Day 8 - Transition

Today was more of a day of transition and not really much to report. We packed up from Sendai and then hopped the train to Hiroshima. We had to switch in Hakata. It took a little over 2 hours.

Once at the hotel we just relaxed and then went down at 6:30pm for the curry rice the hotel was feeding us for dinner. I have never had a hotel give free breakfast AND dinner. We have stayed in the Toyoko-Inn in a few cities and it's really reasonable and always in great locations. Perfect for backpacking b/c then you don't have to haul your bags very far from the station. They are western style hotels but for the price you can't beat it. We saved over $3000 for the trip and haven't even made it half way through our money yet. Everyone told us how expensive Japan was and it definitely can be but we've managed to do really well on food and the rail pass has paid for itself as that is our only mode of transportation thus far. We haven't used any cabs, which are expensive, and staying close to the station has worked out well. We venture out on buses. trams or the trains to explore the areas we stay in.

Anyway, back to my post... Jeff LOVED the curry rice and has requested we make it at home as he now seems to love curry. He actually ate 2 big bowls of it b/c the kitchen lady made him take another bowl later in the evening. We took a walk to check out the small suburb of Hiroshima we are staying in... Now much here but a Pachinko parlor, which we checked out. When we returned she made him take more rice, which he gladly did of course!! Once in the room we watched a movie (War of the Worlds) and caught up on blogging and downloading pictures.