Rainy Day in The City of Slope Walking

Oh we should have slept holding hands from our tine-eeeee beeeeeeds. Ahhhh good morning Onomichi! <Throw back the curtains> Good view but cloudy today. Looks like rain.

We pack up or stuff. Should probably take our bags down to the lockers at the station so we never have to come up that crazy hill again. We thank the staff and head out. Yep, rain. Maybe we should take a cab down. 10 mins by car in the opposite direction?! Sheeesh, this place is not easy to get to. We start walking back down. Oh there’s the crazy path we came up last night. It’s all slippery now, we’d probably break some bones going back that way. I think we’ll take the road down. Oh it just leads to some narrow alleys between houses.

it takes a little longer to get down through all these alleyways but no bones were broken. We come to an old bridge across the street. The view looks back up at the hotel and temple beside it.

Through the rain and back to the train station. The lockers are tiny. Oh tanuki, are you gonna be ok in there?

Stash our stuff and hit the boardwalk by the water to find a breakfast spot. There’s a covered walkway with lots of shops and some good looking little izakaya spots. Nice to get out of the rain.

We find a lantern shop. There’s an old guy making lanterns inside. They’re beautiful, I’d love to have one for the back patio at home.

The lantern maker is really nice. He sees us and starts to talk to us as best he can in English. We tell him we’re from Taiwan and Canada. His brother has been to Vancouver. Says he loves it there. Lantern Guy says he went to Niagra falls once. Ontario yes, very good. And the Toronto tower. CN Tower. Very high. Grass when you look down. Did you take the stairs haha. He wants to give us a present. Postcards of the temples. Pick any ones you like. He laughs at my panda shirt so I open my sweater and show him. Haha very funny. Very good design.

We want a lantern but don’t know how to get it home. Maybe ship it? We decide against it (and regret that decision for the rest of the trip). He was a really nice guy and these lantern prices are the best we’ve seen so far. Totally should have gotten one.

There is a nice waterfront area passed this. It’s probably gorgeous on a sunny day. We’re down by the ferry we saw go back and forth a thousand times last night while drinking sake in the room.

This looks like a nice breakfast spot. Let’s get out of the rain and check it out.

Queenie orders a ramen looking dish. Ends up being raw meat with a raw egg that you mix in rice and sauce. Really good, wow. Side salad and some pickles. Mine is an egg salad sandwich w yogurt and fries. This place is nomz 11. Great coffee too, #3 so far.

Interesting coffee contraptions

Queenie gets up to go to the restroom and I notice a sign on the window for something called… IQOS? What the hell is that? I-Quit-Ordinary-Smoking? Hmmmm don’t know about this thing

“Ohh Bee, you have to try the bathroom. It’s amazing!” Ok, well I’d do anything to get away from this fucking terrible music. Maybe the worst country tunes ever. Then come the commercials. Reeeeeally bad combo. I go investigate the toilet.

When I open the door the lid raises to greet me. “Oh hello”. Yep it’s another amazing space-aged toilet alright. All the bidet angles and temps that you could ever want. Delightful

I have no idea what’s happening in this movie poster, but it’s fabulous

Queenie finds an article on cat alley. It’s beside Senko-ji temple which looks like the thing to see here. There are hundreds of rocks painted like cats, cat shrines and cat cafes. Sounds fun, let’s investigate! The piece describes Onomichi as the “City of slope climbing”. Yep, totally verified.

The view is really relaxing (if you can tune out the pop country tunes and commercials).

Well that was a breakfast success, food/view-wise anyways. Queenie can’t resist the cute hamster postcard at the cash.

Let’s find this temple! We pass by a gold statue entitled Tides of Life

We also pass by an old bath house turned into a cafe. Probably would have been a cool place to eat too.

Need some outdoor equipment? Do you have two asses with no way to cross? Why not try Asses Bridge II! There’s more than one Asses Bridge? Asses Bridge though..

Onomichi has an industrial feel to it down here at the port. Train and power lines crisscrossing everywhere. Has a very old vibe to it.

We cut back up the hill towards the temples that we can see above the houses. Alright city of slope climbing, let’s do this.

It doesn’t take long to get to the first temple. Apparently this whole hilly area is a winding path through alleys and residences that leads you to a number of them.