Whether domestic or foreign there seem to be certain places across the world which have built their reputation on attracting visitors, and their economy relies somewhat on them doing so.
There are some cities, however, which don't market themselves as hubs of tourism, but seem to draw people into them all the same.
I've had examples of both on this trip, and I think right from the outset it is often easy to tell if a city is used to being flooded by different types of people at certain points of the year.
Being from a very touristy city myself, I know how it can be when during at least three months of the summer, and pretty much every weekend, the city is crowded with people from outside of town who have come to visit.
York has lots of historical sights which tend to be a big draw, and during the Christmas period there is also has a festive market set up in the city centre which thousands of people from all across the world attend. Domestic tourists are usually drawn in by the six-month long horse racing season when hotels, bars and restaurants are flooded by visitors from either end of the country who come to enjoy themselves and increase the population for at least three days.
Fortunately, I don't live at the heart of the city, so unless I head into the centre itself the significant increase in people rarely affects me. In the summer months if you drive down the main dual carriage way which takes you towards the east coast then you have the potential to be caught in a huge traffic jam, but I've learned from experience not to make that mistake.
I'm used to being from quite a well populated place and therefore I'm used to the busyness, and it doesn't really phase me, but I can see why people who are from small towns can be irritated by a massive influx of people.
If you lived somewhere by the beach which is usually swarmed by visitors in sunny weather, I guess you'd appreciate the fact that for at least a month of so's worth of nice days, you'd have the place to yourself. But I suppose if you chose to live somewhere like Brighton or Bournemouth you would know that during the summer it's going to be extremely crowded.
If that's the case, does that then mean that all the people from the coast up and leave deciding to travel to the now less crowded city on summer days!?
Unlike those who live at the beach who presumably have the place almost to themselves for at least six (in some cases maybe even nine) months of the year, if you live in a major metropolitan city like London, Manchester or Birmingham then I guess you would have just become used to the fact that it is going to constantly be busy.
Mostly whilst I've been abroad I've visited cities that are commonly frequented by tourists, so it's not been too much of an issue to me, but there have definitely been places like Bangkok, Tokyo and Jakarta where the amount of people has been almost overwhelming at time, and I wonder if you lived in a city like that then would it ever be something you got used to?
In the six cities I mentioned above I guess at least that the people visiting each destination are at least dispersed in different places, but what about if you live somewhere where there is one major 'attraction' or place that everybody comes to your town or city to visit?
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There was a marked improvement in the way that I was feeling thanks to a bit of an early night, although I still couldn't say I felt 100% as my body woke up up at 7am this morning undecided that the correct temperature for it to be was.
I guess illness when you're abroad is just one of those things. I'm not one of those people who tends to go to the doctor in my own country when I have flu-like symptoms as I'm so used to them now that I just usually try to get rid of them the best way I know how. In the one instance where I needed serious medical attention when not in my own country (back in 2009 in South Korea) I couldn't really avoid going to see a professional in the field as after a game of football I was left unable to put any pressure down on the right side of my leg and after a couple of x-rays was diagnosed with a broken bone in my right foot which put me on crutches for about two months, and pretty much made life even more difficult than it already was having only lived in Korea for about two months at the time.
Fingers crossed and wood touched that I don't need to visit anyone involved in the medical professional in the near future.
As I was feeling pretty dreadful last night I left re-packing my bag until this morning as I don't really enjoy the period of hanging around just kindof waiting until you have to leave the room. It's not like I'm going to sit and read or watch TV for a while as I usually intend to check-out at pretty much the very latter limits of when I am able to. Considering that I have become accustomed to 10am check-out times now, and knowing full well that I will be unable to check into my new hotel until 3pm, I might as well push it as far as I can before leaving.
Once 10am does usually come around I'm never quite at the point of being exactly ready, and this morning I did the sensible thing of making sure that I'd be ready to go exploring once I got to my new destination with the conclusion that it'd probably be too early for me to check in.
As I mentioned yesterday, following my stay in the Kansei region of Japan I now only have two cities left in this fine country to visit. I made a bit of a change to the route a couple of weeks ago as I wanted to make sure that I touched all of the major regions in the country and wanted to head to a couple of cities in the southern part of the country.
In order to do this I was going to fly from Osaka to Fukuoka and then take the bus to Nagasaki before returning to Fukuoka as my final place to stay as the airport there has connections which will allow me to get to Hong Kong without having to go all the way back to Tokyo.
I considered Nagasaki as it obviously a place with quite a lot of history, but it was more about tying things together with Fukuoka which is a city that I've had some interest in since I first started researching my trip to Japan.
I wasn't looking to make any major changes, but having looked at some of the cities I'd missed out there was one among them which stood out as a city that I should probably travel to, especially that I considered that it might be a long time - if ever, before I return to Japan.
Once I'd worked out that it was possible, I replaced a stay in Nagasaki with a stop in Hiroshima which firstly meant I didn't have to organise any flights as I could travel conveniently from the Osaka area, and also I felt that considering I have been doing my best on this journey to make sure that each city I visit is memorable, I thought that going to one of the most well known cities on this continent was probably a good decision.
I'd spent some time yesterday organising my ticket on the way into the city so it was just a case of getting to the station in time this morning which wasn't too difficult considering that I had given myself plenty of time.
Even though I thought it was a daft idea after having carried it out yesterday with no luggage, I made the walk from my hotel to Shin-Osaka Station shortly after checking out of my hotel, and I can say that I still think it's a daft idea to walk for 35 minutes with over 15kgs of luggage attached to you.
The problem was that even though it doesn't seem that far away, I'd have had to make three transfers in order to get to the Shinkansen Train from Juso, and it didn't seem worth it.
One of the three options it gave me on Google Maps was actually to take the train to the station before Shin-Osaka and then walk from there, but I figured with a difference of ten minutes, I might was well save myself some time, and only a short amount of travel time and just walk the whole thing.
Besides with the way I was feeling, I could probably do with sweating out some of my flu-like illness anyway!
Despite the extra load I was carrying due to my luggage it took me about the same time to get to the station as it did yesterday which left me plenty of time to find the right platform and wait for my train.
The trip wasn't quite as long from Osaka to Hiroshima as it had been from Tokyo to Kyoto, and sadly the scenery wasn't as fantastic either, but it wouldn't have mattered to me anyway as pretty much as soon as I found my seat I grabbed 40 winks which considering I was still feeling pretty awful wasn't the worst decision in the world.
I woke up about fifteen minutes from Hiroshima, and the good news was that even if I hadn't woken up then it was the terminal stop anyway so I wouldn't have ended up in an entirely different region of Japan!
I'm not sure if the train I got on wasn't a very popular one generally or it's just not a journey that people make too often, but the carriage I was in had only about four or five people in, compared with then I left from Tokyo a couple of weeks ago when the whole thing was packed out.
Even then it took me a while to figure out where I needed to go as I was following signs towards the 'South Exit' which then took me down into a metro station, but from there I was able to get out to the right place.
It was about 1pm when I arrived and I think I brought the nice weather from Osaka with me as the sun was blazing down as I exited the station. I'm only staying in Hiroshima for two nights so I was thinking about booking my train tickets for the final stop on my journey through Japan as I probably won't be coming back anywhere near the station until then, but I decided that having tested trying to book a train for today that there was still tickets, so I'm sure that on Sunday it will be the same thing (keep your fingers crossed...!)
In order to get from the train station to my hotel I was taking a break from getting the subway or the train to places and the instructions I picked up from the hotel's website said that I needed to catch the streetcar - that's a tram to you and me.
I was having this thought about Hong Kong as I know they have trams there too, but I don't actually know if I've ever been on a proper tram more than once. I rode one through the streets of Sheffield before on the way to Hillsbrough with my friend Tom, but I don't know if somewhere like Blackpool where they're quite common if I've ever been on one. I've certainly been to plenty of cities where they are present, including Prague, but I don't remember getting on one there either. It probably wasn't going to be as cool as riding in a Japanese 'streetcar' anyway.
There were lots of buses around the station, but I eventually made my way over to what looked like the streetcar stop, and before I could even look to find out which was the right place to go a very helpful Japanese man started asking me where I was going.
Now, this could be either where you think I haven't learned my lesson, or that I have just adapted to my surroundings, because in some countries I have visited (I don't want to single any out) people trying to talk to you and 'help' you when you go towards public transport has been considered some what of a dangerous prospect, but without even thinking I started making conversation with my, and following him towards a map as he explained which streetcar I needed to catch and how much it was.
Had that happened to be about six weeks ago I probably would have just ignored the person, figuring that they just wanted something, but I think I've become so enamored with the helpfulness of Japanese people that my brain didn't even think to consider that the stranger who started talking to me wasn't going to be anything else but polite, courteous and anything but a danger.
Sure enough, I followed his instructions and crammed my way onto a three carriage streetcar which was highly ill-equipped to deal with people arriving from a major source of commuter traffic. It costs a flat fee of 160 Yen to get anywhere but two destinations on the streetcar, and you pay when you get off so I was all prepared with the change when it finally came to my stop after about twenty minutes.
Finding my hotel was pretty easy as it's down a major street and just off Peace Boulevard which is an area of gardens in the city which runs between Peace Park and Hijiyama Park. Although I paid and gave all my details to the receptionist she told me that my room wasn't ready so they would be able to look after my bags whilst I went for a walk so as usual I found myself strolling around in an attempt to fill time.
Unlike in Osaka or Kobe though there aren't too many minor 'attractions' so I spent some of the time walking down the major shopping streets and then ended up heading up into the hills of Hijiyama Park where I then walked a loop back to my room which did actually take about three hours or so:
The hotel I'm staying in, The Dormy Inn, is once again an exceptional place to stay, and in an attempt to be organised this evening I have taken all of my clothes and made use of the free laundry facilities by chucking pretty much everything I own into the washer. Goodness knows when the last time those clothes had seen clean water and detergent!
Still not feeling 100% I'm planning on taking it easy for the rest of the day and then spending pretty much all of tomorrow out and about discovering the aftermath of the moment that Hiroshima became one of the most well-known cities on the planet.
The Kindness of Strangers from A Streetcar Named Marge
The Simpsons (1992)
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