Hiroshima and Miyajimaguchi

Hello all, 
We have left our Ryokan in Tokyo for an apartment in Hiroshima. We liked the adventure of sleeping on the futons but alas... they aren't that thick. Like sleeping on thermarests without the air... But now we have beds (not Kate but she is young!).

Our first stop in the area was Miyajima with its iconic 'floating' torii gates. There has been a gate here since 1168. The vermilion colour is used to ward off evil. The island has tons of deer that are considered sacred... they are tame as and easy to get close to. 

The Daisho- in temple on the island. The colours were spectacular. 

There are hundreds of little statues on the temple grounds. The characters's faces are cute and cheerful. Unfortunately, the little statues are decorated with hats and bibs by grieving families who have a lost child

 The Itsukushima-jinja shrine...  

Fitting that we spent the Remembrance Day in Hiroshima. 

The Peace Park in Hiroshima is... something. We were able to see the A-Bomb dome both during the day and at night. The museum was thought provoking and moving. For me, the most emotional part was the children's monument. A child survived the bombing and subsequent devastation of the city (glass was broken 27 km away from the explosion and 140 000 people killed) but became ill with cancer some 10 years after the bombing. She starting making 1000 paper cranes which, once completed will make the wish come true... she died before completing her 1000 cranes but now the children's monument has thousands upon thousands of cranes made by children here in Japan and the world over. A truly moving memorial to the children who died after the bombing. 

Everyone should have to visit this site to fully understand the tragedy of nuclear weapons. 

Kate rings the peace bell. 

Kate and I ended the day with a glorious run around the Temple Tower here in town. Amazing to be running in shorts, in November on a warm night. Feeling thankful. 

Opinion Piece time... 

Ok so what is up with the cycling in Japan. This is the world of rules and regulations. There are signs on where to line up for the metro, what door to go in and out of a tram, how to hold your bag so it won't disturb others on the tram, no cellphone talking on the metro and on and on. 

In the Netherlands, we saw millions of cyclist. The rules was very clear. We noticed that the Dutch all ride their bikes at a jaunty pace, keeping to the far right, even when the road is clear. They hand signal and get very annoyed if they have to change their speed or trajectory. They will ring their bell in anger and they ring them often.  I can understand. While the country is flat, the bridges are steep and their bikes weigh a ton. They need that momentum to keep going up and over that hill. 

In Japan, cycling and walking for that matter is the wild west. We can't figure out if we are supposed to do. The cyclist weave everywhere - left, right or in the middle. Every direction, might have a light, or might not... it is chaos, made worse by the fact that this is a country run on rules and conformity... interesting. The Japanese do not ring that bell though. They don't honk horns either. In general, everything is very polite and quiet. The cyclist weave and you don't know where they are headed but they don't get upset and are very patient if they have to stop or go around you. No one honks or rings. 

Another thought.... Netherlands, for all its beautiful canals, tiny streets, old buildings was blue with smoke and pot fumes. The terraces of restaurants were for smokers only and you couldn't turn a corner without experiencing a blue fog of pot (like Vancouver). Here? Not happening. No one walks and smokes. The smokers are relegated to small bus shelters like glass enclosures off in the back to smoke and there is NO pot whatsoever. 

That's it for now... bye all. 

We are off to Kyoto tomorrow. cheers. 

Tokyo

Mount Fuji appeared out of the mist on the morning we left to drive to Tokyo. We were able to get in a quick run and see the great sight before the clouds swallowed up region once more. 

 
Left - the real deal in Fujiuyosida and the fake photo op in the airport for those who missed it.... 

We took in a lot of Tokyo in a few days. Despite the showers, we visited the busiest cross walk in the world. Friend sent us a similar shot in the summer heat and we get to show the umbrellas. We had a lovely dinner of udon noodles to warm up. 

Doing the tourist thing... 

Mira encouraged us to try again. While touring the fish market, we had another go at the sweets....This doughy delight was sweet this time, still gelatinous but filled with a custard and topped with a strawberry. I thought it was ok, Kate thought it was meh and Paul did not like it at all. Dough, noodles, deep fried anything are all readily available. Fruit, oranges and apples can be found but other stuff... the strawberries were also for sale where we bought the doughy delight and they were $8 for 6 strawberries - packed in plastic of course. 

Paul officially is Tired of Temples... We visited the grounds of the Imperial Palace with some really impressive gardens hidden within a huge bustling city. 

Then we went to another part of the city to take in .. more temples and more noodles. 

Tokyo is a really beautiful, easy to get about kind of town. Crowds galore but very wonderful. We are off to another city tomorrow.. more to come.

Dogs....  we know that cats are super big here, what with all the Hello Kitty and even tourist spots with cat photos to be had with the feral cats but dogs are really interesting. 

Here are the rules for dogs as I have observed.... 

1. If you own a dog, you must dress it. 

      They are dressed in shirts, skirts, suits, jackets everything but rarely do you see a critter without clothing. 

2. Don't let it walk. 

     There are dog runs but in the streets and about they are not on the ground. They can be found - in strollers, in luggage, in backpacks, in bike baskets and in one's arms but they don't seem to walk.

3. All dogs have a harness not a collar... don't know why but that is the way it is... 

4. They almost all are poodles or mini Akitas.  

That is it for tonight. Love to all. 

Delicacies in Japan

                                  


Hi Everyone... we are almost done our adventure with the camper... and an adventure it has been. We return it on Friday morning. 

I mentioned before that we have travelled some crazy roads. One day we went up a particularly narrow road to the Ninja Museum.  First - don't go! It isn't worth it. We did see Paul do some ninja driving (the road was so narrow that we had to stop as another vehicle was trying to descend the road. We each had to just inch along until we were each passed one another. On one side is the cement gutter and the other a rock wall). Paul also managed to squeeze this beast into a teeny tiny parking spot. Kate says that day was the scariest driving day of her life but the most she showed was a shocked look once in a while. Paul loves driving this camper when the GPS leads us done impossibly narrow streets in the cities too.... 

The toilets here are to behold. We hiked this old (like thousand year or so old) road between Magome and Tsumago villages the other day in the Japanese Alps. This trail was great fun (with lots of bells along the way to warn off bears - we figured it was to call them to dinner). We saw wild monkeys, beautiful fall colours and buildings that have been around since the Romans. The point is that even on this somewhat rustic trail there were still toilets with heated seats! The toilets here are amazing. The rest stops have washrooms that are so clean you could have lunch in them. There are even couches in some facilities. The stalls have a small high chair to stick your young one in while you need to use the facilities. Any mom who understands how hard it is to hold a toddler and use the john at the same time will appreciate this feature. There is a stool rest your feet and a cane holder. Every stall has a sanitizing fluid to wipe off the toilet seat and then there are the buttons.... noise (waterfall is the most popular), spray front or back of the bottom with pressure control of course.... These are in road side stations! Even the first camp ground we stayed in without potable water had a headed toilet seat. So civilized.

Walk from Magome - Tsumago and back ..... 

Monkeys... 

Tsumago... 

We really enjoyed this trek. It felt great to get some hiking in. 

So as we travel, we stop frequently at rest stops. Some of these rest stops include local markets and produce/products. On Sunday, we came upon a local market and everyone was buying these little homemade delicacies. They look delicious (foreshadow there). They are in the shape of a ball, about the size of your palm and covered with a white powder. They come in two or four packs and they were flying off the shelves. I thought I better try. The picture of them had a dark filling and my heart was thinking... sweet and maybe fig? .... so wrong. 

These little guys are the texture of uncooked dough but are kind of grey in colour. The first taste is neutral... neither sweet or sour. Just there. The insides are bean paste by the way, which has a grainy texture and the white powder is not sugar.... the dough is thick, pasty and in all really an acquired taste I believe. One that I cannot invest the time to acquire. I carefully got rid of the piece in my mouth ( was thinking of Tom Hanks in Big, though) and Kate gave away the other one to a very thankful gentleman. 

We traveled to the base of Mt. Fuji yesterday ... in the rain.... and this is Kate and I framing Mount Fuji... do you see it? nope? neither did we.... 

Mt. Fuji

Onsens

We have had the pleasure of going to two Onsens now. They are the traditional public hot baths popular here in Japan. The rules are well laid out for everyone to follow - no clothing, no tattoos, no hair or towels in the water, all bathers must wash before entering... and enjoy. It is a really unique experience. The men and women are separate. In the second Onsen, we visited here in Mt. Fuji had an outdoor and indoor hot pool, tepid pool, carbonated pool, cold pool, jet pool and sleeping pool - ya I know! and sauna. We were in all of them. There are old ladies and young children and it is really a lovely way to clean up... Upstairs, which we visited in our Japanese pajama's included in the price is a relaxing room with recliners and tvs. Very cool. We also did laundry for the first time in Japan today.... $17 a load. But the machine washes and drys clothes in one cycle and adds the detergent for you. We are clean. 

 

Bye for now... sharon. 

GPS, Michi no eki and other learning curves in Japan

So we are learning.. I am not sure I am learning everything I had intended to learn and yet that is also learning. 

GPS: 

Ah, the luxuries and benefits of modern technology! We have a GPS for which I am so grateful. There is no way we could navigate the roads here without it BUT it is very tricky. We can't use the name, address or other options as they are all in Japanese. We have to put in map codes (great idea Japan - an individual number assigned to each place on a map). It is accurate most of the time... but alas not always. We end up in interesting neighbourhoods (looking for a campground and finding a 5 star hotel with all the staff in traditional Japanese kimonos) and down way too skinning roads as a result. Yes we had read that you should never be tempted not to take the toll road but we thought we should try after all the two hour trip from Tokyo cost over $65 just in tolls alone. The non-toll road, however, took us 4 hours to travel only 114 kilometres! These roads were crazy. 

You can see the switch backs on the GPS! Kate, Paul and I all rode up front like the old days when I would breathe in the vent air to keep from being nauseous. 

Michi no eki

Free road side parking. These are marvellous places. They have clean washrooms and safe 24 hour parking; some include markets, vending machines, and even one of ours had an onsen (material for another time). However, they are tough to locate unless you are on the toll roads - see previous paragraph. The handy map is all in Japanese and try as I might, you can't overlay a map from google on to this map to figure out where they are. Many a frustrating hour has been wasted just trying to find a spot to park at night. 

In the education department:

When we were in the Netherlands, Kate and I, much to Paul's chagrin, would spend hours reading every plaque in the museum, absorbing everything we could learn. There was a lot of English in the Netherlands. Even Paul got into it when we came upon a working windmill and he was able to chat for a long time with the mill worker about the mechanics and so on and so forth... Here, we tend to blow through the museums. They are fascinating in their depth of history and we are impressed by the size, beautiful, age and construction yet there isn't any English guides even to buy so... we look and move on. 

The Zenkoji Temple in Nagano

The temple is just over 1400 years old and is the centre of Buddhist architecture. The bell here was rung at the start of the Nagano Winter Olympics. 

Matsumoto Castle 

This is Japan's oldest existing castle and I am positive both my children used this castle as their model for their grade 7 social's projects. We climbed up to the top of the 6 stories - ridiculously tight stairs with a pitch of 60 degrees with people going up and down the same set. It was spectacular to see the way the building was built and still standing....  

Well that is all the learning for now... must be off to bed.