Fukuyama and Onomichi

When we last left our intrepid heroes, they had a few hours to kill before they could check in to our overnight bus near Tokyo Station, so we headed to the station, dropped off our heavy backpacks in a locker and did a quick search of the area and found a bookstore we hadn't been to before, the Marunouchi Book Center. 

It was an impressive nine floors of books, including almost half a floor dedicated to various computer books. 

Um....ok....

After spending over an hour browsing, we grabbed some overnight rations at a nearby Lawson, grabbed our packs and headed to the bus stop to board the bus

The bus trip was uneventful, for the most part. It was a comfortable ride, mostly, though anyone my size would have trouble fitting in the seats, especially when the guy in front of you insists on reclining all the way back for the entire ten hours. We made several stops on the way at rest stops on the highway, which are some of the nicest, cleanest rest stops you'll ever find. A family of swallows agreed, and made a nest in the men's bathroom of one.

We arrived in Fukuyama, a town just northeast of our starting point, at 6:00am. Japan doesn't do mornings very well, so nothing, not even the train station, was open, except for a few 24 hour convenience stores. Every electronic device we had was now pretty much out of juice, and we needed a place to plug in, and after a night on a bus we also needed a shower, so, with our last remaining battery on our iPhone, we searched for an internet cafe. Nothing came up at all, but we did find a sentou (public bath) about a mile from the station. 

Fukuyama has a Rose festival every year, and the streets downtown were still covered in them. 

We also got to meet the town mascot. 

Lemme guess, her name is Rosie.

We located the sentou easily enough, but as the Japanese usually bath in the evening, it was also closed. Rather desperate, at this point, Sumi saw a Pachinko parlor called Cyber down the street, so we figured they may be open and may have an internet cafe inside. Well, we were wrong on both counts BUT 

Shh, don't tell anyone!

at least we got to sit down and charge our phones. 

Sumi found a real internet cafe on the other side of town, so with the train station now open we headed out in search of a shower and internet. Well, after about 40 minutes of walking, we found said internet cafe, but were informed it was "members only". What the apologetic young man was trying to say was that we needed to sign up like you would at an old fashioned video store to get membership and then could use the services. This, of course, requires a local address. He did, after some searching, give us a map with an onsen marked on it, but that would have been another few miles of walking with our increasingly heavy backpacks (they each weigh about 20 pounds) in the heat (it was already 80 degrees by 9:00am). So, we gave in and decided being filthy tourists was ok for now, and headed back downtown for some sightseeing.

We had until 2:00pm before we could check in to our hotel in Onomichi, so we threw our packs, which we were starting to detest, in a locker and headed across the street to Fukuyama Castle. 

Apparently, there is a sizable Christian population in Fukuyama. This is the large r of two churches, as viewed from the castle grounds

Important historical samurai whose name we could not read

It was quite a nice museum/park area with a restored castle (the original burned down at the end of WWII), some nice walkways and an nice old park, probably built in the 1950s when they restored the castle. 

This looks way too fun to be allowed in the US. Someone might scrap their knee.

I'm sorry ma'am, there is a height requirement for this ride.

With several hours still to burn, we grabbed some lunch at what can only be described as a Japanese Denny's. My omurice (omelet stuffed with rice) was passable and Sumi's caesar salad was fine, except for the impressively gelatinous boiled egg that was included. 

How do you even PEEL an egg that soft?

After lunch we figured we'd head to our hotel in Onomichi and see if we could check in a little early, so we hopped on the train to Onomichi.

Onomichi is a small, sprawling seaside town, with a castle of it's own. 

Heading to our hotel neat the station, we weren't allowed to check in early, but did get to drop off our bags. At this point we STILL had a few hours, so we took a walk along the river that runs through town (and empties into the ocean).

There is a local sculpture whose work is all over Fukuyama and Onomichi. He liked nude women so much that's all he did. This one inexplicably has peacocks, as well.

Finally 2:00pm rolled around and we were able to check in to our tiny room that could barely hold our luggage and us at the same time. A/C and a shower made everything much better. So much better, in fact, that we ended up taking a nap….a five hour nap. Waking up with that feeling that you know you slept too long, we blew our chance at assembling our bikes today, as the sun sets around 7pm. We resigned ourselves to doing laundry and getting ready for tomorrow morning. Setting the alarm for a painful-looking 4:00am and hoping we can get to sleep after the "nap".