The Rain Won't Stop Me

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It was supposed to rain so I got up early to head over to Miyajima, an island about half an hour away from Hiroshima known for the shrine there that has a floating Torii gate. In the past, normal people weren't allowed on the island because it was sacred. If someone wanted to visit the shrine, they had to take a boat and pass through the floating torii gate. The gate is only 'floating' though if the high tide is in, otherwise you can see the base structure sitting there in the sand. Of course the planner in me made sure to look up the high tide for the day and found out it was 9am. That meant I was up and on the island by then! I went straight for the shrine passing random deer just hanging out everywhere. Apparently deer are considered sacred in the Shinto religion because they were considered messengers of the gods. Therefore, the people on the island just let them roam free. Tourists have been feeding them forever so they have no qualms about going up to anyone. Most were asleep that early in the morning.
I arrived at the Itsukushima Shrine just in time to see a traditional Bugaku dance on the high stage. There was music from drums and flutes that the dancers moved portraying some type of battle to. They had really elaborate costumes, one bright orange, the other green. It was a very interesting introduction to the island. From there I moved on to find the Daishoin Temple, but I managed to go down the wrong lane and had to backtrack. When I did make it there, it was so worth it! This temple was adorable! The grounds were covered in tiny little buddhas. Some where fat and cute, others more traditional (but most of those had crochet hats on that made them look cute anyway). There didn't seem to be any free space without some type of statue or shrine. Many plants had statues sitting in their pots. Below the main temple was even a cave full of more. I would recommend a stop to anyone who decided to visit Miyajima - it was my favorite part of the visit! Luckily so far I had only seen a couple sprinkles, so I continued to explore in hopes that the rain would hold off.
There is a 5 story pagoda that I walked up some steps to see, but there really isn't anything inside those, so I did not pay to go in. Instead I spent some time walking up and down the touristy shop street. Like most places, there was a specific treat associated with the location for the Japanese to bring back as souvenirs to family and friends. I purchased a couple of the star shaped paste (red bean, chocolate, lemon, strawberry, etc.) filled cakes to munch on during my ferry ride back to Hiroshima and on to Osaka. On the ferry I ran into a trio of people from the US. They were visiting Japan from central California to see a friend of their's that lives in Osaka. They were only staying 10 days so were power traveling even more than I am! They only have 2 days in Tokyo and 1 in Kyoto ( I don't think I would have been content with that). I left them there on the train to continue to Tokyo, while I headed to the Hiroshima Castle.
The original had been destroyed a couple times and then again finally during the World War II bombing. The grounds had some of the ruins from the original structures for me to snap some pictures and a shrine (I skipped that one). The castle they built on top of the land in replacement they turned into a museum about samurai. There was some fascinating armor and a ton of swords to look at. Unfortunately most of it was in Japanese, so I just looked at the different articles on display. I ran across a tourist couple carrying a baby stroller up the stairs leading to the castle - I had to warn them that all 6 floors of the castle required you to walk up stairs. Not sure if they decided to go in or not. I grabbed some ice cream to wander back over to the Peace Memorial Park where it finally started to rain a little harder.
Last night I got in too late to visit the National Peace Memorial Hall. Lucky for me, the hall was inside out of the rain. The hall was really interesting depicting the blast radius and sharing information about the victims. One wall scrolled through all the names and pictures, or you could go to a nearby computer to look them up. Unfortunately, the documents in the city buildings were destroyed as well so the total number of victims was never confirmed. They estimate somewhere between 130,000-150,000 people died in the blast or within the next 6 months. That number doesn't include the significant number of more people infected by the radiation and dying from cancers or other complications. It was sad to read about it. The hall ended with a video discussing the stories of children survivors of the blast and losing their loved ones - it was made into a book called "Genbaku no Ko" (Children of the A-Bomb). It was the first published release to the public of Japan describing the true devastation the bomb had on the country. Most of the media had been strongly controlled by the government.
I grabbed my bags from the hostel and headed to catch a train to my next stop - Osaka - with hopes that the rain would not be as bad there. I was told by the ticketing agents that all the reserved seats for the next train to Osaka were sold out, so I made sure to be near the front of the line for the non-reserved seats just in case. I had no problem snagging a seat and settling in for my hour long train ride. My brain was ready for a break from planning so I read one of the books I had downloaded for my flight (but never read because the awesome movies were available for all our flights). It was such a nice reprieve that when I got to Osaka and to the hostel there, I was tempted not to do anything. I took an hour to relax while I did some much needed laundry before making myself head out in the rain since I was only here one night.
One of my bunkmates, a 17 year old girl from Hong Kong, had recommended an area called Shinsaibashi that has lots of young people. The Lonely Planet tour book had a walking path recommendation through that area so I wrote it on my map and headed out in the rain. It was a popular part of town for shopping. There were store after store after store - mostly of clothes. So of course, I had to go in and try a couple things on. Lucky for me the boys were no longer with! They may not have had as much fun. I felt really out of place because everyone was all dressed up fancy (why you dress up fancy to go shopping, no idea). It was awesome to look at all the people you passed by on the streets to see their ensemble. I spent about 2 1/2 hours wandering around and popping in and out of stores. I didn't even hit the majority of the area! It is a shopping heaven. Most stuff was a little pricey for me, so no surprise - I left without anything new.
Shot from fighting the rain and still tempted to crawl back in bed with my book, I headed back to the hostel around 9pm. I'm glad I did too, because by the time I got back the rain was really coming down. Time to cozy in with my book and get a nice rest tonight (I have a bed instead of a futon today, yey!!). The only other stop I want to see in Osaka tomorrow doesn't open until 10am, so I'm hoping my body will let me sleep in.

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