Monday monday monday

Today we went to Shukkeien, a local Garden. The entrance fee was 150 yen and so totally worth it. It was really beautiful. As pictures give you more than a thousand words and video more than 12 pictures/second I'll give you just that:


YES, it is an otter. IN A PARK, IN THE MIDDLE OF HIROSHIMA. Yeah.

A quick look around, pretty much 180 degrees.

A FISH. It'd take a week for me to eat that. Like what the hell...

Aaaaaaand a lovely crab (*^u^*) the were EVERYWHERE so in the end I just had to document the movement of one. Sorry.

 

After the park we hurried around, trying to find some Okonomiyaki to dull our hunger. The first place we were directed to was closed (well it is Monday and many places are closed on Mondays) so we hiked for another half a kilometre or so and FOUND A PLACE. It was so good oh God. I'd stay here just to eat the food forever.

Miyajima

The day before yeasterday we went to Miyajima, one of the "most beautiful sights in Japan". I think it's ranked third or so. We sat in a tram for forty-five minutes and the ferry ride to the island took about 15 minutes. It was totally worth it. We arrived there during low tide and got to walk around Torii, the symbolic gate before the Itsukushima Shrine

 

Sorry for my face -it was sunny and my eyes were practically bleeding by the time that random person who gracefully offered to take the picture for us actually took the picture.

The Itsukushima Shrine in the middle picture is part of UNESCO World Heritage, by the way. I just wanted to say that, it sounds so civilized and intellectual and whatever I'll just get on with it now.

After visiting the main attractions of the island we went exploring, and found this lovely (and very Finnish in a way -it had pines -the trees- and all) area with steep stairs up to a path which led to a miniature almost-shrine ->

After buying Momiji (maple-shaped small treat with different fillings inside, we bought one chocolate, one cream-filled and one red bean paste filled or whatever. Surprisingly the chocolate-filled was best) we found a place to sit and eat our first ones in peace, and found a lovely seat with a view to the ocean and the Torii. It was fine for a few minutes until the tame deer tried to eat the from our hands... I can say, they were actually very good until the just DIDN'T GET that we wanted to eat them ourselves...... (Ignore the random kid posing on the video :D)

A day in our lives

Today was a weird one. We woke up at about ten, showered etc etc and were out of the door by noon. We walked around, got some breakfast/lunch from a supermarket and went to the Peace Park (which is in walking distance!). We were debating whether or not it would be rude to eat there on the benches which had engraved plates with the names of the atomic bomb victims, and ended up walking to another park to eat. Which was a good decision as we had a fun time. Woah.

We were sitting there on the side of a stream on some random stairs, miding our own business when weirdness enveloped us into her bosom. A biker-by was PRESUMABLY singing, although all we heard was "aaaaAAAAAAaaalalaaa" and then she was gone and we heard no more. Few minutes later two men in their twenties came by and sat next to us for a grand total of about 60 seconds, then retreating 50 metres or so, hanging behind us for a while. One of them had obvious difficulty with KEEPING HIS SHIRT ON. After these fine men had returned to their car, which they had conviniently parked pretty much in the middle of the road we realized that a Junior High kid who walked over a bridge next to us did it for about the fifth time. He was just walking around, making these sharp turns (like over 90 degrees, what?) and stopping at random moments, walking to and fro the park we were sitting in. After mulling this over for a few minutes it was overrided by a man in his late thirties, who started to smirk at us and mumble random things on the other side of that small stream. Then he decided to cross said stream by coming down the two-metre-high bank and jumping to a level rock, working his way towards us by jumping from one rock to another. And I can say those rocks were sparsely spread. After arriving to our side of the stream he flashed us a smirk and again mumbled something incomprehendable, then continued on his way TO CLIMB A TREE.

Liek, do u like mudkipz? We had an interesting day.

Today we arrived to Hiroshima after a four-hour bus trip which was mostly spent asleep. As last night was our final one in Fukuoka, we were supposed to go to bed early, BUT. We had gotten to know several wonderful people and in the end we just kept pushing the whole going-to-bed part later and later until we didn't sleep at all. And we kind only realized that by the time the sun had come up and the reception had opened.

We were just hanging around in the lounge room until about three when we had this inspiration to go to the local 24-hour Konbini. Our newly-found friend decided to buy several alcoholic beverages and we bummed a packet of ham to be able to make an omelet. So we were back at the hostel by half four and Mia and I started to make our omelet without actually knowing if it would be our breakfast or a really (and I mean really) late dinner or something.

We also ended up tasting umeshu and asahi and hanged around on the rooftop area since about when the sun started to come up. Fooling around with the cameras had some interesting results (this is from about 2am?) Sadly most of the pictures were taken not by our camera so we don't have them (yet, at least. Facebook is my lover).

And when we started thinking about it this whole thing started with POPCORN which I had accindentally thrown to my suitcase and as we were going through our stuff we ended up wanting that popcorn and decided to eat it as an evening snack or whatever (iltapala).

After the fun night we ran to our bus which left at 10.20 and made it just in time (we had thought they'd leave about once every hour but there would've been an five hour wait for the next one...) and ended up sleeping pretty much the whole way. (Y)

When we got to Hiroshima we realized we once again hadn't gotten the information about the hostel (J-Hoppers) we were going to stay in and had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER how to get there from the station. So we went to the local bus-info and tried to confirm where we should go and they were so helpful. It was actually an info for those using the bus lines and trying to find the right one but they printed out maps how to walk to the hostel, drew the hostel to us on the map and then a woman left the info area to walk us all the way to the tram stop... ONLY IN JAPAN. And just afterwards when we got off from the tram and tried to find our way from the stop to the hostel, several people stopped and and asked us if were lost, were we fine and would we find our way, confirming we were going to the right direction. A passer-by woman volunteered to lead us here (as she lives close by) and walked with us until we found the door of the hostel and got in. I repeat: only in Japan.

But other than that, I'm hungry and tired but very, very happy right now. If I get something to eat and some good manga to read (eg. the first volume of Death Note I bought) I'll be totally content.

And I'll be adding those promised pictures of Fukuoka when I get by to do it, hopefully it'll be soon. (~*w*)~