From Okayama, we took a local train to Kurashiki, a nearby town with a little historic district. Little was an understatement. The historic district was about two blocks long, along an old moat. We did meet a friendly Japanese man, who showed us a shrine and huge wisteria tree, and then gave us a really nice picture book of Kurashiki! 
Later that afternoon, we hopped back on the shinkansen to continue to Hiroshima. We checked into our hotel, and then found a American-food restaurant recommended by my friends. My bean and cheese burrito was muy bueno!The next morning we started off at Hiroshima castle, where Dad modelled some samurai clothing.
We walked on to the Peace Park and viewed the Atomic Bomb Dome, the Memorial to Sadako, and the Peace Museum. The park had a flame burning that will only be extinguished when the world is rid of nuclear bombs.
After a sobering morning in Hiroshima, we took a ferry across the bay to Miyajima. Miyajima has the famous "floating" gate. We timed it just right - high tide was at 2:04 pm, and we took the 1:35 pm ferry and even had time for a quick lunch of fried rice before visiting the shrine. And we were even more lucky - there was a traditional wedding that day, so we took a lot of photos of the wedding party and the shrine! I took a ton of photos. Below are a couple of the best, the rest are on a webalbum.
That evening we took the shinkansen to Himeji. My last day with my parents was spent on a tour of Himeji castle. One of my friends is a volunteer guide there and he loves to practice English. He gave us a very interesting tour and I learned lots of new factoids about the castle. We went for okinomiyaki (Japanese omelet) for lunch and then my parents headed off on the shinkansen for Tokyo for a little R&R after their whirlwind trip through Kansai!
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