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Published: November 18th 2010
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I think there is a replica of this image in Southpark A thousand apologies for neglecting the travel blog as of late. I thought I'd write a quick one on the eve of my impromptu trip to Canada for the first time in over four years. Japan is quite difficult to get a visa for and I ran out of time on my un-extendable visitor visa. Therefore, I've gotta get the H outta here before it runs out on the 20th. I'll be in Canada for roughly 2 weeks before returning to Japan and finalizing all that bureaucratic nonsense to get a visa over there. Yumi can't come unfortunately as it is such a last minute trip and she is already working.
I just double checked the last blog entry I made all the way back in August and I left off after we(Yumi, Nairb and Brian) arrived in Fukuoka. We didn't do a whole lot there as we arrived late and left the next day. The only thing that really stood out in my memory was the awesome bowl of ramen. There are a lot of styles of ramen but the one originating from that city is easily my favorite. Next up we hopped islands from Kyushu to the main
islands of Honshu. The next overnight stop was Hiroshima, where we spent two nights.
Hiroshima is of course famous for the nuclear bomb site and the museum. Most of the monuments and memorials are located in the Peace Memorial Park, which was a quick walk from our hostel. The most striking image that will always stick in my mind is of course of the A-bomb dome. The A-bomb dome, once known as the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall, managed to remain standing as it was almost directly below the detonating atomic bomb. The blast knocked out all the filler, but the skeleton remained as there was no horizontal blast to push it to the ground. The Peace Memorial museum is also in the park and is probably the best museum I've been to. Thankfully none of the exhibits are focused on finger pointing and blame. Instead we are given a thorough and enlightened account of the events leading up to the tragedy, as well as stories of victims and survivors and a passionate plea to abolish nuclear weapons in the world. The Peace Memorial Park is also home to a group of old retired Japanese guys who spend their
days playing shogi(Japanese Chess) and talking about baseball. I learned how to play shogi in Australia and found myself in a game against someone. I think I surprised him and won the first game, but his buddies started mocking him for losing at a Japanese game to a foreigner and he rallied and took the next two. I was pretty stoked just to take the one.
The next day we had booked tickets on the Shinkansen to Tokyo. We could choose to go at any time of the day and thankfully Matt lobbied to take the latest one possible so we could go to an island called Miyajima for the day. I had never really heard of it before so I had preferred just to get an early start on Tokyo. I'm pretty happy i lost that debate because Miyajima is the best place I've been in Japan for cool old Japanese historical stuff. This includes anything I saw in Kyoto, which we go to a week later. The main highlight is the Torrii Shrine, which is built out in the water and appears to float just off shore. This is just one of a dozen cool things we
Inside A-Bomb Dome
Still filled with rubble saw and visited in the compact town. The town is also full of semi-wild deer that roam around and hassle people for food or give people rabies.
The Shinkansen trip to Tokyo was the greatest transportation experience ever. It seems a bit pricey for a train trip at first, but when you consider that you go from downtown Hiroshima to Tokyo Central Train Station in 4 hours, it is well worth what you pay. There's no way you could make it between the two points any faster by airplane when you factor in all the security hassles and transport to and from the airports. The train is really comfortable as well. The view is nice as you go by at 300kph. We got to Tokyo in the evening and had to take another local line train to the suburb where Yumi's house is. We were totally unprepared for how vicious the Tokyo rush hour trains are. At every stop a small army of suits literally pushes there way onto the train. It doesn't matter that we already are packed so tightly that nobody can breathe out properly. Every stop was a desperate struggle to not get trampled or suffocated.
It is totally insane, and of course we were quite unpopular due to us wearing massive bags and taking up extra trampling space.
We did make it in the end to Yumi's parents house for some sake with her dad and to meet her 3 loud dogs and 1 eccentric cat. I'll go into what went down in Tokyo town next blog as well as a trip to Kyoto. And to everyone living in Edmonton, I shall see you all very soon.
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Alli
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Deeeer, Doggieeesss, Eccentric Caaaats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My favourite blog entry yet... See you soon! :)