Okonomiyaki

In Hiroshima we went to an okonomiyaki restaurant which is becoming one of my favorite types of Japanese food. Hiroshima is the "birthplace" of okonomiyaki so we had to try this type of restaurant while we were there. I would describe it has a egg, noodle, seafood, cabbage pancake with sweet sauce, fish flakes and onions on top. Glenn had the Deluxe and I had the Special. We sat right at the bar and got to watch him prepare our dinner. The restaurant wasn't really a restaurant though. It was more of a booth on the 6th floor of an Entertainment Building (other floors had karaoke, other restaurants, etc.) The 6th Floor contained probably 10 other okonomiyaki restaurants. We walked down the row and they would call out trying to get us to stop at their station rather than the next. It was not what we expected when we got off the elevator on the 6th floor!Here we are in our anniversary gifts. Your second anniversary is cotton so we bought eachother clothes! I love my new cardigan!

Miyajima Island

Part III of our trip last weekend was Miyajima Island. To give you some back ground:

Miyajima is a small island less than an hour outside the city of Hiroshima. Miyajima is most famous for its giant torii gate, which at high tide seems to float on top of the water. The sight is ranked as one of Japan's three best views.

While officially named Itsukushima, the island is more commonly referred to as Miyajima, Japanese for "shrine-island". This is because the island is so closely related to its shrine, Itsukushima Shrine, in the public's mind. Like the torii gate, the shrine's main buildings are built over water.

Miyajima is a romantic place, best enjoyed by staying overnight at one of the island's ryokan. There are many day tourists, but in the evening the area becomes much quieter and peaceful. There are wild deer on the island that have become accustomed to people. In the day the deer wander around the same sites as the tourists, and in the evening they sleep along the walking paths.

We left in the morning for Miyajima and got there around 10 am. We walked around the island and took lots of pictures and saw the shrine that the island is most famous for. It was very pretty.

One of the strangest things about the island is the deer. Deer are the messengers of the gods so they are not hunted in Japan and on a small island like Miyajima, that means they are very used to people. Here I am trying to get my map back from one that decided it looked like a tasty snack.
Miyajima is also the birthplace of the rice paddle. (Is it not just a spoon?) But either way, here is the worldest largest. You know me and the world's largest anything- gotta make time for that on my itinerary!There are many hiking trains up to the peak of Mount Misen on the island, but we were pretty beat after 5 days of vacation so we had lunch, shopped for some souvenirs and headed back to the train station to head back to Atsugi. What a great trip!

Hiroshima Carpu!

We are Hiroshima Carp (pronounced Carp-u ala Japanese) fans now! I think Glenn and I both agree that the baseball game was one of our favorite parts of our trip. It may have something to do with the fact that we were a little shrine and templed-out after Kyoto so the baseball game was a change of pace.
The Mazda Zoom Zoom stadium in Hiroshima is brand new and we just happened to be there for opening weekend! This was their third game in the new stadium. It was a gorgeous stadium and they even built the outfield wall lower so that the Shinkansens and trains going by could see in to the stadium and "get into the spirit of the game". How fun.

Japanese fans are all super fans. Like all hobbies in Japan really. If you are a fan, you are a FAN! For example, one of my students, Toshiko, is such a fan of kabuki theater that she has joined the fan club and traveled as far as Paris to see her favorite actor perform. That's dedication. So the same is true for baseball. Almost everyone in the stadium was wearing Carp attire (except myself, and yes, I felt out of place) and came loaded down with flags, towels, noisemakers and more.

Many times throughout the game the team song was played and everyone sang along and performed the same clapping, motions and chanting. Glenn and I tried to play along, but we had no idea what they were saying. There was also the inexplicable 6th inning balloon release. At the bottom of the 6th inning everyone got their balloons out of their bags and started blowing them up in preparation for this:

I think the greatest part of a Japanese baseball game though is the ability to bring your own food and beer! On the walk to the stadium, Glenn and I noticed everyone carrying bags of food and drinks so we backtracked to the Lawson Station convenience store to load up on Chu-his and snacks. When we got to the game I noticed a sign that said no bottles or cans yet everyone was still walking towards the gates with cans so we proceeded as well. Once we got through the bag check we were directed to a cup station where they opened our cans (and recycled) and poured our Chu-his into paper cups and gave us a cup holder! How strange we thought, but we continued on! Apparently, it is protect the players from cans and bottles being tossed on to the field! I'll take a $2 drink over the $7 ones at the stadium! Although the $7 drinks we later consumed were dispensed by cute girls from kegs on their backs- gotta love the Japanese for their ingenuity.

Hiroshima

Part II of our mini vacation was to Hiroshima. While we were there we visited-
1. The Peace Park, A-Bomb Dome and Museum
2. The Hiroshima Carp Baseball Game
3. Miyajima Island

First I'll write about the Peace Park and Museum. At first I thought it would be strange to visit a place the Americans had destroyed so many years ago, but I think it is an important part of history. The Japanese have done a wonderful job of making this part of history more about peace in the future than about destruction in the past. Here I am ringing the peace bell.Although, the Japanese view of history is a little different, like the war generally starts when they bombed Pearl Harbor. They don't include much about their aggression prior to this. If you ask the Japanese about the war, they also say that they lost the war and they needed to be humbled. Either way though, Glenn and I didn't advertise that we were American. Surprisingly though, unlike where we live and even in Kyoto, Hiroshima was filled with Europeans. We heard every language under the sun while we were in Hiroshima.

The A-Bomb Dome was a building near the epicenter (hypocenter) that was only partially destroyed. The building is now going to be preserved forever as a reminder of the destruction of nuclear weapons. There were photographs of what the area looked like after the bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 M and it was hard for me to believe.

The majority of the area that was destroyed that used to be houses and industrial areas is now preserved as a park. There are memorials and statues dedicated to all those that were killed on that day. Memorials to the Koreans, the children, the union workers, etc. Some of the memorials are recent additions to the park. This is a picture of a few of the thousands of paper cranes that were at the childrens' memorial. I know there is a childrens' book written about these. One japanese child that died as a result of radiation thought that if she made a thousand paper cranes, she would be cured. Now children around the world make paper cranes as a sign of peace.The last part of the park was the museum. The museum recounted the war, Hiroshima before and after the bombing and what happed during the actual bombing as well as the after effects and radiation conditions that people are still suffering from. It was a sombering experience. Glenn and I both kind of wandering in silence throughout the museum.Here is the centograph in the middle of the peace park. The flame behind it will burn until nuclear weapons are eliminated from this world. The stone vault in the center contains a record of all of the people that have died as a result of the bombing. Thousands of names are still added to the list each year on August 6th.

It was a great experience and I'm happy I was able to be there.

Part II of Hiroshima tomorrow.