in pitch black and asked me to find a way back xdd

…but I did, and getting back felt wonderful! What a day C:

My hotel was in 福山, and since my legs have been sore by then, I went for another walk to stretch my legs. Fukuyama is known as a Rose Town, and will have a rose event in two weeks, so there were roses all around the city ^^

Here’s the Fukuyama castle, specifically illuminated for the night at 10pm ^^

And, rose park, in the middle of the city!

I’m glad they’re already in full bloom now, was able to take some really cute pics ^^

And yep, Rose Promenade lives up to its name!

also, damn, that’s a creative gachapon ^^

Today was by far the most active day of the trip, between cycling, walking another 20k, I crossed 5000 calories today and 600 minutes of physical activity and I’ve started really worrying how to replenish it tomorrow, because if I just stuff myself with candy, I’ll probably feel dizzy, but if I try to go for protein, I’ll probably just inflate immediately. I don’t often get this much physical activity and I’m definitely not a nutritionist, so it’ll be a “try-not-to-mess-up-your-body” challenge.
image
…if anyone had any advice…?

Though, if I’m thinking correctly, I should be having a really fancy dinner tomorrow, tomorrow we’re taking a train to the northern coast of Japan, and who knows what I’ll find there…? Well, I do ^^

See you tomorrow!

It is super cool. I split it into 2 days, though, to have more time to drive leisurely and take more paths off to beaches and such. Went to a 銭湯 on one of the islands (think it was omishima? also where I was staying for the night) where the locals also started chatting to me. One of my most favorite memories of the trip :smiley:

I also took the additional time to go to Google Maps which is an island full of rabbits. By ferry from omishima. They came to be since they were used as lab rats (gas experiments) during the wartime and after the war was lost were just released onto the island. Without any natural enemies on the island the rabbits took over the whole island.
Nice place to visit :smiley:

It’s not something I would recommend to a first time Japan visitor since it’s a little out of the way, but it is a must-do in my mind. 瀬戸内海 is such a beautiful area and 四国 criminally underrated in my view.

OMG Bidoof of course you accidentally came across the Shimane Kaido XD. It’s gorgeous and I want to ride it one day. So far I’ve only done the drive, which was also spectacular. Your pictures are so great.

As for recovery, you should eat, sleep, drink water/sports drinks, and get some electrolyte or salt candies/jellies.

:star_struck:

This is the thing I didn’t know I needed until I saw it :sob:

I have an extra motivation now :heart: because collecting those stamps is gonna be quite fun :heart: if one doesn’t forget about them :rofl:

I really appreciate you sharing that with me :heart:

Why would you do such a thing :sob:

If you see her again, could you please tell her that I’m sorry for keeping her waiting for me? :folded_hands:

This answered the question I was going to ask :cherry_blossom:

and this is horifying :sob:

Is there something special about that bridge or its mechanism? :eyes:

That’s very nice of them :heart:

I’m pretty sure he ran away, so that he doesn’t have to speak German and somehow he was foundable by you :rofl: you robbed him of his peace of mind :rofl:

One thing you always excel at as a person is making friends everywhere :heart:

Congratulations :partying_face: :partying_face:

That’s quite the achievement :heart: Here’s a Sakura as a reward :cherry_blossom: and as a thank you for taking us on this journey :cherry_blossom:

Such a nice castle :heart:

That’s a lot to do in one day, but you did it :partying_face: Another Sakura for you :cherry_blossom:

That was a fun day for sure and can’t wait to see the other adventures :heart:

I have a question that I’ll ask now before forgetting it again :rofl:

How many hours of sleep are averaging there in general? And how will everything you buy there fit in one suitcase? :folded_hands:

Get some rest, because it’s really important :heart:

there? My average over the last year in the Garmin app is 7 hours 11 minutes a night, but I could defintely benefit from more sleeping every once in a while xdd

Apparently was 7h26m tonight, but I’m writing earlier today because I apparently have a breakfast at 8am tomorrow and I’m kind of freaking out xddd

Truth to be said, as of yet, I haven’t bought that crazy many things, I’m probably still below 20kg at the airport, and I can just yeet everything into a bag if I needed more space

I’ll be worrying about luggage around May 15th or something ^^

That the sign pointing to it is easy to miss and you can ride under it being like “i can’t wait to finally get to the bridge I’m supposed to cross the river with!” and the “WAIT A MINUTE” kicks in a bit later ^^

i’ll tell her, maybe she’ll respect your DEMANDS ^^


May 7th, 2026

Here it is, the new novelization from the game series of solving urban mysteries.


The book is really pretty inside, no illustrations, aside from the protagonists, but it sometimes inserts blocks of things as formatting. No furigana, I’m doing okay with most of the text, but my reading comprehension isn’t amazing reading this one ^^

Still, glad I was able to get it!


Life

Roses are red, violets are blue…

…sheep sheep sheep…

Today I set off on a shinkansen to 姫路 and I finally learned how to use the ticket machines for shinkansens to give me a ticket if I have the area pass, was a bit stressful to figure this out, but we did it!

I was in 姫路 just for a few minutes though, because I had a train going from there, which wasn’t a shinkansen.

The train arrives 4 minutes before departure and I enter it, seeing that I’m in a reserved car and I don’t see any non-reserved cars. I get out and ask the security person of the train on the station can I still ride it, because I don’t have a reservation.

And he goes like “no.”

And I’m like “is there anything I can do?”

And he goes like “no.”

So it’s the last train of the day… at 1pm. The other methods to get to my destination take 4 hours, this train would 1.5h. So I start doomscrolling google maps thinking how to navigate getting there, I jump really quickly to the ticket office to ask if I can still get the reservation for the train…

…and yes I can. I get this note, something like 40 seconds before the train leaves.


I DASH WITH A SUITCASE WITH BROKEN WHEELS THROUGH ESCALATOR AND RUN THROUGH IT JUST TO BOARD THE TRAIN just before it closes down and leaves and I’m… going there C:

MY HEART RATE AAAAA

Here’s my ekiben btw ^^

Today, my JR Kansai + Hiroshima Area pass took me to Kinosaki Onsen, a small town on the northern coast where there are 7 interconnected onsens and you can jump from one to other and enjoy them all ^^

They dressed me up in a pretty yukata and let me roam around the city C:
also, 下駄 are HORRIBLY uncomfortable like it’s crazy :sob: xdddd
I did mention that I have a specific affinity for soft shoes as I hike, but I have a feeling I undid my healthy walking habits just today alone xddd

Compared to the cities I’ve been visiting prior, this one really doesn’t have that much to do, aside from looking pretty and being mindful of bears, as apparently they have a few ^^

The streets are pretty narrow, to the point where I got hit by a car today - a car’s mirror rammed into my back, and the driver did a hit-and-run where he didn’t even say すいません but kept going after that. Luckily, it didn’t hurt so much, but I’m glad I didn’t get hit on a bike yesterday ^^

Most of the attractions seem like they would’ve been really big over Golden Week, but there haven’t been that many people today ^^

Also, A LOT of merchandise ^^

One of the main reasons I wanted to come here was the ryokan dinner, and it took me an hour to get through this table, there were so many things, including crab and desert I would eat, a lot of different flavors and I’m pretty sure I did some food wrong because the attendant laughed when she came and saw me shabu shabuing some of the dishes ^^

goodnight crabs btw ^^

At night, I set off for the onsen hopping, and sadly you won’t get the pictures of onsens because, uhh, privacy??? xdd

But yeah, each onsen had something unique about itself, whether it’s cave, a wooden hut, one of the onsens was out, so that made my onsen hopping six instead of seven, the seventh one was in the hotel room ^^

AAND OF COURSE A SCALE TO MEASURE YOUR WEIGHT GETTING UP, OF COURSE

ONSEN NEKO BTW

But I probably spent the most of my time onsenning in a foot bath reading the 都市伝説 novel because it felt weird to bring a book to the full body onsens, I got to meet a few people there, including a man from Lithuania who lived in Thailand, married a Thai woman, had kids with her, and his whole extended 8-person family came over to Japan to enjoy hot springs ^^
He also did onsen hopping and we did trade some recommendations ^^

My legs were so red after that bath, when I came back to onsen, I noticed that they were hypersensitive to heat too ^^

Overall, I’m glad I experienced 城崎, but it’s probably not among my favorite places in Japan, so we’ll make up for it tomorrow, I hope ^^

See you tomorrow! ^^

WAHHHHHH, that sounds so stressful!! I’ve had close encounters with boarding trains or reserved cars, but nothing like this! :face_with_crossed_out_eyes:

Your ekiben looks heavenly, and I’m surprised it didn’t get smushed in the rush haha

dang that’s a lot of onsenning