World

In the evening we explore downtown Osaka eating dinner and enjoying both window shopping and actual shopping in this modern town

We stop in the historic town of Kurashiki to visit the canal side area of Bikan in the middle of the day exploring canals and old streets

We end the day with some light hiking on the beautiful karstic plateaus of Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park enjoying the views and interesting rock formations

The major attraction today is the longest cave in Japan Akiyoshi-do a very beautiful cave that can be visited on a self-guided tour

Next stop is Yamaguchi also known as the Kyoto of Western Japan where we visit Ruriko-ji one of the top three pagodas in Japan

We start our busy day with a visit to one of the top three bridges in Japan the Kintai Kyo Bridge a beautifully arched bridge across the Nishiki River

In the afternoon we explore the Atomic Bomb Dome famous from all the images of Hiroshima after the blast and then shop and eat at a nearby arcade

We spend quite a bit of today exploring the sombering and thought provoking Peace Museum with exhibits connected to the nuclear blast and deaths

Our first stop for today is rather unexpectedly the Hiroshima branch of the Bank of Japan one of the few survivors of the nuclear blast

We spend the afternoon exploring Kotohira-gu a major Shinto pilgrimage site reachable by almost a thousand steps passing shops and restaurants