Retrospective of our day in Tomonoura

During our trip to Japan in 2012, we took a day trip to the historic port town of Tomonoura in the Hiroshima Prefecture. I do not remember why I did not blog about it at the time but it proved quite photogenic so I thought I should write something to provide context for the photographs.

The town is on the side of a hill, the upper part provides some lovely sea vistas, and we enjoyed the bonus of some beautiful sea eagles soaring on the warm thermals. At sea level the town has picturesque traditional wooden buildings and quaint narrow streets. Lunch was in a friendly water-side café that served up large portions of satisfying seafood pasta and in the afternoon we took the five minute ferry ride to the island of Sensui Jima. This is undeveloped (except for two hotels) and offered more superlative sea views in return for some light hiking.

Reaching Tomonoura was probably our biggest adventure on Japanese public transport since it required taking a local bus from Fukuyama station. Tomonoura is mentioned in the guide books but it is certainly not on the “standard” tour for Westerners and that made it all the more pleasurable a day. Yet again the people were incredibly friendly, from the bus driver who talked to us about scotch and the Olympics, to the café waiter who translated the Japanese language-only menu and made sure Rosie’s pasta was dairy free.