Super nice Monday…

Got some ok sleep last night, good enough to have a great day today.

Today was Miyajima. What’s that, you ask? Miyajima is a fantastic and possibly affordable island tourist destination. Temples, deer, snacks, easy hiking, cheap transportation….my kind of place!

I say possibly, bc it would be easy to spend a lot there. I didn’t, of course, being me.

The island is easily reached by ferry. Just cost me about 1.60$

So much to see and do. If you hiked to the summit of Mt. Misen (I didn’t), you could easily spend 8 hours.

Mostly I just wandered around looking at the MANY wonderful temples.

I left when all there was to do was shop. Laundry and a healthy dinner completed the day.

Here’s todays pictures…

I see this every morning on the way to the streetcar station

The ferry, very quick passage, about 10 minutes

You’re not supposed* to feed the deer here, so they aren’t very interested in you

Remarkably free of deer poo. It must be cleaned frequently

Itsukushima shrine. It actually cost a little to get in and I can see why. soooooo many people would just wear this place out without expensive and continuous maintenance

When I got here the tide was just starting to go out.

This was something new. Instead of a bell, you shake these paper rattles to get the attention of the gods

There were several couples here doing wedding photos

These sake barrels contain wine served to the gods as offerings at the altars

I couldn’t get any closer without taking pictures of people praying, which isn’t cool. The monks were chanting and burning cedar

Look at this guy posing for me. How nice!

Daishoin, the other important temple. This one is Buddhist. The Dalai Lama gave a talk here earlier this month

This temples worshippers take turns knitting hats and scarves for those guys

Here’s something more that’s new to me… You pay to throw three balls into an urn. Like a carnival game. If you get all three in, your wish comes true

Of course this is just a picture of the mandala made for the Dalai Lama visit

Ok this cave was neat. Devout Buddhists go on pilgrimages of course. The deal here is that sand and icons are collected from 88 other temples all over asia. You walk “across” the sand and pray at each one, and you can say that you made that pilgrimage 88 times. you can see the prayer beads at each station.

Obviously represents a well loved temple

Here’s yet another new to me thing. You pull on the chain of beads and it makes this loud clacky sound. Instead of a bell, or drum, or paper rattle, or gong.

This was the one-wish, all in one, one stop shopping god. I was told I had to make one wish, one time…and that’s it. We’ll see how it turns out

Even the emergency vehicles are adorable

Once you leave the main drag, it’s a normal town

That has been painstakingly trained by the employees of a famous tea shop

These momiji manju are extremely popular. I tried chestnuts cream, sweet potato, and of couse red beans. The chestnuts cream were the best

This shop had free samples (wipes away tears)

It was a penny pitch game. I had to line up

Amanda Benson, I have found your nirvana. You pay to pet and love on owls by the minute.

As soon as the tide is out, folks rush out to take pictures

You would not believe my excitement finding this for 600 yen. That’s like 5.35$. Now we’ll see tomorrow how much it’s going to cost getting it mailed home lol

Goodnight everyone

Kinda strange day…

Spent all morning at the atomic bomb world heritage site.

It was really intense, so many Japanese there! Yes, I’m in Japan, but when Lora and I were at a German concentration camp, it was only foreigners there.

Anyway the mood was somber but not awful. The museum was 1/2 closed for reconstruction, so I missed a lot, but in the end it’s ok. I don’t think I could’ve seen much more. It wasn’t the punch in the guts like the DC holocaust museum, but it was close.

So back outside to the monuments it was.

Yesterday a volunteer helped me at the train station. Today that same guy was volunteering at the museum. He recognized me which was a surprise. We spoke for a bit, and he said that the city and prefectural government were trying hard to increase history -related tourism. Like in Busan, doing a lot to bring tourists and their dollars in, and making improvements too.

Anyway, the rain was horribly cold so I’ll go back on a sunny day to really see Peace Park. There’s lots to see.

The private Hiroshima Museum of Art was pretty great brain bleach, and much warmer. The art was first-rate. Van Gogh, Pissaro, Picasso, Monet, etc. were all well represented. The special exhibition was the art of a well known illustrator of the story of Gulliver’s Travels. His watercolors were great.

Some walking and coffee when the rain stopped were just what I needed. I rode the streetcar to the port to see what there was to see there. Answer: nothing.

More coffee at Starbucks, to wait for dark. Like most asian cities, in the fall there is a light display.

Back to the hotel for dinner and reading.

Here’s todays pictures..

The riverfront area is well developed. It could easily have accommodated 10 times more people

I wouldn’t be surprised if the rebuilding (reinforcing) fund is bottomless

In this one you can see the seismic reinforcements

This girl was dying of leukemia due to being irradiated

The deal is if that you fold 1000 paper cranes a wish will come true

So her friends built her this monument, and every year, all year, school kids make and send millions of paper cranes

There’s so many special measures are taken to care for the gifts

Only 79 days since a nuclear test. Thanks North Korea

And yes, human remains are still being found

I couldn’t take the cold anymore, so now for the museum.

After that last one, they told me I wasn’t supposed to be taking pictures lol

Off the internet. These were so* detailed

Yes it means trees that survived the bombing

Come on now, that most Christmassy of animals, the Tyrannosaurus Rex????

Anyways, good night

Well, that sucked…

Friends and relatives, finally something not awesome happened. No, it wasn’t losing my athlete’s foot cream or my favorite hanky (that’s it so far for the lost things).

My phone had a breakdown and all my pics since april got deleted. Booooooo!

It only ruined my day for a little bit.

Today was a travel day, so only got to walk about for a few hours. I went to this splendid garden, but we’ll have to imagine it. (Edit: i stole some pics off the intetnet)

Heres today’s pictures, what there are…

I have two tickets to Hiroshima bc at first I bought the cheapest option. After a bit I realized that was dumb, so I upgraded and instead of spending 6 hours, it took 1.5. I conquered my cheapness for just a while lol.

This shinto shrine was reaaaaly clean and well-kept

The carp theme is strong here. Lots of carp statues everywhere

A lot of the foundations here on the castle grounds, illustrating the bomb’s effects

Here’s one I stole. Its much plainer than Osaka castle, inside and out

Its either a bird or a humpback whale, I can see both

This garden wasn’t fancy, but nice to see on the way home

Heres a link to the garden from earlier

http://visithiroshima.net/things_to_do/attractions/parks_and_gardens/shukkeien_garden.html
The Shukkeien garden was really nice at sunset. The season here is a little later, so lots of red leaves still.

I obviously stole these off the internet

A highlight of the garden is this old gingko that survived the blast

There’s no metro here, but a system of streetcars. they’re slow but cheap and the old ones are neat

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll try to save my picture data and see the a-bomb stuff

Goodnight !

Last Osaka day…

And I didn’t do a thing until 3. Just napped and read.

Because I’m me, eventually something had to happen. A walk would be enough, so I walked to the river.

The Yodogawa river is home to an island. On the island are some municipal buildings, a park, a museum, and of course office buildings. There’s also a nice riverfront path to walk along.

Nakanoshima park is mostly rose gardens. Not a lot to see this time of year but a few stragglers were blooming.

Froggy liked that one the best.

Osaka City Central Hall is a performance hall. At Christmas time a light show is held outside.

These two buildings are so European looking. I’m surprised that they’re still standing. Must not have been bombed during the war.

The old Bank of Japan building is very imposing. It has a lot of historical significance. If I had all the time in the world I’d like to see a tour happen.

The rest of my day was spent admiring some sculpture along the riverfront.

Sorry Katie, no cats today.