Hiroshima and more Guilt Trips

So I have not posted in an excessively long time. And it is not due to lack of trips. It is more so due to the fact that I am a lazy bum and didn't know what I signed up for when I told myself I would do this. I mean there are so many things I could tell you...The best places to visit in Kyoto if you were to only spend one day, the quickest way to the airport, the cheapest, the best restaurants, awesome ramen joints, you know important stuff...Unfortunately it is a lot to write and to think about trying to fit it all in just a blog post? It's thinkable I say.
Anyways someone actually complained about my lack of activity on here. You know who you are. So without further ado, here is a post.

On a recent holiday, I had the pleasure of going on my first visit to Hiroshima. It met all the criteria. It is a close place that has some pretty deep history and I have yet to visit it. I also feel it is necessary to mention that I am exceedingly terrible with cardinal directions and that Hiroshima is not south. Which I kept insisting it was until someone whipped out a map.

So! Hiroshima 広島!

Well I think one of the most important things about Hiroshima is definitely their food culture. Being right on the edge of the mainland, its seafood is amazing. One thing I certainly have to recommend, are its oysters. Right now is the season where oysters are in and there are places that are pretty much embellished temporary lean-tos that serve food called kakigoya, 牡蠣小屋 pretty much mean small oyster shed...how accurate. The only have electricity to run their vending machines and the lights and possibly a fridge or two and then as far as cooking goes, you are on your own. You get a lump of hot coals and a grate to go on top and you throw on some oysters or abalone, squid or fish, or what have you, and have yourself a nice fun meal. There are even sauces like ponzu and soy sauce to drips over the bubbling oozing messes. The oysters there were priced at a kilogram for 1000 yen. By the way, that is a ton for really cheap, especially considering Japan prices. 

But there are lots of other places to eat some good oysters if outdoor sheds just aren't your thing. Of course those places will likely be heated and cost more though. 

Other things they are known for is what they like to call okonomiyaki, however since I live in Kansai and have lived in Osaka, I think we will just have to agree to disagree on what okonomiyaki really is. Actually it has been a bit of a debate for a while between Osaka and Hiroshima about the two versions of okonomiyaki, each claiming that theirs is the original one. The main difference is that The Hiroshima one does away with the flour base and substitutes noodles instead. Everything else is the same, cabbage, some meat topping squid or pork will do well, okonomiyaki sauce and mayo. I feel like Hiroshima okonomiyaki (a name they are not too fond of as it implies that they are not the original version), is more of a bastard mix of okonomiyaki and yakisoba. Weird to say the least. But if you gotta try it, you gotta try it. I went to one of the famous kitchens for it and waited an hour for seating. The place was called Mitchan みっちゃん.
Another thing that should be on you list to try is some ramen. Every place is always known for their nuances in ramen specialty. I only found this one to be so-so, but perhaps it was because we tried a variation of ramen called tsukemen where the noodles are separate and you dip them in the sauce as you eat, or maybe because the oysters were just so good, they ruined the rest of the meals since there is no hope that they could compare!

Other things important in Hiroshima are of course the bombing memorials. The first thing to see on everyone's list is the atomic bomb dome. Which is of course not where it landed, as it never landed, not is it beneath the hypocenter. It is actually several hundred meters from the hypocenter, but it is the best recognized structure of the bombing in Hiroshima. In fact, it may be one of the only ones. After the bombing, Hiroshima spent much time, effort, and money into rebuilding and tearing down the dreadful reminders until sometime in the 60's where only the one remained and it was petitioned and soon became a national landmark and has since been preserved. 

About the dome, you can find people lecturing about all sorts of topics, be it peace, the radiation, survival stories, guide talks, but you can also find the hypocenter and the T Bridge. The T bridge was originally blown away by the bomb, but it was rebuilt and the peace park now rests in the middle of the river at the apex of the T. The park has numerous structures, much like the Nagasaki park, including twisted clock, a large bell, which we rang together, where a few Japanese people had a bit of a photo shoot about because OhMyGosh a Japanese and an American ringing the bell together So Symbolic! and what I think is most important is a memorial to Sadako. For those of you who do not know Sadako is the girl in the 1000 paper cranes story. I had to read it in school I remember. It is about a girl living in Hiroshima some time after the bomb, but she developed leukemia in elementary school (5th grade I believe). She was hospitalized and spent the next year in the hospital. From someone or somewhere, she heard a story about how if you folded 1000 paper cranes, your wish would come true. In her remaining days, she folded over 1000 but still died. To this day, many people and schools will fold paper cranes and send them to this memorial in memory of her and for the hope of peace. 

Next on the list is to head over to the museum. If you really want to bother with the entrance and the first floor, that is your choice, but the more moving stuff is located upstairs, including all of the physical recovered items from the bombing. The clothes, the bento box, the disturbing photos are all there. But I must say, what really go to me was the Last Words exhibit. It was an extremely small case located in the bookstore between the second building where there were a few remains and their last words. There was one specific one where a boy was just found by his father and asked his father for an ice pop. His father stuck a 5000 yen note in his hand promising to buy him all the pops he wanted. The boy had passed on before his father was done. Yeah. That was is. That was where I had to go find a corner to dry my eyes in. The rest of the museum was pretty much the same. More sadness. Personally, I liked the Nagasaki one more, it was a nicer structure, with a less impersonal feel to it. I am not really sure how to describe it. 

Afterwards was a trip to Hiroshima castle. A sad little thing who has a fantastic outer shell and a sad rebuild on the inside. It seems like they hardly even tried. Of course the original one was merely debris after the bombing, so they rebuilt it, but on the inside, their walls might as well be a cheerful and intelligent as drywall. And then of course everything is either pictures or text with a few relics of the past, but really there are much better castles to see. At the top, there is a nice night view which is about all it was good for for me.

And a last little thing for you to do this time of year in Hiroshima, is to check out their illuminations. That's right it is November and they have those lights up in full force already

Nagasaki: The American Guilt Trip part 1

An Isle of Art

Nao Shima, 直島, is a pretty renowned island off the coast of Shikoku.

You can get here a number of way, the closest of which departing from Okayama, and taking a ferry on over. But the path that we took, via similar transportation, departed from Takamatsu in Kagawa. 

As the title suggests, this island is renowned for its art. However the art here is a relatively recent addition. Actually this area was on the verge of death, as a community, not a people, and they decided that they needed to reinvent the island to bring people there and to pick up tourism and to keep the culture there, as their young ones kept leaving for busier and busier cities. And thus the idea of art was born, and the community became modern again. 

One of the recommendation I actually have for this place is to rent a bike. Yes they actually have a bus system that can take you around to the sites, but it can be over crowded, especially during tourist season and trust me, I had to sit in front of an implacable squalling child for 10 minutes. I would have taken that 500 yen rental bike in a heartbeat. Save your ears please. You can easily see all the sites in a day and a bike helps to better facilitate that. Not waiting for the bus actually saves you a good bit of time as if the bus is packed full, it will not even stop. 

I would also tell you to come prepared for anything. There are some nice hills to hike here are well as beaches to sunbath on and of course the ocean here is warmer than the Sea of Japan and it was actually really quite pleasant in May. So perhaps you want to bring a bathing suit and some sun block.

Also sadly this time, I have no eats to recommend, as I had no time to go find any eateries. There were quite a few cafes that looked really cute and if I had a second chance I can tell you I know of two I would go eat at: Mino and the Cat Cafe. But I do hear the udon shop here is pretty famous, and it is near Kagawa which is known for the udon. The Wiki travel is actually full of a good number of suggestions. Look toward the Honmura village section. 

One of the most famous pieces of art on the Island is by the same lady who has recently designed a bunch of Louis Vuitton store fronts, and I assume, bags. 

Yeah, that one. Yayoi Kusama. This lady is also responsible for the famous pumpkins prominently featured on a good many of the islands goods. There are exactly two pumpkins on opposite sides of the island, one red with varying sizes of black spots, and the other orange with an equally, if not more interesting pattern. I did not actually get a chance to visit the orange one ( I got too confused about where the museums and exhibits I wanted to see actually were), but the red one is right near the Takamatsu ferry port and you can climb inside of it as many of the young ones were doing. 

All over the island was some interesting string art on building. Here is a elementary school boy in a back back and a little alien. This art was very insistent through out the island, appearing everywhere, in the shapes of plants and leaves and people too. It really seems to follow us everywhere.

A few of the more interesting ones were manipulations of dark and light. Below is one such example with a glass stair case descending downwards from a hole in the ceiling. Above ground, the stair case acesnded into what appeared to be a room on stilts, which I am not really sure if it was essential to understand the meaning of the art or not. The key to this art work was underground though, the stairs descended into a puddle leaving the image to mirror itself and look as if it continued on. The puddle was actually essential to the artwork, or so people would have me believe, so I think I did grasp what the artist was trying to effect.
Another light and dark artwork that is not featured here took place next to a temple. For that one you actually had to make a reservation to go view. You would then return at the appointed time and be lead into a seemingly pitch black room. You are told to keep your hand along the wall so that you can feel your way around. You are then told to have a seat along the back of the wall where a bench had been installed. You would wait for approximately 5 to 10 minutes and then it would become clear as to what was going on. No, no one was robbing you. This was an experimental kind of art. Almost a science. It was more of how the eye works rather than an art. After sitting for well, more than 2 minutes, you begin to see something. But you are not sure if you really see something or if you eyes are so light starved that you are making up things to see to justify your eyes being open. Around 5 minutes you are more sure of yourself. There is a definite rectangle of light. And its foggy?
We actually got to stand up and walk around the exhibit. There was indeed a rectangle of light that was on the entire time. It is a such a low volume that it is imperceptible to eyes that have been so accustomed to daylight for an extended period of time. The foggyness was actually a type of paint,that, when combined with the light gave it a foggy effect also lowering the ease or perceptibly. This was extremely interesting to me and probably my most memorable art piece of the island.

This one was actually an art form of recycling, as well as modernism in style. It was pretty interesting. One of the aspect I thought was more interesting was the wall inside one of the rooms. They played with shapes, where if a segment was subtracted from one area, it was added in a different area. Like if there was a giant pyramid in the room, then perhaps there would be a giant pyramid in the roof acting as a skylight. If the room jutted in, it also jutted out. Also interesting was the floors in the hallways with all their random pieces of 8, their cards, and money from all over the world. And in another room there was a miniature Lady Liberty statue. Even the toilet was odd. And not just Asian-style odd!

And lastly. Probably the most odd, was a completely functioning bath house called 'Yu' (which is the Japanese symbol for bath spelled out in romanji). I think it was just a collection of 1960's American scraps thrown together to make the weirdest Floridian house ever. And the inside is about as weird as the out, though the bath was supposedly exceedingly interesting and beautifully artistic. You can see from this image there is a lady who, at night, lights up like a Las Vegas strip club. Alas, I did not get a chance to go in here either as I had not toiletries on hand and it was rather expensive.

Oh and that 'Bond museum', as in 007. Incredibly weird. It is more like one mans obsession. But it is free so hey I won't tell you not to go!

Ehime

Ehime is one of the four prefectures that make up Shikoku. If you look at the kanji for Shikoku, it is 四国, the first part meaning four, and the latter meaning country. So four countries. Or in this case, prefectures. OK, so I just copied that from the last one. It has been a while ok?

 So here is where we were, Matsuyama 松山, probably the largest city in the prefecture. Also with the most to offer, especially on our power trip through Shikoku. Though I would still love to go back and visit Uwajima!

This is a close up of the area showing Matsuyama. 

So among the things Matsuyama is known for, is what they call the Japanese Machu Picchu according to the Japanese travel books. It was a former mining factory a ways back which was condemned in an accident and never rebuilt. The site for it is rather small but it does offer a beautiful viewpoint of the mountains. The mine was for a prosperous copper vein that they found and were making very good money off of. Still today you can see and even purchase some of the copper ware at the local stores. There even a museum a little ways down the road promoting the copper trade and as well as educating the young ones about minerals and ores. We did go to this museum and I have to admit...I don't think I would recommend it. The actual site is free and less...childish...But still it was a cute thing to do and enjoy.

Next on anyone's list should be to check out the castle. This castle is actually worth going to see. This one is not a reconstruction of its former glory, but is in this case still in its glory. This castle has first has a fun little chair lift up to the castle grounds. There is of course a walk way up, but it is a nice bit of an incline. They actually sell combo tickets for both the ropeway and the castle itself for a decent price. The castle is of course off limits for shoes and they have you remove them at the door and carry them around in a plastic bag about the place in order to protect their beautiful polished wood floors. The castle is certainly smaller than others and with a certain lack of castle grounds, but it is still unique and beautiful and most importantly original. 

And the last, and probably the most important stop you should make here, is to Dogo Onsen. And to some of you, I am sure that sounds familiar exactly not at all, but perhaps when I tell you what it is affiliated with? Ok, the Gibli movie, Spirited Away, used Dogo Onsen as a basis for its movie setting. 

Need some help remembering?

OK, now that we all remember, or realized that we might have missed out on something great, let's move on. This onsen is pretty much in the middle of the city and it is a grandiose affair. It is beautiful. And huge. And is apparently the only public onsen that any emperor in Japan has ever visited let alone frequented. He even had his own rooms at the onsen. To this day, the onsen is still functioning and has people in and out of its doors until late in the evening. Unfortunately I cannot boast that I have had the chance to bathe here as I would simply not have made the last train back to the hotel if I had. I did get to walk all around it and I can tell you there is a little shrine along the side where you can feel just how warm the natural water is.

As you can see, people are coming in and out in the yukatas after a refreshing bath.

Numerous expensive rickshaws just waiting to transport you all around the city for quite a sum!

Kochi

Kochi is one of the four prefectures that make up Shikoku. If you look at the kanji for Shikoku, it is 四国, the first part meaning four, and the latter meaning country. So four countries. Or in this case, prefectures. 

Osaka and Kyoto are to the upper right for reference.

Kochi is a small but lovely place, so small in fact that I got a good number of stares including a comment from a person that they did not get many foreigners there. This is probably because it is out of the way of pretty much everything. It took us three hours of driving through these beautifully dangerous mountain passages, often with a steep ravine on one side of the other bottoming out in a river from which many communities would often build their grounds from. However it is not a trip that many foreigners will travel on their way through Japan. There may be a rail way to Kochi, but it would again be a long and expensive passage, perhaps not so frequently traveled. 

What Kochi does has is a fantastic beach. Though swimming is not recommended and prohibited if caught, due to its strong currents and tendency to carry people away. They are also well known for a particular fish dish popular throughout Japan, called katsuo no tataki. Katsuo no tataki is a type of tuna that is seared over a large flame for mere seconds, just until the outermost layer appears to take on a slightly blackened color, before sliced and served. It is no wonder that it is custom to eat it here with the close proximity of the ocean and all of its fishy harvest at hand. 

As far as people are concerned, the most prized personal Kochi has to offer is Sakamoto Ryouma, whose name might not mean much to many Westerners or perhaps many young people anywhere. But he is famous for bringing about the end of the Edo period in Japan and being a founding father or the Japanese Navy, as well as bringing both westernization and modernization to Japan. 

In fact, at Kochi's most famous beach, Katsurahama, there is a large crowd drawing statue of Ryouma facing westward. 

Other venues special to Kochi are its bright red bridge, Harimayabashi, right in the middle of the downtown area and a rather popular nighttime hangout place. There is also Kochi castle, which I cannot admit to seeing while I was there. It seems like many other castle of feudal Japan, white with a tiled roof, but rather small and unimpressive in structure.

Tokushima

Kagawa, another of the four prefectures of Shikoku, and also on my list of Golden week adventures. 

Again, look to the upper right for Kyoto and Osaka for reference.

Perhaps a few of the people who read this have heard of a little cartoon called Naruto. If in case you haven't, it is no concern that you familiarize yourself with it, though others will argue it is a priority for those interested in Japan. Naruto actually has three meanings. One is that ever so popular character that made a big splash in the world of animation with fox features and yellow hair and an orange jumpsuit. Another is a thing that you will often see being put it ramen. It is a mixture of fish meant(as bad as that sounds, it is a a common food accessory here) that is white with a pink spiral shape in the center of it. It comes in a cylindrical shape which you slice off and eat in ramen. Lastly and most importantly, at least where this post is concerned, is the meaning for whirlpool. 

Tokushima is famous for its whirlpools. 

They have this center for viewing them as well. Underneath a great bridge used as an expressway for cars, they have constructed a sealed in walkway for people to walk out to the center of the bridge and view what was my first, and perhaps the largest one I will ever see, whirlpool. You see at intervals along this bridge there are very thick-paned windows to view the occurrences below, and at the hubbub of it all is an entire room full of of these glass floor panels where many people congregate to best view the whirlpools below. In addition to the glass flooring, one side of the walk is lined purely with glass(or wiring without glass) so the view can fully appreciate the view from the side as well. On the other side are artworks or information about the whirlpools. 

Braver souls than I will venture out into the swirling madness on a ferry boat tour that will actually venture inside the whirlpool and cross it for closer looks. 

Though perhaps I need to clarify what I saw. When I say whirlpool, I was honestly expecting something right out of Pirates of the Carribean 3. This is not the case at all so don't get your hopes up. It is large and wide with what looks like a hell of an under toe, but not so deep. There are actually times at which it is best seen, likely in similar occurrence with the tides, and are posted daily outside the center. I was fortunate enough to see it at a peak time. 

In addition to the tourism the sight provides, it also appears to draw in a lot of fish. From my vantage point above, I saw a good many fishing boats braving the waters for the days catch. Many of them in s slow outward spin and several parked, or landed out around the rick isles. 

An additional obligatory mention for a special matsuri they hold that has a special dance for whichTokushima is very well known.

Kagawa

Kagawa. The one thing you have to do here above all else is eat udon. 

I was actually told that Kagawa is the capital of udon a fact which is recognized throughout Japan, to the point that if you wrote udon-ken (it would typically say kagawa-ken, the prefectural name) on a post card, it will be shipped there. 

So udon. You must eat udon. There are a few well known places that are said to be more famous than others with award winning udon (yes, they give out awards for that). 

There was one I went to, that is said to be the most famous udon shop in all of Kagawa and indeed there was a line already forming (and I was somewhere around 30 or 40!) at 10:30 in the morning when the place did not open until 12. That particular place is usually open only two hours a day, from 12 to 2pm, and they do enough business in that time to be closed the rest of the day. Since this day was part of Golden Week, they took us all by surprise and opened an hour early at 11am. They announced that the first 100 bowls of udon would be the freshest with the best noodles, and afterwards the dishes would be just as good but the noodles would not be as pristine. The dish was simple. And simply amazing. It was delicious. They ask you if you want it hot or cold and will give you the noodles in the bowl and then you sit at one of many of the squashed in tables in the two rooms they have and add your own fixings as you please. I remember the meal being somewhere around 160yen. That is about 2USD for those of you in America. In addition they sell their noodles fresh and packaged by the register, which makes for a good omiyage for those back home. 

It is a very fast paced business that gets people in and out in under 10 or 15 minutes. They have your food in front of you practically before you even sit down! 

Other important things to do in Kagawa-ken is to visit Kotohira and the famous Kompirasan. Kompirasan is a shrine. Not just any shrine, but one of the few shrines that most all Japanese people will make a pilgrimage to at some point during their life. A couple of the others include the great Geku and Naiku shrines in Ise as well as Asakusa's shrine and temple. Kompirasan is known for its golden charms bringing luck and prosperity as well as for having a great many steps. It actually measures out to a proud 1,368 steps up the mountain. Practically a mini mountain's worth of climbing. And people were saying the Batu caves 200 steps was a feat worthy only of the strong hearted! Along the way, there are many points at which you can grab one of the many free walking sticks that are provided for travelers on the way up. They are present at the dozens of stalls more toward the base of the mountain, where you can return them on your way down the mountain. 

As with many of the older and more popular shrines, there is an inner and outer shrine. The main hall and area of the shrine is located at a half way point in between the two and is the point at which most people end their journey. The inner shrine is still a ways hike up the mountain a bit for a smaller, quieter, more peaceful forested setting. 

This shrine is also really well known for its dog. It isn't the same as those shrines that are dedicated to certain animals or anything like that, but this one is personal. A true story based on the dog that once lived there at the shrine. You see, since this shrine has so many steps, it makes it very difficult for the elderly, feeble, and sick to make it up to the top to pay homage there. The shrine maidens and workers employed the use of a dog to send down its charms and receive their less than able bodied patrons money. They would do this by training the dog to run up and down the stairs for patrons (exactly how they accomplished that I am still a bit foggy on...I think a bell might have been involved that a patron would ring to signal that they were present and unable to make it to the top) with a little pouch tied round it neck. I know some people will think what if the person didn't pay the dog, or paid him too little or what if the person needed something other than a charm. Well I can't tell you all of that since that was all the explanation in English had to offer. 

Today, there is no dog. He died some years back, but a statue to his significance remains. As to the feeble and elderly who would like to see the main hall and are unable to make it? They hire a palanquin. Pretty much those little carriage platforms that you see nobility being pampered in and carried by people. The one offered here is a much less elaborate set up, but still uses man power to transport a person up and down the stairs at a very handsome fee.