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Well last night was a blast. Probably the most fun I have had in Japan yet.
Ton-Jiru is awesome and there was so much of it!
I ate like a king and the beer at the hostel is quite possibly the cheapest in Japan.
150 a can which is very cheap, normally its like 300. Had this one called Chu-Hi, made by Kirin.
Not sure if it was beer as they were calling it o-sake and it didn't really have any fizz to it.
Lemon flavored so very enjoyable. They also had little nibbles which were Imake, dried squid and Anago, teriyaki style eel served cold.
Went great with the drinks. Made friends with a few of the people staying here. One Japanese guy from around Suzuka shared his sake with me and this california guy.
It was our first time so he found that quite enjoyable. You have a bit of the dried squid and a mouthfull of sake and that's the way you do it.
Gotta say Sake is allot easier to drink than I expected. Doesn't burn like vodka but warms your belly.
After that moved down the table and got chatting to another aussie! We managed to figure out how best to describe AFL to the Japanese.
Ended up as 'a combination of basketball, soccer with your hands and takling like rugby'.
One Japanese guy called Akira, yeah like the anime, was surprised they don't wear protection in rugby or AFL.
After that these girls were showing off some fans they bought with pop stars on them.
These guys are from a group called SPal and apparently they are the Japanese backstreet boys, many laughs.
Then we got talking about the pronounciation differences in english and there were many laughs from various poor trnslations.
Anyhow, after all that fun missed my initial train from Miyajima to Hiroshima but there were plenty of others so I didn't miss the shinkansen to Himeji.
Thinking I might go over to Miyajima again tonight and get a gift for Kate.
It's perfect for her and I am sure she will love it.
Well Himeji was great. On my way to the castle they had another food fair which was such a tease but I managed not to buy anything.QQ
After this I went to the castle and Koko-en garden. Himeji castle was very impressive. All those stones hand laid, crazy.

After that I went over to Koko-En garden which was gorgeous. Unfortunately half way through my camera battery died.
You missed the bamboo groves, pine forest and seedling garden. Nothing in the seedling garden really being autumn but the rest was gorgeous.
There were three ladies there playing the lay down guitar things, sounded like Shamisens but wider note range. Really set the scene.
After that headed to a few shrines but they all wanted about 500 yen admission which I cannot afford anymore.
Saw pretty much everything there was to see from outside anyhow. Headed home after that and had my instant noodles.
Tomorrow I am off to Osaka and should arrive there by 10:30. I have been advised to try TakoYaki there as its the home of TakoYaki.
I will see if I can get any for cheap but I am allowed one extravegance there and then its all Tokyo.
Bye for now.