Golden Week VII - Miyajima

Last day, and about 5 hours or so from home, so if I wanted to do any sightseeing, I needed to get moving early. Thanks to Bass(beer, not former Hanshin Tiger Randy), I got a good night's sleep and bounced out of bed around 6 to check out and head to Miyajima. But like I said, I didn't ride the streetcars enough to really figure them out. This is what I look like at after 4 days of traveling and taking the wrong streetcar with all my luggage on my back at 7AM.After I got that all sorted out and shoved my big backpack in a coin locker, I hopped on the train that would take me to the ferry that goes to the island of Miyajima, home to the famous "floating" torii gate. Not really floating, but I'm not going to complain, at high tide it still looks like it's floating. The weather didn't really cooperate with me that day, and it was really foggy in the morning.

All the shrine buildings are built the same way, so that when the tides in, the whole place seems to be floating. When the tide goes out, though, they aren't fooling anyone. People will walk out to the torii for pictures.

Not being one to learn from my mistakes, I saw a path that went towards the top of the mountain and started up. Lucky for me, the path actually went to the ski-lift that takes you up the mountain. Down by the shrine, they have the same kind of tame deer that there are in Nara. Up on the mountain, they have monkeys. You can feed the deer, but they don't seem to want you to feed the monkeys.

Apparently, they can take care of themselves.

And also signs, it seems.

After watching the monkeys for a while, I noticed that there was another peak that looked higher. I paid $20 for a ride to the top, dammit, I want to go to the top! I found the path and started up, or actually, over to the real summit. I got about 10 minutes down the path and saw a sign that said it was another 1.4 km, but I wasn't going to stop. Besides, it had been downhill so far. I hiked another 40 minutes or so, uphill, through the rocks, before I finally got to the top. The fog was clearing by then, and it was worth the trip.By now it was getting late, and I hadn't eaten lunch, and I still had about 5 hours worth of trains ahead of me. Time to wrap it up. I caught the ferry and train back the Hiroshima, ate about as fast as possible at McDonald's, and got back on the train for Tokyo. The whole trip, I played the odds and bought the non-reserved seats, and it had paid off so far. This time, though, it didn't. I literally was shoved onto the shinkansen for Tokyo. My backpack and I had a nice little spot, wedged into the doorway. I stood there, worrying what to do if that was the door that opened at the next stop. It wasn't for the first 2 stops, where people seemed to just look in and realize there was nowhere to go, but finally it was my turn. My only option was to get off the train to let people out and make myself the first in line to get on. I moved to a more central standing location, but I still had to stand for the 2 hours or so from Hiroshima to Kyoto. I finally got home around 9 and went straight to bed. I had to be back at work in the morning.

It was all a little too busy, but it was fun. I wish I could find time to go back to all those places and actually spend some time there, but I don't think it's in my schedule.

Golden Week VI - Hiroshima

I took the early AM train to Hiroshima, hoping to do some sightseeing before the afternoon game. I got in around 10 AM, took a streetcar to my hotel to drop off my bag and get the tourist map. Not through any good planning on my part, but the hotel was right next to both the stadium and the Peace Memorial Park, so I didn't have to ever really figure out the streetcars.

First stop was the Peace Memorial Park. It was a weird experience. The atmosphere of depressing hope that they managed to create is tough to decide how to react to. They preserved a building in the state it was right after the bomb and dedicated it as a peace memorial. All I could do was think about how people must have been walking though the park just like me that day. It's a tough place to go. All around the park they have thousands of paper cranes, and giant fiberglass paper cranes. They're sent from all over the world in memory of a little girl who died from leukemia after the war. The look cheerful, but then you think about why they're there, and it brought me back down.
Anyway, I decided to leave after a little while and head to the ballpark after checking into the hotel. It looked like they were setting up for some sort of festival. When I went back to the hotel, there was yet another hip hop dance group on a stage just outside.

I walked the ballpark and looked for the hat and shirt shop, but they didn't have as many as the other parks. I had to wade into the only one they had and somehow figure out if I needed a size O or F or 150 or what. I got suited up and went in.
It's another old park, built in 1957. Narrow hallways and really tightly packed-in concession stands. They're building a new stadium that will open next year, but from the people I talked to, nobody knows exactly where it is.

With the benefit of coming alone, I got about the best seats I've ever had at a ballgame. Right by 3rd base in the 2nd row. So there wasn't anyone sitting in front of my to take this picture. By the way, there's no smoking. There was, however, more sun, but I had sunscreen now.
It was a good game. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp (who are mostly owned by Mazda and look just like the Reds) were losing to the Yokohama BayStars 2-5 in the 7th inning. They don't know "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" here. Instead of a 7th inning stretch, they call it "Lucky 7", sing a song, and blow up balloons. These are no ordinary balloons, they're "Rocket Balloons". They have a plastic valve on the end that both limits the flow and and weights down the balloon. What do you do with these? You let them go, and let the grounds crew clean it up.To be fair, they do this at all the stadiums, I just didn't mention it sooner. I got some balloons to take with me. They say "The Balloon of the Victory".

Anyway, the Carp (which in Japanese is Car-pu) were down 6-2 before they came back and scored 6 in the bottom of the 8th to win 8-6. There was the traditional hero interview, and then, to celebrate the win, more balloons.

After the game I took a short break and then headed out to look for the food that Hiroshima is famous for, okonomiyaki. It literally means "cooked as you like it" or something like that. It happens to be my favorite Japanese food. The guidebook promised me a building filled with 30 or so okonomiyaki joints, if only I could find it. It took a while, because it was more nondescript than I expected, but I found it. I couldn't read most of the menu, but I could make out the word "Deluxe", so that's what I went for. Turns out that means with shrimp and cuttlefish, which is OK by me.Okonomiyaki is sort of like a pancake, at least that's what they say, but it's not sweet. It's got a sort of pancake on the bottom, but after that they add some fish, cabbage, an egg, and who knows what else. They make it all on the big hot griddle in front of you, cooking 10 or so of these at a time for all the people there. It's a show in itself. I don't know how they keep it straight.

Afterwards, I decided I was out of Japanese for the day and went to an Irish bar for a beer before bed. Next day was another long one.