The second half of the Japan section of this trip did not disappoint, sightseeing was great, and the food was nothing less than amazing, and the beginning of this winning streak takes place at Himeji castle. Himeji castle was a war castle built in the 1330’s, designed to resemble a bird taking flight, this castles size and beauty was absolutely breathtaking.

The next favourite stop of this adventure was Naoshima art island, situated just a couple train rides and a ferry ride off the coast of the town of Kurashiki. Naoshima is considered an art island because throughout this small island, tons of amazing art galleries and interesting sculptures can be found almost everywhere. We only visited 1 gallery, and to say the least, it was impressive. The rest of our visit consisted of renting bikes and cruising around this coastal town and enjoying great views of intriguing sculptures.

After Kurashiki and Naoshima art island, we headed to Hiroshima, where the worlds first nuclear bomb was dropped on August 6, 1946. The A-Bomb dome is a building in the centre of the rebuilt city of Hiroshima, that was only 160 meters away from the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb, the building mostly survived, and was left exactly how it was after the bomb. It was mind blowing how near the bomb was too the building, and how this former trade centre, mostly survived, while a 2 kilometre radius of the city was completely burned to ash. 

Then back to Tokyo. Our Japan trip began, and ended here, but the second time was slightly more interesting. The main highlight of this second branch would have to be the Tsukiji fish market. An early, but good start to the experience began at 2:12 am, at the registration office for the fish auction, in order to get in to the market for your 20 minute segment, you are required to be within the first 120 people to register, which in turn requires being at the office very early, and waiting in a small, packed room with no chairs, for 4 hours. I was far too tired to stay awake for that whole time, so I dozed off on the floor and woke up to my parents nudging me to stand up. We were going in. After a 5 minute walk through an industrial area of fishing trucks and forklifts nearly running you over, you get into a large well-lit shed, where many fish buyers looked at, smelled, and tested 200-300 kg red tuna fish. After the actual market, we just had to go get some fresh sushi from a near by restaurant. after a 25 minute wait in line for sushi, at 5:45 am, we had a feast of the freshest, most delicious sushi in the world. the Tuna was extremely red, sweet and tender, and our server taught us many things about how to eat the sushi, (only dipping the fish into the soy sauce, not the rice) our sushi breakfast was a meal to never forget.