Hallo from Japan, land of canned coffee, hot from the machine, and corn kernel pizza.
A friend of mine, who went to HHS, visited Hiroshima last month. She came with her friends from Osaka, where they are in a college study abroad program. I had a half-day of school that Saturday, so we planned to meet near the Eternal Peace Flame in Peace Park (to get there you can either take Peace Boulevard or go across Peace Bridge, you can't miss it). We went to McD's for some lunch, then they bought some o-miyage in the o-miyage store.
The dictionary translation of "o-miyage" is souvenir, but it is not treated like that. They are usually locally produced edibles. Miyajima, for example, is famous for maple leaf-shaped pastries, filled with sweet bean paste. Hokkaido had wine, chocolate, and cantaloupe. Any time that you go on a trip it is customary (read: obligatory) to buy these presents for your office, class, clubs, friends, and family. You can tell from the word, with its honorific "o-" prefix, that o-miyage have a special place in Japanese culture. {Other words that get the "o-" are o-furo (bath), o-chi (home), and, of course, o-kane (money).}
We took an electric streetcar to Hiroshima Station. For the first time, I noticed that the attached department store is named ASSE. From there we took a train, then a ferry to Miyajima. "Miyajima, home of one of the three famous sights in Japan!"
Chances are, you have seen a picture of this famous sight... the red water torii. On the way to any Japanese shrine there is a torii, a giant gateway over the path. The gate's purpose is to remind the visitors to begin to prepare themselves to enter the shrine. The water gate was first built in the 8th century, then rebuilt in the 16th. It was for a time when the shrine was secluded on the island, and the only way there was to boat there. Now there are ferries from the mainland, every half-hour, that go to the port.
The water gate is huge,,, and since a photo is worth roughly 872 words, check out http://briefcase.yahoo.com/phuzo , my internet photo album.
The first sight that struck me after deembarkation was a goatdeer having a snack from the trashcan in the boat station. One of the Osaka-Americans I was with added a film box to the trashcan cornucopia, which was appreciated. Human-desensitized animals are a large part of Miyajima. So are souvenir and o-miyage stores.
If you are not careful, you might fall into Miyajima's tourist trap. It is actually more of a tourist-space-time-warp. Its location is somewhere between the port and the shrine. You think you are going to the shrine, but, in reality, you are going nowhere. You could walk for day past the same stores, over and over, in an endless loop. Some people think that if they buy things, they will be let out. Some people go crazy and start running. They don't know that the only way out is to take a sharp right.
right.
here.
Whoa, that was scary... don't let it happen to you.
By the time we made it to the shrine it was closed. We took some pictures of the torii, and made friends with some deer. Then we went back to the port to go across the bay to the nearest town with a youth hostel. The nice hostel man told us about the restaurant next door, whose specialty is okonomi-yaki. I wonder how much business the place gets from next door...
The Hiroshima area is famous for its version of okonomi-yaki, a huge pile of stuff squashed down to nothing on the grill. The raw ingredients (starchy batter, shredded cabbage, udon noodles, an egg, more starch batter) are about half a foot tall. After the grilling and the smashing, okonomi-yaki sauce and nori are added. The finished product is about 1.5 inches tall.
We found a seedy second floor karaoke joint, but nobody was around. Went back outside, and there on the sidewalk... Perfect hacky spot! Drop everything and kick a little beanbag around. Gawd we America-jin know how to have us some fun. At the precise moment of the second hack, a realization stepped on me. Whenever I am homesick, this is one thing I miss most. A group of friends to be loud with and kick a beanbag in the middle of the sidewalk.
(that and veggie burgers)
After eating some ice cream from the 7-11 across the street we gave karaoke another chance. Decide to go for the small room: 2 hrs. The room is as seedy as the stairway, but it is a good kind of seedy... its seediness lends to its character. This was my first karaoke experience in Japan. It was everything I ever dreamed it would be. And fun, too.
The next morning the guys decide to buy the girls breakfast. We were doing it out of the kindness of our hearts, not just to prove them wrong (that we wouldn't). We tried to go for back-home regional stuff, which meant I bought apple juice. Enjoy NC apples,,, yeah. The milk here has an extremely cow-y quality to it, due to different pasteurization techniques. Not unpleasant, just different.
We groggily dragged our stuff to the station, where I bade my instant weekend friends sayonara. I then went back to the island, where I was to meet another Rotary exchange student. We had not planned a place to meet, but that usually works out. It is quite easy to find tall blond white people in a crowd here. We walk through the shrine, whose advertised attractions had been relocated since the typhoon.
We take a one cable car, then another, to the top of the mountain. There are wild monkeys up here (don't look at their eyes!) grooming each other, leaving prints in fresh concrete, and stealing from ogling unsuspecting Homo Sapiens. We contemplate hiking to the very top, but the trail is muddy, so we take the cable car down. Some of the maple trees have begun to change color, and look like wildfire in the surrounding pine trees.
Closer to sea level, we watch a monkey doing tricks for en. It was strange to watch him collect the coins from where they were tossed on stage. He asked me:
"Why does the man holding my leash love these bright circles so much? I have tasted them, no good for eating... The hand-shaped leaves that fall onto the stage are much tastier. And why wont he let me off the leash?"
I asked, "If he did, would you run?"
The monkey suddenly became interested in something between his toes. It was obvious that he was ignoring me, so I said "ja mata (see you later)." He gave me a curt little bow, then went back to his toes.
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