电影：失恋33天

刚看完了一部中国电影，失恋33天，感觉还不错。电影里头有很多令人深思的语录和台词。以下都是从百度copy过来的。

http://baike.baidu.com/view/3158523.htm

1. “现在的小男孩们，情义千斤，不敌胸脯四两！这就是一个喜新厌旧的物种，你丫寻死觅活的，对得起自己么？
2. 买台电冰箱，保修期三年，你嫁了个人，还能保证他一辈子不出问题呀，出了问题就修嘛
3. 你连人都没生过，有什么资格埋怨人生？
4. 这些年下来，新衣服被洗得褪了色走了形，但好歹还在，而新恋情却被放进染缸，被生硬的一染再染，直到我再也认不出来。
5. 是的，多年以前，我的矫情我的浪漫我的天时地利，到了今天，已经统统过期，更关键的是，当年陪在我身边的那个人，居然选择了中途退票离席。
6. 我慌张得快要把持不住我自己了，想要撞墙，想摔东西，想要放声尖叫。我打开手机的通讯录，我想要和谁说说话，是个人就好，能回应就好。但长长的联系人名单上，却没有一个这样的人。这也是我忘情沉溺于恋爱时种下的恶果
7. 尤瑟纳尔说过一句我一直觉得无比刻薄但又无比精准的话：世上最肮脏的，莫过于自尊心。 此刻我突然意识到，即便肮脏，余下的一生，我也需要这自尊心的如影相随
8. 若有一日，他不再爱你，那么你这个人，楚楚可怜也是错，生气勃发也是错，你和他在一个地球上同呼吸共命运都是错，或许可以为他死？哈，那更是让他午夜梦回时破口大骂的一个错。　你看，美食，好酒，都不会因为你失恋了就停止供应，是，牙疼不能忍，但它也要不了你命。
9. 我看看镜子里的自己，都不单单只是蓬头垢面，温和点形容，镜子里的人是个姿色不佳的吸毒妇女，全身上下，只剩下眼袋还算丰满。我彻底颓了，真是，变幻的人生避无可避，想掩耳盗铃都有人拿着相机围观你。
10. 二百五的脑子加林黛玉的心就是你
11. 虽然喷了高级古龙水，可还是带着一股天生的混蛋味
12. 摆着一张鼠标垫脸给谁看呢

写这些句子的人太神了，我一边看，一边笑得像傻瓜似的。这电影太棒了！怪不得在中国的票房特别好。

remark: 

二百五=傻瓜或说话不正经、办事不认真、处事随便、好出洋相的人

Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds

This book has some trekkie feeling to it. The book cover was glittering, the colour changes from different angle of viewing, very futuristic like.

the cover from one angle

the cover from another angle

I did not bought this book, it was given to me by my brother. My guess was he was attracted by the cover and bought it. Well, who wouldn't anyway. It was a collection of short stories about future where different kind of human species exist together, Conjoiners, Demarchy, Ultra, etc.

"The Cook, The Rat and The Heretic" by Hugo Soskin

I bought this book from a big book fair in the travel section. The synopsis seems quite good. I finished reading this book in Japan. The first book I read in Japan. The plot was not bad, but quite difficult to read.

The Cook, The Rat and the Heretic

It's about a man and his wife's adventure in France in a travel van. Since the man, Hugo had spent a few years in Spain, the couple to decided to move to Spain in an old converted VW van. They decided to travel leisurely without a schedule, did some touristy things along the way. The story was about the time they spent in French. 

When Hugo was a kid, his father made films about the Rennes-le-Chateau and the hidden treasure of Priory of Sion. And he did not take a liking to that. However, when he was near the place, he took a detour to that place. After a series of hiatus, he and his wife ended up agreeing to work in a campsite near the Rennes-le-Chateau. At the campsite, they met with a lot of interesting people, some even thought that he had inside information about the hidden treasure and made life difficult for him. However, all well end's well. They made  through it and finally went to Spain as they planned earlier.

Osaka & Kobe (Day 3 -->One Day in Kobe)

19th September 2011

First thing in the morning, we checked out from the hostel and went to train station to go to Kobe Sannomiya 神戸三の宮. Since 5 of us would stay in Sannomiya that night, we went to the hotel to put our bag, while others found locker in the train station to keep the bag.

Kitano Ijinkan was near the hotel

Kobe signal

First, our plan was to go back to the train station to take bus to go to Kitano Ijinkan 北野異人館 (an old foreign residences area). However, as we walked towards the hotel, we found out that the Ijinkan was not far from the hotel. So, we decided to just walk to the Ijinkan because it would be nearer than walked back to the hotel. Then those still in station took bus and met us there.

After reaching the area, we found out that the entry tickets was expensive. And there were lots of foreign residences open for viewing. Then, we decided to go to the famous one only. We went to the Weathercock House, a former Thomas Residence. Maybe I was not a architecture person, I did not think that this has any special significance. This was just an old western building, frankly, it was around the same with the 'Glover Garden' in Nagasaki. Then, we went to Moegi no Yakata 萌黄の館. A former American ambassador, Sharp Residence. Also so so only. Felt the money wasted. But for those that like this kind of buildings, maybe they will enjoy themselves.

匣の中の失楽(a novel by Takemoto Kenji 竹本健治)

I found this novel in a book fair. I was quite piss with that so called 'international Chinese book fair" which claimed to offer a variety of books, and blah blah blah. Most of the books were about finance, self-help, classics and many translated book in Chinese. The choices were not much, and it really did not ignite my interest to buy. Even the collections on Romance were bad. I really regretted that I took 2 hours bus ride and then took LRT to KLCC for this. Wasting my time and money. So, to feel that I achieved something, I brought this Japanese Detective Novel by Takemoto Kenji. It was translated into Chinese by one Lim Min Sheng 林敏生. Quite expensive compared to the books I brought normally, it costs me around RM40.

匣の中の失楽

After that, this book remained in my possession for quite some time until I ran out of book to read on the way to work inside the train. So, I started to read this.

Osaka & Kobe (Day 2 --> One Day in Universal Studio Japan)

18th September 2011

Since the USJ will open on 9pm, we slept until quite late, just in time to catch the train to USJ. While in the train, there were a lot of parents with children. All happily waiting for USJ. Some kids already wore cartoon character clothes and hats. When we reached there, there were a lot of people queuing up to buy tickets. Luckily for us, my friend already bought the ticket in Osaka Station. We just waited in another queue to get inside, skipped one queue. Once inside, I quickly grab a bottled drink because I was out of supply, it was so expensive, it cost 200 yen per bottle. No wonder I saw a guy brought a big bag full of bottled water.

Universal City Station

the big globe

this ticket was bought from JR counter in Osaka station

exchanging the ticket on the left for this USJ ticket

After went inside and took a photo with the big globe, we rushed to the "The amazing adventures of Spider-man - The Ride", our first ride. There were long queue already. However, there were 9 of us, so we kept talking, so it was not boring. Inside the Spider man building, there were a long hall way for people to queue. There were mock Peter Parker's office and all things related to spider man. I particularly like the quotes from Parker's editor, sound like most bosses anyway. The ride was ok, but the effect was awesome, well in my opinion anyway.

Osaka & Kobe (Day 1 --> One Day in Osaka City)

17th September 2011

Since 19th September was holiday.  One of my friend planned a trip to Osaka and Kobe from 17th to 19th September. To go to Osaka from Kumamoto, Shinkansen cost around 18000 yen. Although bus was cheaper at 8000 yen. I was not ready to take night bus and it would take 10 hours. So, after much searching, 3 of us took flight and it cost us 14000 yen. We took ANA airline.

Our flight reached Osaka Itami airport at 9.05am and we took monorail to Hotarugaike 蛍池. It was so expensive, it cost 200 yen for 2 minutes ride. Then, took another train to Ikeda 池田 using Hankyu Takarazuka line 阪急宝塚線. After that, we waited inside the station for other friends from Tokyo. After we gathered, then we walked to Instant Ramen Museum. Entrance was free. The main attraction was that you can custom made your own cup of Ramen for 300 yen. Inside the museum, there were explanations about how the inventor Momofuku Ando 安藤百福 invented the first instant noodle. The first instant noodle flavour was 'chicken flavour'. There was an animation about how Mr. Ando created the first instant noodle cup, it was very funny. Other than that, there was a wall full of instant noodle cups, ranging from big, small, round, square, cute, colourful, etc. Then, there were footages of the old advertisement for the instant noodle, so cute! However, the funniest thing was to custom made our own Ramen cup. First, need to pay 300 yen, then a cup will be given for you to draw on it. After that, choose the flavour you want, there are a lot of ingredients to choose from. After that, queue up to have the cup vacuum and packaged. The most difficult part was to draw on the cup, I was a very bad painter. Among all our friends, my cup was the worst. So, I decided not to keep the noodle cup as a souvenier and ate that as a breakfast the next morning. After a tour of Instant Ramen Museum, we decided to skip Osamu Tezuka Museum 手塚治, a famous Manga artist in Japan due to time constraint.

Dolls sold as souvenier in the Instant noodle museum, so cute!

Summer holiday in Onomichi 尾道 (day 9 - 21st August 2011)

Last day of the trip.

From Matsuyama, we went to Onomichi 尾道. First, our planner planned to take bicycle and cycle from Shikoku 四国 to Honshu 本州 via Shimanami Kaido しまなみ海道 that span across a few small islands. Along the way, there were many natural attractions. However, most of us were lazy, so we opposed that idea. So, we just sit comfortably in the car and travel to Onomichi. 

Shimanami Kaido (taken from Onomichi city guide)

It was a rainy day. So, when we reach Senkoji Temple 千光寺, one of our travel mate decided not to walk in this kind of weather. She just found a cafe and read her IPAD while we toured the temple with umbrellas and got our shoes and pants wet. According to the Onomichi city guide, Senkoji temple was built on the first year of the reign of Emperor Daido in 806. And according to the legend, years before, there were 19 Buddhist temple on the area, however, wars brought destruction and a lot was destroyed. There were a lot of Buddhist statues on that area. However, the appearances of the statues were quite different from the one I saw in Malaysia. To reach there, one can take ropeway after dropped of at Nagaeguchi bus stop. However, our car GPS system already brought us quite near the temple, so we just walked up there. Since the weather was really not conductive, we decided to have our lunch instead of continue to tour the whole place.

Summer holiday in Shikoku 四国 (day 8 - 20th August 2011)

Kochi 高知 to Ehime 愛媛 (long journey by car)

Since the bed was the best for us in this few days. All of us decided to wake up late. Initially, our plan was to go to Dogo Onsen 道後温泉 in Matsuyama only. However, we found a brochure introducing a car museum 'Shikoku Automobile Museum 四国自動車博物館'. The guys were so excited, so off we go to see cars.

the ticket to the Shikoku Automobile museum

the brochure of the museum

The museum was quite near to the place we stayed, about 30 minutes car ride. The ticket into the museum was expensive, 800 yen per person. There were a lot of cars inside, I am not a fan of car, so I just read the plate introducing the car specification and snap the photos of the cute cars. Inside the museum, apart from cars, there were antique motorcycles and bicycles. Beautiful! (Speaking of  bicycles, I like Japanese bicycles, there were more variables and more beautiful compared to Malaysian bicycles.)

Summer holiday in Shikoku 四国 (day 7 - 19th August 2011)

From Shodoshima, we took ferry to Tokushima 徳島. After a very long drive with a very moody weather, we reach to take Oboke Pleasure Cruise 大歩危遊覧船. Although the car was provided with GPS, it brought us into wrong turn and we kept drove up to a narrow hilly roads which only allowed one car though. It took us a while before we found the port. Actually I was quite scare because the day before, the tv news showed that a child died due to a boat accident in Shizuoka 静岡. However, after assurance from my friends, I took the ride.

the boat ride start from here 大歩危

大歩危（the rocks, water）

大歩危

大歩危

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

I have to admit that I bought this book for the illustrations. It was done by Quentin Blake. Another reason was that this book have been used for a lot of chorus competitions during my school days, but I have never read this. This book was printed in Japan and used for the TOEIC test reading. 

Charlie and the chocolate factory

the illustration

the illustrations

Once Removed by Andrew Leci

once removed by Andrew Leci

When I first read this book, I thought it was a real account of what happened to Graham who wrote this diary. However, it was one third into this book that I realised it was a novel. Muahaha!

Since I was not a sport lover, either really doing it or just become a spectator. I didn't know the author. He was a presenter for ESPN Star Sport. However, inside the book, there were comments from Jit Murad, Paula Malai Ali, Kam Raslan and Patrick Teoh whose names I had heard before, so I bought this book.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Finished reading this book. I knew this book from the Neil Gaiman short stories "Fragile things". After 'fragile', I was so keen on this book that I ordered it online from Amazon Japan. That was the first time I bought things online. It is very convenient in Japan, after placing an order, an email will notify the payment number, and one can pay in any convenience store in Japan. However, one can only pick up the goods from Lawson. Although there are no Lawson near my apartment in walking distance, there's a Lawson in 10 minutes bicycle rides from my apartment. I chose to pick up there.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The book centered around gods, as the tittle suggested. It told of gods were created when the immigrants to America brought along their beliefs. So, there were all sorts of gods, Europeans, native Americans, Asians, Africans, etc. There were new gods too, like media, internet, car ......... For example, the people nowadays spent too much time in front of TV, so it created TV god because people sacrifice their time or love to the TV. Quite odd, but in my family belief, apart from the deity statue that we prayed in our house, other dolls or figures were not allowed on the altar because according to my mom, since we pray everyday to the god, the figurine or doll (something with eyes) will become spirited or jin (a Malay word for you know what) after a period of time. I think the theory was around the same. 

Summer Holiday in Shodoshima for One Day 小豆島 (day 6 - 18th August 2011)

Left the guest house at 5.30 am to catch the 6.50am ferry to go to Shodoshima 小豆島. We reached the island quite early, so all the attractions were not opened yet. So, we visited the olive garden first. This was the first time I saw an olive tree, not quite as I have imagined. We waited until the Olive Museum opened at 8.30am. The olive museum had information about how the olive plantation started in that Japan and all other miscellaneous information.

Olive

olive tree

the Greek style windmill

Olive ice cream

Summer holiday in Shikoku 四国 (day 5 - 17th August 2011)

Since we stayed in the dormitory type accommodation, we just left, don't need to check out. After that, we went to Sannomiya 三ノ宮 station to pick up another friend. She just came from Tokyo using night bus. Then, we proceeded to Tokushima 徳島. Our main aim was to see the whirlpool in Naruto 鳴門 and the best time was between 13:30 to 14:30. So, we went to Awaji Yume Butai 淡路夢舞台. There was a national park called Akashi 国営明石海峡公園. We went to this park first because it was too early to go to Naruto. It was a big flower park. A lot of flowers, very colourful! We walked one round and left. 

the flower's octopus from Akashi park

Flowers

Summer Holiday in Okayama for One Day 岡山 (day 4 - 16th August 2011)

Had a really nice breakfast in Comfort Hotel Okayama. After that, we waited for another friend, Tee to come to pick us. He came to Okayama by Shinkansen, after that, he went to the Madza rental car company to take the rental car. After we gathered, we decided to go to Korakuen 後楽園 first. It was a garden too! However, like the Adachi Museum, summer was not the season, it was ok, but not great. We just walked one round and left. Then, we went to Kurashiki 倉敷. It was so nice to sit inside a car and do not have to rush for bus or train! (^-^)

Okayama castle (can be seen from Korakuen)

Summer holiday in Tottori 鳥取 (day 3 - 15th August 2011)

First thing in the morning, we checked out of the hotel and went to the train station. From Matsue 松江 to Yura 由良 took 2 hours by train. Yura was the birth place of the author of famous manga series, Detective Conan. The author name was Gosho Aoyama 青山剛昌. Yura is a small town, when we got off the train at the Yura station, we were surprised that only group of us got out, and there was even no coin locker. Our shoulders were tired with our big backpack on our back. After that, the train station master told us that the taxi company next to the station offered bags keeping service. So, we kept our bags inside a taxi company. I forgot what was the price, but one of my travelmates haggling with the taxi guy and finally he gave us discount!

Conan statue outside library

the lamp post with Conan character

Conan bridge

the drain cover with Conan characters!

After that, we started to walk to the Gosho Aoyama Museum. I thought that maybe Aoyama was the only famous personality of Yura town because the town seems to be centered around the characters from the author's manga. They even built a bridge and named it Conan bridge. Even the front door of the town library had a Conan statue. Along the way, there was a stall that sold watermelons and it was cheap, around 1000 yen  per watermelon. However, the sellers did not provide cutting service and we depended on public transport, carrying a big round watermelon around was a big no-no, no matter how sweet the watermelon was. So, we had to let go. Sigh!

Summer holiday in Really Interesting Sakaiminato 境港 (day 2 - 14th August 2011)

Since the people from the tourist information center strongly recommended the Adachi Museum of Art 足立美術館, we went there because for foreigners, the ticket was 1100yen after 50% discount. We caught the 8.35am train to 安来市 Yasugi from 松江 Matsue, hoping that we could catch the 9am shuttle van to the museum. However, since there were too many people, I was the only person who couldn't get into the van, so all my travel mates got off the van and let other people queuing behind me to go first. Since the next turn would be 10am, we decided to go to the observation platform of Yasugi Hill to see the view because it was near. It was a small hill with few steps. It was a small town, so there was nothing to see. We stayed there for few minutes, snapped some photos and went back to the train station to wait for the bus. The town was famous for eel, so inside the 安来市 train station, there were many dolls shaped like eels.

Eel inspired dolls in Yasugi station

Yasugi Hill observatory

The Adachi Museum was quite a major let down because everything inside was a Japanese theme garden. Very delicate and detailed, but quite mundane, plus that was summer, the worst season for the view. This garden was for people who appreciate beauty of man-made garden. To me, it's not interesting. 

Adachi Museum - traditional Japanese garden

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

16th September 2011

The cover of Miss Hargreaves

back side of the book

I bought this book from a book store in Petaling Jaya. Although the book cover was not that interesting, the synopsis seems quite interesting, plus this book was not expensive, the price was RM10.00. So, I grabbed this book. From the synopsis, we knew that young Norman Huntley and his friend Henry invented an impossible  old lady called Miss Hargreaves on the spur of the moment when they visited a church to impress the church people. I like the sentence "spur of the moment". 

After that, out of mischievousness thought, they actually sent a letter to this Miss Hargreaves to visit Norman's home. Imagined the horror Norman felt when a letter reached his home informing that Miss Hargreaves was to visit them. Although he was reluctant, he actually went to pick up Miss Hargreaves in the station. Firstly, his friend Henry suspected that Norman told him lies, however, after he saw something that Miss Hargreaves brought along and it was him that mentioned that, he believed that they have created a living creature out of middle of nowhere on the spur of the moment.

Summer holiday in Matsue 松江 (day 1 - 13th August 2011)

Like all other countries with four seasons, Japan have many long holidays, one of it is Summer holiday. Me and my friends (3 of us) started our journey on 13th August. First stop was Matsue (松江), it was quite far from Kumamoto (熊本), and if we took the bullet train until Okayama (岡山) and then took express train to Matsue, the train alone will cost 19000 yen. So, another option was found, night bus. However, we were too late, there was only 1 trip per day, and all the seats were fully booked on 12th August night. So, after much researching, there was another option, took bullet train from Kumamoto to Yamaguchi (山口) and then took express train from Yamaguchi to Matsue, this route was cheaper, it cost around 15310 yen. Cheaper by few thousand yen. 

3 flavour soba

Horikawa boat tour 

I woke up on 5.30 am and the day was bright already. We took the 6.26am train and reached Matsue on 12.30 pm. After that, we had soba (そば) for lunch. Since I like hot stuff, I had the soba with soup. While my more adventurous friend ate cold soba with 3 flavour, very interesting! After our lunch, we waited for 2 more travel companions from Tokyo. They didn't come to Matsue directly, they had to transfer at Hiroshima because the buses to Matsue from Tokyo were all fully booked. After that, we went to the tourist centre to take brochures. For the Matsue city loop bus, day pass was 500 yen, if by entry wise, 200 yen per entry.  

'Atonement' by Ian McEwan

September 2011

the book shop provide wrapping service

Atonement

This book was one of the books I bought in Japan from a book shop in the middle of nowhere. The English books section was having sales, all 50% down. Then, I found this book, it was adapted into movie already. Although I never watch the film, but I knew the rating was good. This book cost around 600 yen, so I quickly grabbed it. Imagined my surprise when the cashier asked me whether I want my book wrapped. Of course, I said yes. No wonder I saw all those people who read inside the train has their books wrapped by brown paper, it was a norm in Japan.

Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger

Simplexity

31st August 2011

Today is the independence day of Malaysia. Ah, time flies, I have been in Japan for around 6 months. My biggest achievement while being here was that I read many books already. This book had been in my possession for 2 or 3 years, but I have never been patience enough to finish it. Now, finally I finished it. Happy!

Since this is not a fiction, so there was no urges for the conclusion, plus there are chapters of different stories. For someone who have been reading fiction the whole time, book like this can provide a short getaway. It talks about 'simplexity' as the title suggest. However, I was confused between the complexity and simplexity as I continued to read. But, the stories were easy to follow and it was diverse. Conclusion for this book is that things that were simple can be complex, likewise, complex stuff can actually be simple. Muahaha!

The fly in the Cathedral by Brian Cathcart

30th August 2011

The Fly in the Cathedral

This book talks about the first artificial nuclear disintegration and the background when it happened. 

Although I was a science stream student back in my school days, I was never really interested with physics, especially those about nuclear science. I studied to pass the exam. However, after I finished this book, in my thought, if I have read this book earlier, I would be interested on the subject. Basically, this book didn't explain about all the formulation or theory, rather it talked about the story of 2 researchers (Douglas Cockcroft and  Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton) and how they achieved the feat competing with other foreign counterparts. And the contents include some small talks on the famous scientists, names that appeared on our textbooks.

'Fatal Voyage' by Kathy Reichs

Before I started to watch the TV drama, 'bones', I had read novels by Kathy Reichs. I was fascinated by the stories weaved by Reichs, so after I found out that 'Bones' was based on her novels, I started to watch the dramas. And I have watched all the available seasons. Hahaha!

A very interesting novel 'Fatal Voyage'

Fatal Voyage talked about a plane crash and cannibalism, a story within a story. I think a season of 'Bones' was slightly based on this book, all about cannibalism and the mystic cultures. Very engaging read. The author extensive experience on her work has contributed very well to the writing, with all the facts. Although I do not particularly understand all the jargon, it's a good way to learn more stuff. 

Fireworks show viewing in Arao (荒尾) - Greenland Theme Park

17th July 2011

Summer is the time for Hanabi shows (花火大会) in Japan. The union in my company offered a 200 yen coupon to enter a theme park to watch fireworks show. So, me and my colleague just grabbed a ticket. However, the show started on 8.30 pm, a bit late. Since the place was quite near with Yanagawa, where it is famous with Unagi rice, we decided to have lunch there before going to see the fireworks..

So, we took a train from Kumamoto station to Omuta, then took a Nishitetsu (西鉄) train to Yanagawa to have Unagi. Since the most famous shop is not near the train station, we decided to compromise a little and went to a shop near the station. It was not bad, however, still not as good as the one I had before.

Unagi rice set

the shop we have our Unagi

"Pegasus Descending" by James Lee Burke

14th July 2011

Pegasus Descending by James lee Burke

After keeping this book for years until cobwebs and insects grew inside the book. Finally, I finished reading this book. The story flow was interesting, however, there were too many distractions outside, plus this book is big and thick. It's quite difficult to bring around. 

The murder stories inside this book were all intertwined. First, it told of the earlier days of the Detective Dave and a friend's murder. After, fast forward to now, he met his murdered friend's daughter who was trying to avenge her father death. And there was another murder-suicide case of a young woman, an unidentified crustacean man, an alcoholic ex-colleague, gambling tycoon, drug dealer, set up, racism, etc. I kept guessing about the real murderer. The final was a shocking discovery. The father of the suicide woman killed a man he thought raped his daughter and planted the murder weapon on another man, and then, he was framed for another murder he didn't commit. It was a intriguing detective story. and I was very happy that I finished this book. Hoorah!

Trip to Hiroshima, Miyajima, Iwakuni (18th & 19th June 2011)

My friends decided to have a 2 days trip on a weekend. After much discussion, we decided it would be on 18th and 19th June. Initially, the plan was 1 day Miyajima and Hiroshima, then the next day went to Fukuyama. However, after much considering and input from other travellers from the internet, decided to make Miyajima into a 1 day trip. There were 7 of us in this trip. 

Shinkansen that took me to Hiroshima

Port to go to Miyajima

Since Hiroshima is not so far yet not so near from Kumamoto, there's no overnight bus service. If from Hakata, the distance would be around 4 hours ride. The itinerary by a friend of mine suggested that it would be better if we meet at Hiroshima station at around 9am. Since overnight bus was out of question, I had to use Shinkansen (bullet train), for this trip, transport used up 2/3 of my budget. I was supposed to take the earliest 6a.m. shinkansen to Hakata, then change train to Hiroshima. However, I overslept, and had to settle for the 6.30a.m. train and reached Hiroshima Station at around 8.45am. Just in time!

After that, we went to the tourist information centre to buy the Miyajima-Hiroshima 2 days pass. However, it was not sold there, we had to go to a counter outside Hiroshima Station to buy the pass. It cost 2000 yen per person. Then, from Hiroshima station, we took tram to Miyajima Port. It was a long ride, almost 1.5 hours. Luckily, there were 7 of us, so we chattered all the way, not even a single dull moment.