Hiroshima and Miyajima...

Things continue to go well here in Japan, and this week I made a trip out to Hiroshima and the sacred island Miyajima. Once I start getting paid, I think I'll definitely start taking the Shinkansen ( bullet train ) because I've realized how hard it is to explore a city in just one or two days. I took the local train to Hiroshima, and even though it only took three hours, I could have gotten there in around an hour on the bullet train. Sadly, I didn't get to see as much of Hiroshima as I would have liked, and didn't realize how big of a city it was until I started trying to find my way around. I did get to eat the local delicacy called okonomiyaki, which is kind of a pancake mixed with a bunch of vegetables, meat, and seafood and I got to see the A-Bomb dome, the only building left standing after the bomb dropped, but I didn't get to see the Peace Park or check out the art museum which has some famous paintings in it. I spent the night in a youth hostel that was run by a really friendly old man who spoke just a little English, and I met two girls from Nagoya who I tried to talk to as best I could. It was a lot of fun, and even though earlier in the day I didn't get to do everything I wanted, I went to bed feeling pretty good about where I was.

While Hiroshima was left unexplored, I went almost everywhere I could in Miyajima. The temples and shrines were absolutely beautiful and just being on the island was peaceful. Apparently no one has been buried there, and you can almost feel the lightness of the place when you walk around. Monks were chanting and banging on drums, and watching them in a temple that was 500 years old was pretty amazing. I had to sit on the ground though, and when I tried to get up I just fell over because my feet had fallen asleep minutes ago. After walking around the main part of town I decided to trek up Mt. Misen, the tallest mountain on the island full of tiny little deer and monkeys. I saw a lot of deer, and even though I made monkey sounds to try and attract any of them, none came out into the open. It felt good to be out in nature like that again, and despite the huge crowds of tourists near the harbor, I only saw one or two people my entire hike. The top offered some great views, and to get down, I rode the skyline that sits a few hundred feet above the valley floor. It was really awesome, and even though it was cloudy the whole time, the fog around the mountains made things more holy and mysterious to me. I definitely want to go back there in the Spring when the small maple leaves turn red again.

So for next week I think I'm going to head out to Kyoto before winter comes and hopefully get there on a sunny day. I've been meaning to post more on some of the other blogs, and I apologize for not doing a very good job with it, but work is really busy and its not always easy to make it to the internet cafe. Anyway, I hope everyone is well, and I will try and update again sometime soon.

Oh, and I figure my first step in becoming more Asian is to act like them in photos. Hence...

From Hiroshima / Miyajima

From Hiroshima / Miyajima

From Hiroshima / Miyajima