Hiroshima

Alrighty then, time to catch up a little on photos.

I’ll post a bunch of stuff from the past few days to bring everyone up to date as to where I am. What day is it? Sometimes I forget and some days here feel like two days like today.

Anyway, lets take a step back to yesterday. After getting into Hiroshima we all went out to see a little bit of the main shopping concourse. It was all in this covered outside shopping arcade. There was a Japanese woman that was trying to guide us to all the deals and wouldn’t leave us alone. She got to talking to part of the group and half of us literally ran around the corner. It was just too much. We took that opportunity to show some of the people from the group the Mister Donut experience then people watched from an open concourse. It had cut outs of the symbols like in playing cards. From there we eventually went for food when everyone disappeared. We went to the shopping arcade and found a small place and had a bunch of stuff. It was Josh, Lauren, Pam, Maya, Joanie and myself. Hiroshima is a pretty big place and they have some wicked night life here but I haven’t gone out to see too much of it. We’ve been pretty tired.

Lauren introduced us to this snack kinda like angel food cake. It’s called melon bread. It’s fabulous. It comes prepackaged but it’s just so light and fluffy and tasty. They are a round break, kind of like the shape of a sour dough bread but smaller. It has a slight taste of cantelope I think. We’ve all had a few of these since. It’s been one of the snacks that we’ve been packing each day that we have any traveling to do.

After heading back to our hotel last night (it’s a wedding hotel I think) we did the regular shower and then Maya had to use the computer to check on some stuff and did some skyping. It worked so well, I decided to do the same thing so my sis and brother in law all got phone calls which I’m sure was a shock to them. It’s really nice to speak to some of those people important to you when on the other side of the world. I highly suggest skype! Although it costs money to call land lines it’s super cheap (about a dollar for half hour or so). I’m going to try my other sister Natalie at work today, might be challenging. It’s about 9am at home now so maybe in half hour or so.

Today was a crazy amount of exercise! We went to Miyajima which is a fair size island right near Hiroshima. It probably took half hour to get to by train and ferry. We left the hotel around 7:20am in search of breakfast. After being disappointed there was no 24 hour noodle place we settled for a French café thing that served waffles. The waffles were good and I had an extra sausage for a little more energy. Shortly after that we all met up in front of the station raring to go. We were told there was going to be a fairly challenging hike to the peak of Mt Meiji I think in Miyajima. We all stocked up on water and fun Japanese snacks including the melon bread from a local convenience store in prep for our journey.

After getting to the island we saw the floating gate which is a famous sight in Japan. It was pretty amazing. It’s this massive orange gate sitting out in the middle of the water. When the tide goes out you can walk around the base of it but when the tide comes in it’s surrounded by water (thus floating gate). I’m sure there is another name for it or a proper name rather but I can’t remember it for the life of me right now. I’ll post of picture of that one for sure.

We set out on that crazy hike supposedly 3 hours round trip. Half of the group soldiered ahead at race pace almost but we stuck a little behind and enjoyed it a little bit more. It was a pretty tough climb for sure though. Tons of stone steps and I’m sure I’ll feel it tomorrow. It’s okay though. I’ve eaten well enough ice cream to more than compensate for any exercise I’ve done on the trip. Within about 2 hours we all arrived at the top of the mountain as sweaty messes. There were a few shrines quite a bit up there and we relaxed a little, took our shoes off and sat right on the edge and looked out. Just amazing. There was also a crazy mushroom growing up at that altitude. Obviously, we took the cable car down. The best 1000 yen spent all day!

Did I mention that the island is overridden with deer? They walk around like stray dogs almost, there’s tons of them and they’re totally not afraid of humans anymore. Just keep those important maps and 10000 yen bills close to you or they’ll eat em!

After getting back down we had some food naturally. I had some zaru soba with a nice tall draft beer. Zaru soba is a cold buckwheat soba noodle served with this sauce that you dip the noodles in. Amazing! The first night we were all eating there was some miscommunication and Maya ended up pouring the sauce on the zaru soba. Interestingly enough the soba us usually served on a wooden mat that doesn’t hold moisture in the least so it leaked all over the table! We all loved it. Joanie and Maya.. instant bond!

After beer a couple of us decided to head over to the Aquarium they had on the island. Supposedly the 2nd largest one in Japan. I only a have a few words to say. It should be much bigger! For the sea life they have in that place, they really need to make the tanks larger. The tanks are way too small and it was pretty upsetting. Some tanks were of fair size but for instance the octopus which had a head about 8 inches tall would hit the side of the tank with one stride. It was kind of hard to watch. The one highlight of the aquarium was the sea otters. Amazing! They’re like super hyper active! One was doing back-flips in the water. They slide around on their bellies like a kid on a slip and slide. I loved it!

Come to terms with the great need to shower, we all headed back toward the hotel. We meaning Joanie and I along with Josh and Lauren. Josh and Lauren are on their honeymoon! So cute. They’re amazing and both engineers by trade. Super cool people for sure. Anyway, we met back up for dinner and had some yummy zaru soba, tempura, rice and tofu in a bento box and some amazing soup. I don’t know what it was but I’d definitely have it again.

We’ve got a little bit of a problem! We haven’t done laundry yet and our clothes are getting a little stinky. We’re thinking the next place would be a good place to do some of that but we’re not sure. We went out for some slightly nonchalant shopping for t-shirts and found this great store with sayings on them in English. But the English was all messed up and words were missing and it made for badly translated sayings. It’s something we love from Japan. It was like pay dirt! We also found an amazing Japanese punk rock store. I think that’s what it was. There were some really cool stuff in there and great music playing. I asked who was playing using my pointing up and pointing at my ear questioning that found my that great ska band. It’s this crazy hardcore screamo/ska/punkrock band called Maximum the Hormone. Yeah.. awkward English much? Love it! I’m gonna find their cd at the hmv if I can and pick it up. So fun.

This brings me to now. As I write this I’m surrounded by the sounds of this amazing place. A crazy Japanese tv drama about a girl that passed away and some school kids trapped in a building or something trying to solve the mystery is filling our room. I hear the sound of the JR rail off in the distance, or perhaps that’s the streetcar system. They still have streetcars here in Hiroshima as when the rest of Japan was upgrading to subway and getting rid of streetcars it was too expensive. That being said, they are the fastest streetcars I’ve ever seen. Why don’t they go that fast in Toronto? I bet they run on time here though.

Anyway, time to post pictures and then get some rest. I’m hoping to get an early start to the day and get to the peace museum and see what kinda fun stuff I can find in town before heading off on the train to Nagasaki. Supposedly it’s a little bit more of a chill sleepy town so we might as well catch some sleep on the train or at night when we get there. I’m kinda dying for a late night of hanging out and a couple beers or something at this point. Japan! Let’s party it all up!

Love to all from Japan!

Justin