Stephanie took a picture of a sign that was on the first suspension bridge that we visited. Apparently, it is taller than Godzilla.
Yakushima was an interesting place to stay. They use the loudspeakers around town throughout the day. At 6:00 am, they play random music. At 7:00 am, they announce town news, and this continues until about 7 at night.
We visited a full sized supermarket on Yakushima, and we noticed that they had small boomboxes setup around different sections of food, playing really strange music. Must be part of their marketing or something.
Since Stephanie had only visited a Scottish garden in Japan, it made sense to start the day in Hiroshima by visiting a traditional Japanese garden, the Shukkeien Garden. It was small, but nice.
Just a few minutes away was the replica built of Hiroshima Castle, originally destroyed by the atomic bomb. It was disappointing that the front was marred by construction.
Next, we walked to the only surviving building from the atomic bomb, now named the Atomic Bomb Dome.
Around the corner was the Hiroshima Memorial and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Hiroshima version of the atomic bomb museum. We started with the Memorial, which had an interesting spiral, broken up by plaques, which gave a background to the atomic bomb explosion. At the bottom was a small fountain, with a circular wall showing the city after the explosion.
One thing that stuck out to me was that one of the plaques on the way down spoke about how Japan struck first and took responsibility for the events that led to war and this aftermath.
A short walk away was the Memorial Museum, which starts with a wall picture, also showing the devastation following the bomb, along with pictures of the city from before the blast and a clock showing the time of the blast. I was more impressed with the information on the walls of this museum, related to the history leading up to and after the bomb.
At the museum cafe, I was able to have yakisoba for the first time of the trip, a dish I discovered in Nikko.
We took a bus back to the hotel and departed for Itsukushima, also known as Miyajima, or "shrine island." Upon arriving, we were greeted by the local deer.
First, I'd like to write a little bit about deer in Japan's touristy spots of Miyajima and Nara. While at first, seeing deer walk right up to you and lounge about these two tourist heavy hotspots is exciting, it quickly becomes apparent that the deer are regularly abused. We stayed away from the touristy spots for the most part, but even in our brief walks through them, we saw a number of disturbing events. We saw a child a little older than Miles attempt to sit down on a deer, as if it was a horse. That same family then gave the deer a bit of plastic while attempting to feed it, and then couldn't get it back.
We saw an old woman give ice cream to the deer, others using food to have the deer pose for their stupid selfie pics. We saw another grab a map, in its entirely, and the family just walked away without even trying to take it back. The map itself even states to make sure to keep the maps away from the deer, as they have a habit of eating it! The tourists simply could not care less about the deer and abuse them for their own amusement. Miles was quite upset about just how common it was that the deer were treated badly.
After seeing the deer at the pier that first time, we checked in our hotel and headed towards the Diashoin temple, which is incorrectly spelled on google. The temple complex was free and quite large. It had a station to wash the god statues, similar to what I saw in the cemetery in Koyasan. It had an indoor Buddha statue area and a ton of tiny Buddha statues surrounding the area. As we walked out, we followed a path with 500 Buddha statues, many of which had been dressed up with knitted hats or scarves. Miles also waited in line to ring a bell.
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| Winnie the Pooh is well known to have collaborated with Buddha. |
Then, we headed toward the water. We encountered a spiral staircase to nowhere.
Down by the water, we encountered the famous Tori gate that the island is known for. I saw on a rock attached to a wall that led up from the beach. I ended up back there the next day, at low tide, and then again tonight. All three shots were taken while seated on the same rock.
In town, there is a long street with many shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, the shops were overwhelmingly cheap, massed produced, tourist crap. So far, in my travels, my favorite old street is still, far and away, the one in Jiufen, Taiwan.
Stephanie and I tried baked dough. Mine had beef in it and hers had vegetables. It was quite good.
That night, while Stephanie and Miles returned to the room, I ate at a local restaurant.
The food was incredible, and cooked right in front of us. I had yakisoba again, and it was the best I have ever had. A couple next to me were from Israel(although currently working in LA). We spoke about travelling and various other topics. It was a ton of fun. She was pregnant and was trying to order without meat. They were on day three of their trip and did not know a word of Japanese other than the word "arigotou," so I shared some phrases with them that would help them.
I walked along the busiest street afterward, hoping to find a snack for Miles. It was peaceful and beautiful now that the majority of tourists were gone.
The next morning, Miles and I hikes up Mt. Misen nearby. Stephanie was feeling too ill, so remained in bed. There were three trails up the mountain and this one was to be the most scenic. My sources were most incorrect. You could see nothing going up, but it was still good exercise. The trail was estimated at 1.5-2 hours, but I did not look at our starting time. There were a lot of stairs. At the top was a building with three floors, including a roof. It offered views of all sides of the mountain.
It was a good twenty minute walk to the ropeway, shown from afar on the left picture. First, there was a large ropeway to a station a few minutes lower. Then, we switched to smaller, 6 person capacity cars for a much longer descent to the bottom.
After resting in the room, we left for Itsukushima Shrine, which we walked through, as Stephanie had some interest. There wasn't much to see. We picked up a locally made snack, which tasted like a pancake with a small filling of your choice in the middle. I chose chocolate.
I returned to the same restaurant, since it was so incredible. Unfortunately, they are closed on Thursdays. Darn.
