Last Leg - Hiroshima

We woke up to depart Tokyo in the morning, and had quite a travel day ahead of us. We first walked to the Koiwa station, rode to Akihabara, transferred and rode to Tokyo, then got on the first Hikari Shinkansen (Bullet Train), transferred to a RailStar Shinkansen at Okayama, transferred to the local train at Hiroshima, rode to Miyajimaguchi, where we rode a ferry to Miyajima Island, and took a car to our Ryokan, called Mizuha-sou (The Lodge of Winged Water, by my closest approximation). That more or less sums up the travel day. A few notes: I got a good view of Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen. It rained a bit when we got off of the train and then on the ferry. At the lodge, they thought Kevin was a little baby (hehe, he's just a child!) so they told us they were going to charge us more, even though I politely argued with them. I mean, a "child" has counted as "anyone up through middle school" usually. But they weren't going for it. I can't really blame them, they really don't have any guests. One room besides ours is filled. We got a fairly large room (10 tatamis), but the bathroom and shower is all communal. Oh well, we'll deal. We decided to go get some dinner, but the island shuts down at 5:30pm apparently. It sucked, walking past every single shop that was closed. Did I mention this island has deer? They're everywhere! And there are so very many baby deer. They are adorable. Eventually, we found one of the three restaurants that was open. Two had Okonomiyaki (that savory pancake-omelette thing those Japanese people make), and the last was very expensive Japanese food. We opted for okonomiyaki. We had warm sake (coke for kev, of course) and split two Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. They are Hiroshima style because they are layered, batter on the bottom, soba noodles in the middle, whatever additions are there (meat, et cetera), then dough on top with sauce. Dad got a seafood one, and I picked grilled garlic. We shared, and they were very good. The evening ended early, around 8:00pm when we went to our room to read. We had to get some rest for our big day the next day of exploring Miyajima Island. The weather the second morning was much better, the rain had cleared up, and it was only about 82-85 degrees, but still very humid. We had a lot of things that we could see. Miyajima is a little touristy island that has a lot of cool things on it. First is the Itsukushima Shrine, with its "floating" Torii, which is firmly implanted in the ground, our in the water, and back in the 1100s, in order to come to the island, you were required to go through it. They don't do that any more, because of low tide, and all... Besides, the ferry wouldn't fit throught it. There is what I think of as Tourist Trap Alley, which has 500 shops selling the same crap at similar prices. Momiji-dani Park is a nature park (duh). There is an Aquarium across from our lodge, and Mt. Misen above us. Mt. Misen was to be our destination for the morning. We fueled up with a can of coffee and set out on a short walk. We skirted around and found a path that led to Daisho Temple, with so many cool statues. There was a statue of a Tengu, mythological Japanese beast with wings and a really long nose that dad liked, and on the stairways, so many little Buddhas, all doing something different. Around the temple, we found a path leading up a stream, so we followed it, and Kevin dunked his head in the waterfall. Shortly thereafter, we found a staircase of stone leading up. I have come to despise staircases of stone leading up. We climbed up, sweating profusely, and found a bench. Dad joked, "Come on, we're one tenth of the way there!" thinking he was kidding. Two and a half hours of climbing later, with no water, no food, and 6oz of coffee in our systems, we reached the top, lightheaded and dying. At least I was lightheaded. Kevin emptied his stomach on the way up, another sign of dehydration. Dad, the mule, was okay. He was plodding along too, though. But he is in better shape than either Kev or me. Definitely better than me. When he got to the top and tossed down 200ml (about 7oz) cans of Coke to Kev and me, we drank them, but then I thought I was going to throw up, the carbonation hitting me that hard. At the top, there were about 6 deer, which Kevin instantly bonded with. He is the Deermaster. The top had a bunch of boulders also, absolutely gorgeous views that, once I recovered from almost dying, I could appreciate. We looked at the whole island, and the surrounding islands and mainland from our vantage point of the highest spot on Mt. Misen, and up on the roof of the observation tower. After a while, we recovered energy enough to go downhill. Passing up another temple, we went towards the Ropeway, which we were thinking of taking. After all, we worked our asses off getting up the mountain, so why not? If it would not have cost 2500Y to get us three down, we might have taken it. Instead we walked. There was a couple of people that we kept playing tag with. We would pass them, they would pass us, so on and so forth. We got a little break thanks to Kevin, and I got a picture of a tiny frog. Near the bottom, there was a free bus to take us three minutes of the way to the entrance of the Momiji-dani Park (which we walked through on the way down), then hit the showers before getting something to eat. Believe me, we needed the shower. My shirt was like I dropped it in the stream, it was so wet. Before my shower, I weighed myself like I had done the night before. I had lost 2.5kg since the night before, that's about 7 pounds. Just from almost killing myself with no water! If that's all it takes.... Nah. Forget that. We wandered out to a restaurant we saw the night before (which was closed then) that had honest-to-goodness Beefbowl. It was very delicious, but it was still only 4:15 or so by the time we finished. On the way back, we pet the deer, wandered through the Ikutsushima Shrine, and watched the sun sink lower towards the mountains on the mainland. I was so happy to lie down to read for the night. You have no idea. This morning, we decided to go to Hiroshima proper. A walk, ferry, train (while we were waiting for the train, another train pulled in on another track, and two girls waved to me. Apparently I am cool here), and a streetcar later, we were in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome). It is the only remaining building from before the Atomic Bomb hit on August 6th, 1945, 8:15am. We saw that, and a random Peace Statue, where a few girls recognized me. I was just oh-so popular. They were checking in to the hotel we stayed at in Kyoto when Kevin and I got back from our Lawson's run one night. Small world, Japan. Before we got into the real heavy stuff, we decided to get lunch. Lunch was delicious, consisting of chunks of beef, bean sprouts, rice, chicken broth, and the beef cooked on the skillet that was brought out to us. Very cool. After lunch, we walked through Peace Park and saw the everburning flame that will be kept aflame until there are no more nuclear weapons in the world. I fear it will be alight for many years to come. Then, we went to the Peace Museum. It detailed what happened when the atomic bomb hit, and I don't think I can accurately describe it. It was amazingly moving, from the little boy's tricycle, the woman's "shadow" on the steps of a building, the dioramas, the photographs, the testimonials... I just hope it never happens again. It was a very moving experience, and it was a shame that it happened in the first place. Now, back to the not so depressing stuff. We wandered around the city now, and in the direction of the castle, which is a ferro-concrete reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle, since it was devastated in 1945, and went to look at it, but didn't bother going in. The moat outside was more interesting. It was filled with carp and turtles that followed us and wanted food. I wish I had some, one turtle was practically climbing the wall to get it. He deserved it! We walked to the Hiroshima Station, passing a restaurant that had all sorts of dishes selling, not beef, but horse. We did not go in. Back at the station, we decided to eat dinner, since everything would be closed on Miyajima. We had McDonald's at Kevin's behest. Then we came 'home' to our little lodge on the island, stopping to pet many baby deer on the way and look at the crabs that walk sideways into their little hidey-holes. Kevin also fed the deer leaves. They enjoyed it. Now I am back in the room writing this, and in the morning, we go to Hikone to get my baggage to take to the Ramada Kansai (by the Kansai airport) where dad and kevin will leave from, and I will leave the following day from Nagoya. It will be good to be home. I am glad I got to give Japan a Farewell Tour 2004.