Last sightseeing day…

In this prefecture, anyway. Had a healthy breakfast, then took a streetcartrainbus to Iwakuni.

It’s just a regular town, but has a nice little park/castle area.

The town itself was established by exiled samurai. They were like “we’ll build our own castle!” The emporer let them finish, then came and tore it down lol. After the war, the US moved in and built a base. Now the castle has been rebuilt of course, and there’s lots to see in the area.

That took most of the day, and it was lovely.

When I got back, it was still light, so I walked around the town here. The village is called Jigozen. The schoolchildren thought I was hilarious, taking pictures of random stuff.

Here’s todays pictures…

You have to buy a ticket, which was funny, because there’s a perfectly good free bridge to walk across.

This is the most recent incarnation. The last one was washed away in a flood very recently

There’s lots of old guys fishing down there

Don’t forget this was mostly samurai families for hundreds of years

Found a free museum where they displayed relics from the area’s past. also, you could watch a video of them rebuilding the bridge. it was neat

The brown box had a motion detection system and would automatically play some song, it really* sounded Russian?

Since this basically private residence had NO original artifacts, there was a display of ancient weaponry

A map of all the castles you could visit in Japan

If you remove the telephone lines, this picture could have been taken 300 years ago

You cant see it, but some Shinto had tied protection on this great old oak

At the bridge again, back to the bus stop!

This next bit is just some shots from the neighborhood.

What a great place to be dead for eternity. What a view!

Jigozen shrine, one of a dozen within a mile. it’s across the street from the hostel

Youll notice that the misbehaving child is the one having fun

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…