More Hiroshima, Miyajima, and onwards

After posting my last entry, I was watching some baseball on TV (the Japanese love their baseball) when I found out there was going to be a game in Hiroshima the following day. This I had to go to.

Hiroshima's baseball team are called the Hiroshima Toyo Carp (teams in Japan are owned by corporations like Toyo and are actually fairly footloose, sometimes moving cities altogether). If ever there was a name fitting for a team, this is it. The Carp are TERRIBLE - apparently, they haven't won a championship since 1991 and they're the only team to have not placed in the top 3 at any point since the start of this century. However, they are regarded as having a very loyal and very lively fan base, which makes them ideal to see, especially playing at home.

Cue a short walk to the stadium the following day. I obtain an excellent seat on the morning of the game day for a very reasonable price, so I assume the stadium will be empty. I buy a Carp shirt, too, since I may as well get in with the home supporters and root for this team. Also it makes a nice souvenir.

At about 1pm I make my way to the stadium for a 2pm start. The stadium is busier than I expected.

The situation is similar to baseball in the US, with vendors prowling the aisles selling cans of soft drinks and beer, hot dogs, popcorn...the usual suspects. I was amazed to see a couple with draft beer rigs on their backs, though - how they ran up and down the aisles with kegs on their backs is beyond me! As with baseball elsewhere, despite the presence of alcohol, no-one got violent. Yes, it's just football.

Hiroshima Toyo Carp vs Nagoya Chunichi Dragons


1st inning, Carp batting. Note the team's manager with the ridiculous papier mache giant head, complete with clapping hands sticking out of the side, and a changeable scroll reading "APPLAUSE" and "THANK YOU" in his mouth. He appeared there at the start of each Carp inning to lead the clapping, and everyone loved it.


The Carp's utterly bizarre mascot, 'Slyly'. I have no idea what he's meant to be, but he's great.


At the beginning of the Carp's 7th inning, absolutely everyone got one or two of these balloons. All at once, everyone let them go, which was pretty spectacular. There were balloons flying around the stadium for a minute or so, whistling as they went.

The Carp are terrible. The Dragons are apparently very good. The Dragons pulled into an early lead, getting one run in the 2nd inning. Everyone knew what was going to happen.

Except, they were wrong. The Carp stumbled along until the 4th inning, during which they absolutely destroyed the Dragons by earning 3 runs in quick succession. From then on it was all over.

Final score was 3-1 to the Carp. Talk about unexpected.


Yes, the Carp actually won.

As a celebration I went back to Okonomi-mura (a 3-storey building composed entirely of small okonomiyaki restaurants) that night for another Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (or 'hiroshima-yaki', naturally), which is made with either soba (thin) or udon (thick) noodles as opposed to just being the usual batter mix. Delicious.


I took one awful photo of the cook making my okonomiyaki (mine is one of the ones with the thin soba noodles).

The following day, my last in the Hiroshima area, I took a boat to the island of Miyajima, which is home to one of the classic tourist brochure views in Japan. Sadly, the weather could have been a lot better, but anyway...

Before you reach the classic attraction here, the first thing you notice are the deer. There are deer everywhere, roaming the streets and attempting to get food from everyone.


Deer in Miyajima, obviously.

A 5 minute walk from the boat terminal lies the main attraction - the 'floating' Torii gate serving as an entrance to the town's main shrine (Itsukushima-jinga) from the sea.


'Floating' Torii, with deer and a stone lantern.


From a different angle, with more lanterns.


Itsukushima-jinga shrine, with 5-storey pagoda in the background.

Obviously the rain was a little bit of a problem but it was still spectacular. Even the hordes of German tourists couldn't stop it being impressive.

That was yesterday. This morning, leaving Hiroshima, I caught a highway bus down to Fukuoka/Hakata (2 cities have sort of merged and people refer to it by both names), the gateway city to Kyushu - the southernmost of Japan's 4 main islands. I'm here for one day, and then I plan to do a circuit of the island, taking in (in this order):
- Nagasaki
- Kagoshima and Sakurajima (an active volcano)
- Aso-san (a cluster of volcanoes, one of which is active)

Yeah, the next week or so is going to be very relevant to my university course and should, I hope, be very interesting. Aso-san in particular is said to be really quite spectacular and should yield some good photos me to post here.

So, that's my rough plan. How well I manage to follow it remains to be seen, but it seems managable, and a few opportunities to camp (weather permitting) should let me save some cash, too.

Anyway, until next time. Take it easy,

James

Hiroshima

I had one day left in Osaka after posting my last entry, so I took a day trip out to Himeji to see which is widely regarded as Japan's finest castle, not least because it is an original wooden building as opposed to a concrete reconstruction.

Unfortunately, it rained. It rained absolutely all day, in fact, and I got SOAKED. Even a trusty umbrella (I am now a firm believer and can see why all Japanese people carry them) can't keep you dry from rain like that.

Anyway, here are some pictures. Photos inside aren't very interesting so I've just put up a couple of shots of the castle and the hill it sits on.







Of some interest as well was the world's longest suspension bridge, which I passed on the train. I didn't get a photo, because it didn't look anything special, but it's there. Look it up on a map or something - it's a couple of kilometres west of Kobe.

After finding myself a little short of accomodation options in both Osaka, where I was previously staying, and Kyoto, which I wanted to go back to for the sakura, I made a snap decision to leave Kansai behind and head for the south.

One 6 hour bus later, I am in Hiroshima.

First call is probably 'the symbol of Hiroshima' - the A-Bomb Dome (Genbaku Domu) - but first some more Engrish I spotted on a cup in my hotel room. Bizarre.


I'm so relived (sic) it's been washed...

Anyway, the Dome was originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. That was until an atomic bomb exploded nearly directly above it on 6th August 1945. The only reason it survived is because it had so many windows, and much of the shockwave blew through it, rather than into solid walls. This is it now.


During the day.


At night, when floodlit.

The next day brought a trip to the Peace Memorial Park and attached Memorial Museum. I won't go on about whether the bombing was right or wrong - you can make up your own mind - so I'll just show pictures.


The Memorial Cenotaph and Peace Flame, with A-Bomb Dome in the background.


Children's Memorial, based on the story of Sasaki Sadako (find out about the story for yourself).


Model of Hiroshima before the bomb (in the Peace Memorial Museum).


Model of Hiroshima almost immediately after the bomb.

While at the A-Bomb Dome on the second day (I passed it to get to the park) I was lucky enough to meet one of the survivors of the bombing, now working as a volunteer guide. He took me to a few sights I might have missed otherwise - the hypocenter (the spot directly above which the bomb detonated) and a small cemetary displaying signs of the explosion.


Building now at the hypocenter (more in a minute).


Gravestones in the cemetery near the hypocenter, showing shadows. The shadows all around the base show that the bomb must have exploded almost directly overhead.

As for the building at the hypocenter, my guide told me a story. Apparently there was originally a hospital standing at this spot. The chief doctor was out of Hiroshima on that day, performing surgery in the countryside, and so he was safe when the bomb was dropped. Similarly, the doctor's son was spared, as he was evacuated to the countryside along with his classmates. Obviously when the bomb went off, the hospital was levelled (save for a single section of wall directly underneath the point of explosion), and everyone inside was killed immediately.

And now? The hospital was rebuilt in exactly the same spot, with the same name. It was run by the same doctor, and when he retired, his son took over and is currently in charge.

Anyway, after a fascinating but quite depressing day, I took yesterday to visit a few places, the highlight of which was the Hiroshima Meteorological Museum. This was, coincidentally, a building that was around before 1945 and survived the bomb.

As well as displays on weather forecasting, etc, the museum has old instruments, and weather charts and sketches from 6th August 1945.


The original sketches of the mushroom cloud.

It also featured 2 hands-on exhibits - a typhoon model, which pumped some kind of smoke into a small room (in which you were standing) and then proceeded to provide rotation and low pressure in the centre, creating a miniature model of a typhoon right in front of (and around) you, and, much to my delight, a wind tunnel in which you could experience winds of about 20m/s (getting towards enough to rip panels from houses).

I will probably never live down the photo I decided to take, but it's too funny not to post.


Wind speed of 20m/s+.

Since I was the only person in the museum I partook of this hilarity about 5 times. It was great.

Moving on, today I took a ride to the Mazda museum, and had an (English!) guided tour of both the museum and a section of the production line. I actually got to see them assembling real cars on a moving line - the new Mazda 2, RX-8 (I want one), MX-5 and something else I can't remember.

There was also a great exhibit on the Mazda Rotary Engine, with lots of moving models, etc, along with explanations of the entire RX-8 production process (including an amazing display of an RX-8 broken down into every single component part (screws and all), labelled and laid out across the floor and walls. I didn't get any photos since they don't like you taking cameras in (for security, I guess) so you'll just have to take my word for how great this was.

Tomorrow I will most likely take a day trip to Miyajima to see the famous 'floating Torii gate', assuming the high tide is right (if it isn't, the Torii is surrounded by mud and not water). But that's something for the next blog, anyway.

Until next time...
James

Sakura

Well, I am back in Osaka, and back on 'mainland' Japan. Despite frankly not really liking Osaka very much, I was met with a pleasant (although not entirely unexpected) suprise.



It's a nice day here so I took a trip back to Osaka-jo castle, the first thing I visited when I arrived in Japan, which is basically surrounded on 3 sides by cherry trees. Naturally, half of Osaka was there too.





Sakura (cherry blossom) season is a special one in Japan, and for about 2 weeks everybody revels in the opportunity for 'hanami' (blossom viewing), with parties aplenty. Every inch of space around Osaka-jo and in Osaka-jo-koen (the surrounding park) was taken up with picnics and BBQs, families and people of all ages out to enjoy this annual event. It's effectively a huge 2 week festival, complete with festival food stalls and copious amounts of beer and sake.





I have one more day in Osaka tomorrow, so I may go to Tennoji-koen for a hopefully slightly quieter (I guess Sunday is the busiest day) look at the sakura there. After that, I think I may move back to Kyoto for a couple of days to revisit a few places there while the sakura is still in the Kansai area, which should provide some spectacular photos. Beyond that, who knows (maybe Nara, finally).

Anyway, I need to do exciting things like sort through the mass of clothing I need to wash. Just one of the slightly less glamorous parts of travel, but neccessary...

More to come soon!
James



EDIT: I completely forgot to mention my last night in Naha, Okinawa. I went back to this great little microbrewery on Kokusai-dori (the absolutely crazy 'international street') called Helios, and the bartender, who I had previously become quite friendly with, mentioned that it was his birthday. It was also his co-worker's first day working in Helios, and it was my last day in Okinawa. These three events combined meant that the three of us went out to this great little bar/restaurant that only a local would know about.

There was a 'moat' of hot water in front of the counter (which seated all of about 6 people) into which you put your feet (without shoes and socks, obviously). This was a strange but quite relaxing feeling - sitting in a bar/restaurant with your feet in warm water is not something you do every day. The three of us had a great time there, as did the chef, who seemed to delight in bringing out samples of various foods to test the nerve (and stomach) of this foreigner. Trying them all, they weren't too bad - until he brought out salted fish intestines, which were probably the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life, not because they were fish intestines but rather because it was unbelievably salty. I need to bring a jar of it home if I can find it, because my companions found my reaction absolutely hilarious (and rightly so, too), and I'd love to share the experience...

All in all, not a bad night. It's not often you get invited to a birthday party in a foreign country, and it was definately a great example of Japanese hospitality, providing some real lasting memories...and lasting tastes, too...

The last week (brace yourself)

Ok, I guess I owe everyone an update. This isn't going to be a small one, either, taking in a week's worth of stuff (with photos!).

I guess we start with my leaving Naha on an overnight ferry bound for Ishigaki, 14 long hours south. Ferry journeys are unbelievably dull, and the bunks aren't the most comfortable so you're not going to get a great deal of sleep either. However, the journey out there was made much easier by the interesting people aboard the ship.


Sunset aboard the Arimura Line ferry bound for Ishigaki

First I went outside to the back of the ship to get some air, and was quickly invited over by 3 Japanese friends (work colleagues, actually). We talked for hours in a wonderful mix of broken English and broken Japanese over vending machine beers and cup noodles and parted ways about midnight. Still not content with going to sleep I headed back outside and found a guy sitting playing the guitar. I spent another 45 mins or so out here, talking with him about music (and scotch whiskey, bizarrely) and he played some Beatles hits and attempted Stairway To Heaven for his one-man audience.

After a couple of hours of bad sleep, the ferry deposited us at Ishigaki at about 5:30am, at which point everything is closed and it's still dark. Great. I followed a school party, hoping they'd lead me to something, and they actually brought me to the smaller local port. Here I bought a ticket for the first boat at 7am to Iriomote-jima, my intended destination, and off I went once again.


Sunrise aboard the small local boat bound for Iriomote-jima

After some confusion about the location of camp sites on Iriomote-jima (note to Lonely Planet: next time a camp site is 4km from the nearest bus stop, please put this in the book) I pitched my Tarptent and set off down to the beach for a look around. This campsite was precisely one minute's walk from said beach. Check this out.


Tarptent and Kifaru EMR pack at Hoshisuna campsite


Hoshisuna-no-Hama beach, one minute from my campsite


Clownfish in a sea anemone on the coral reef surrounding Hoshisuna beach

This place is beautiful and teeming with various forms of live so I'll just let the above pictures give a very rough idea (I have lots more). Another oddity of Hoshisuna-no-Hama beach is in the name - 'Hoshisuna' means 'star sand', and that's exactly what washes up here and almost nowhere else. I couldn't get a photo (it's much too small) but areas of the beach are covered in sand which is actually the remains of tiny sea creatures, and so has a 4 or 5-pointed star shape. I believe about the only other place this occurs is on Taketomi-jima (see later).

The following day I took a bus further along the north coast to take a boat up the Urauchi-gawa river - the longest in all Okinawa. Often described as being like a short stretch of the Amazon, it's lined with mangroves and further upstream lie numerous waterfalls and the start trailhead of the 18km cross-island trail.


A stretch of the Urauchi-gawa river, lined with mangroves


More of the river, with flowers in among the mangroves


One of the waterfalls (Mariyudō-no-taki) a short walk upstream of where the river boat docks


...and another one further on (no idea of the name), in the jungle itself

The walk to the waterfalls is pretty pleasant, if a little sticky. If it's like this in March/April, I would hate to be here in August. I'd imagine you'd drown in your own sweat.

That night I wandered down to the beach again, this time in the dark. The animal life there at this time is totally different. As well as being teeming with crabs (which scatter as you walk near them), there are bizarre fish which appear to fly out of the water for quite long distances (no idea what they are), but the most impressive thing I saw (and I wish I could have taken a photo of) was a pair of sea snakes in the shallow water. Sea snakes are the most venomous in the world and since I like snakes I've always wanted to see one - now I've seen two!

The next day I took a bus south to the Iriomote Wildlife Centre to find out more information on the island's wildlife, and in particular to see the Iriomote Yamaneko, or Iriomote Wildcat. Very rare (estimates stand at 80-100 in total, and they are only found here) and hardly ever seen, the IWC deals with the rehabilitation of cats hit by traffic, etc, and so offers an opportunity to actually see one. Being a 'cat person' this was something I couldn't pass up. In size and shape they are rather underwhelming, but I was fortunate enough to see one catch and eat a snake in the rehabilitation area - much more impressive!


Iriomote Yamaneko (not live, obviously) - about the size of a domestic cat


The area around the IWC. If this isn't like something out of Jurassic Park, I don't know what is...

That night the weather closed right in and I was subjected to a torrential downpour and strong winds. When I got out of my tent in the morning (after praying it'd survive the night, which it did!) there was a river running through the field. Impressive.


The poor guy camped next to me needed a few lessons in how to pitch a tent. This is what happens when you pitch it badly, the wind hits it head-on, and your tarp is in the wrong place...

There is more I wanted to do on Iriomote-jima, particularly the kayak/walk to the Pinaisara-no-taki waterfall, but they require more than one person, and your own transport (buses are very infrequent here). I'll be back.

Anyway, the next day I packed up my stuff (after trying to dry it off, to little avail) and headed back to Ishigaki.

A visit to the tiny and very traditional island of Taketomi-jima was then on the agenda. Moments away from being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site (or so I hear - they just need to lose the overhead power lines), Taketomi-jima has tried to keep the traditional look and feel of an old Ryukyu village, and has largely succeeded. It makes a nice place to wander about, and is a nice break from the usual concrete jungles of Japanese urban developments. All houses have the old red roofs, all walls are made of natural materials and all the roads are paved with crushed coral instead of tarmac.


A stray cat in front of a house on Taketomi-jima

Another thing this island is notable for is the number of stray cats. Apparently, 1/3 of Taketomi's population is over 70 years old. I guess the other 2/3 must be cats. As a cat lover, this is a major problem, since you quickly acquire new friends...


These two guys followed me halfway across the island, frequently making me trip over one or both of them


This one seemed to want the ice cream I was eating at the time, but settled for having his belly rubbed instead


No description neccessary...

For my last full day in Ishigaki I headed out to climb Nosoko-dake - the core of an eroded volcano. The Lonely Planet guide describes it as 'steep', but this is not an adequate description. Its peak is only 282m, but look at the photo below and you'll see this is not a gentle walk.


Nosoko-dake from the closest bus stop, 15 mins from the proper trailhead

It's hard to convey what it's like spending about an hour climbing a constant 45 degree slope of slippery mud, twisted tree roots and large rocks in a subtropical jungle with absolutely no breeze and in 100% humidity, but the words 'sticky' and 'knackering' would be a good start. Being under constant assault by mosquitos and ENORMOUS wasps (I'm not kidding here, these things were almost an inch long) just makes it all more exciting, I guess.


The steep, overgrown path up Nosoko-dake. Photos can't really show how steep this really is.

Amid the lush jungle, if you can spare the time, there is a huger variety of wildlife to be found, most of which appear to be lizards.


Some kind of gecko, I think


Another lizard of some type

The climb is a nightmare, but the views from the top are well worth it. I suspect they're better on a clear day, but even on a cloudy day (it started raining after I got down) they're still not bad.





The trek down is almost as bad as the trek up. If going up is hard on your calves, going back down is hard on your knees - you certainly feel it when you reach the bottom! The ropes they provide at certain points to pull yourself up are arguably more useful here, to stop yourself sliding head-first down the mountain.

Somehow making it down without a broken neck, I got the last bus back to Ishigaki (there are 3 buses a day so I had to wait nearly 2 hours for it) and got ready for the long 14 hour return ferry to Naha, spying some more curious 'Engrish' along the way.


I assume this is meant to be a 'Darts Bar', but I have no clue what 'A GOO' is meant to be...

And so today brought on a mind-numbingly boring ferry journey, which, due to a restaurant timetable which could at best be described as 'a litle weird', was survived entirely on cup noodles and Doritos. I must confess that after getting off the ferry at 9pm and booking into a business hotel I plucked at random from Lonely Planet, I headed to McDonalds. I might be in Japan, but I guess there are some hungers that only a Big Mac can cure. A day of only noodles is one of them.

So here I am, back in Naha. I'm going to go back to my hotel and sleep, and figure out what I'm doing tomorrow - my last day in Okinawa. After that I head back to Osaka on mainland Japan, and from there, who knows. Obviously, blog updates will continue (and hopefully more than once a week again), so keep checking back.

Take care everyone,
James

Not dead

Hi guys,
Just a quick note - I'm not dead or anything, just there was no net access at all on Iriomote-jima. I'm now in a hotel in Ishigaki (on Ishigaki-jima) which has PCs with internet access but no USB port...

I have, however, found an internet cafe so I should be able to upload some of my many, many photos from Iriomote tomorrow. Hang around, they WILL come.

James



EDIT: Sorry folks, more delays. It seems all the PCs on Ishigaki run on steam power and I've not found a single one running Windows XP yet (and I've tried my hotel and 3 internet cafes). That means I can't upload from my camera (not without installing drivers, anyway). Hang on and they will come, I'm just not sure when.