Hiroshima 広島

My apologies! I never published, but had it saved as a draft. (July 17th)

Thursday morning I woke up. Showered, got dressed, ate. Took luggage and self to the car.
Car did not start. Steering wheel was locked up. Could not get it to unlock. 5:30AM. Train would leave at 6:44AM from Kaibara. Station is 30 minutes away by car. Key is still not turning in locked and steering wheel is still locked.

I paid 10,000 yen for bus tickets from Osaka to Hiroshima. I was getting on a train to Osaka, dammit!

So I walked down to the convenience store to see if they had the telephone number for the taxi company in town. Taxis wouldn't start running until 8AM, however. So instead of taking a taxi the convenience store staff arranged to have me arrive at the station at 7:30AM via bread delivery truck. The delivery guy was good company on the way to the station. He even skipped his last stop before the station to make sure I got on the train on time. Mr. Morikawa, I take off my cap to you!

I eventually got to Osaka (after some delays) and Heidi and I took a later bus to Hiroshima.

We stayed at a lovely hostel called the Hana Hostel and hung out with a bunch of great people, mostly Westerners, in the evenings.

Our first full day we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Dome, which is a skeleton of a building that survived the blast. We also went to the Peace Memorial Museum and the memorial for Sadako Sasaki.

Our second day we went to Miyajima Island, famous for its "floating" architecture, monkeys, momiji manju, and deer imported from Nara. They have some of the best preserved forests in Japan on the island.

Amazing Adventures in Aogaki!

Yes, that's right, dear readers! Saturday I snubbed my sickly symptoms and struck out on my one-speed steed to soak in the sun and surroundings.



Sakura and sugi are just some of the symbols of spring in this Land of the Sun. Sakura summon the sights and sounds of sloshed salarymen sipping Sapporo, sake, and shochu under a snowfall of petals. Sadly, sugi seasonally send scores of sufferers into spasms of sneezes, their schnozes veritable spouts of snot, eyes shedding salty tears.

(I hope at this point you're as impressed with my prose as I am!)





I walked along the river for a while in the hopes of catching sight of something new. And I did! More flowers that my guides fail to cover. I guess Aogaki offers more than can be covered in two guides.



This little Buddhist shrine is nestled half-way up a small hill.



Each day Buddah looks down on the little town of Aogaki and wonders if it will ever be more than a two-convenience store village.





I'm sure there's an art to catching birds on film (or in pixels). Something tells me there's a lot of waiting and chance involved. Perhaps some camouflage as well. I usually end up scaring birds away before I am able to spot them. Usually they taunt me with their frilly calls.

"I'm here, I'm here!"
"I hear you, but I can't see you."
"Now I'm over here! Over here!"
"You're getting farther away."
"Over here, over here!"
"That's all well and good, but I have other things to do..."
"Over here, over here!"
"I'm pedaling away. You are such a tease."



There were two of these keri or grey-headed lapwings in a rice field. Finally something that guide can i.d.

It was two hours well used.

Sumo in Osaka

On Friday I headed to Osaka to watch the sweeping, salt-throwing, name-announcing, ice cream-hawking, futon-carrying, bow-wielding, face-wiping, belly-pounding extravaganza known as sumo. Oh yeah, there was also some fat man shoving and throwing going on.



First, the two competing stables will have their members called one-by-one as they enter the ring and do a little ritual. It is the "macarena" of sumo. Easy to do and synchronized.




Before the actual bout can begin, there's still a lot to do.



You gotta sweep and water and then do some more sweeping.



Then you gotta announce the wrestlers and if there are any sponsors, you get some stable boys to walk around the ring with advertisements. At the final bout McDonald's had three banners. Mm, the food of champions.

Finally, the wrestlers enter the ring after throwing in some salt. Everyone has their preferences for how much they throw and how high. And then the stare-down begins. They look like they're about to duke it out when finally one stands up and walks out of the ring and the other follows. They go back to their corners, get a drink, spit it out, and grab some more salt. There is another round of staring each other down. Then they stand up again. The crowd goes nuts. They go back to their corners and wipe themselves with a handkerchief. They grab some more salt. Finally they're ready to go.



There's a lot of preparation (sometimes 3 minutes) and the actual bout lasts usually less than a minute.

Rinse and repeat 35 times.

More adventures with food

What could be better than buttered toast?


How about a kimchee omelet on buttered toast?


How about a kimchee omelet on rye bread?


Yay for non-white bread.