We woke up early this morning and caught the bullet train to Hiroshima. It’s a 2 hour journey there so I most definitely will be catching up on some sleep on the way & we have a jam packed day scheduled.

First stop is Hiroshima then we are off to Rabbit Island. It shouldn’t take too long to get to Rabbit Island from Hiroshima but it it’s bit of a trek with multiple lines & a ferry we need to catch so it’ll be go-go-go.

Once we arrived at Hiroshima we went into the tourist information desk to ask about the hop on hop off bus for the bomb sites surrounding the area & it’s free for us to use with our JR passes which is a bonus.

We had a coffee & a quick bite to eat at Starbucks then made a last minute decision to go to Rabbit Island first. We can only get a transfer line from Hiroshima so we will tackle that first then come back. I am so glad we decided to head to Rabbit Island first, it was SUCH a trek to get out there! We had to take a Shinkansen then another regular JR train then wait (an hour & a half) for a ferry across to the island. Looks like we won’t be doing Hiroshima today, we completely underestimated the timing of this one.

Whilst waiting for the ferry we popped on over to the local convenience store (Family Mart) and grab some rabbit food - some carrots & cabbage. We then hopped on the ferry & made our way over to the island. Rabbit Island is meant to be an island that is completely inhabited by friendly rabbits and as an avid animal lover myself I can’t wait to cuddle up to the cute little hoppies.

Once we arrived it didn’t take long for us to spot our first rabbit, then two, then three then a gazillion more. They were everywhere, running up to everyone of course looking for food but they weren’t at all shy about climbing up your leg or into your lap and they were all so cute. Once you pulled out the food, they would all start running at you. I loved it!

We spent about an hour at the Island, feeding all the bunnies and sightseeing around the Island before getting the bullet train back to Kyoto. Unfortunately with the sun setting here at about 4pm and how freezing it progressively gets throughout the day we will need to reshuffle things & go back (& do another 2 hour train trip) into Hiroshima tomorrow.

Once we got back to Kyoto, we went to the local shopping mall. It was beautiful, so many pretty lights and Christmas displays and the shops themselves were pretty good too! I was able to start a bit of my Christmas shopping & of course grab a few things for myself ha

I’m in need of a bigger backpack to come home with, whilst flying I like to use a back pack for my carry on. It just makes things so much easier to carry along when you’ve also got a big suitcase to trek through the airport & city. I wasn’t able to find one prior to leaving though but to get home well, I really can’t leave without getting one lol

Thankfully they had a Billabong store here at this mall & I was able to find one I liked in a perfect size that was one sale at 30% off - even better!! And to top it off, as an international tourist, if I show my passport (which today, luckily I had on me) I can also get it tax free...hell yeah, meant to be. Pete also bought some new shirts that were on sale, buy 2 get them half price which is amazing & also tax free!

We then had some dinner in a restaurant in the mall (which again was delicious & served within 15 minutes) then headed back to our hotel for another earlyish night.

We’re off to Hiroshima tomorrow then over to Nara for the Deer Park, again I can’t wait for that! I’ve heard it’s amazing.
We will try to squeeze in viewing on of the local shrines also, one that has a golden reflection off the water at sunset but given the transport saga and timings yesterday we may miss that one all together. We’re very quickly running out of days, wah!