Hiroshima Castle and Miyajima Island

We started our day of heading back to the Hiroshima castle. As we walked back to the castle we passed several street cars. Here is what they look like. Some are very old, while others are more modern. 

I had to change the baby and gave Bill my phone to take photos. We take very different photos. Here is a sampling I his photos of the temple. 

This is the Buddhist temple on the castle grounds. It was quite busy with new year visitors. 

I got my phone back and the rest are my photos. Here is a close up of the Hiroshima castle. It was rebuilt in the late 1950's. 

We had a great time at the castle. I will have to post photos from Bill's camera. Bill and Theo dressed up as samurais. It was quite authentic. 

We have come to the conclusion that Theo does not like the castle grounds. He had another massive meltdown and we had to head back to the hotel. We calmed him down and regrouped. After an hours rest we went to lunch. We had Indian curry. This was Bill's lemon curry. The lemon is in the shape of a heart. It was very good. 

After lunch we went to the streetcar station and boarded an hour train headed to Miyajima Island. Theo slept the whole way. Along the way we passed through a race. There were runners running a city wide relay. It was impressive at how fast they were running. It started today and ends tomorrow.  Once we arrived at the end of the rail line we got off and boarded a ferry. A short ten mins. Bill wondered why they didn't just build a bridge. Once on the other side we strolled to see the orange Torii gate. While walking the streets we were greeted by deer. The Buddhist believe the deer are a sacred animal and do not control what they do or where they go.  Here is a photo of one trying to get into a restaurant. He was hitting his nose on the buttons to open the door, but he must not have hit had enough, cause he was never successful. 

Now the famous orange Torii gate floating above the water. Oh wait- tide is out. So it does not appear to be floating. 

We walked out to the gate. It is huge. 

Here is Theo and I- the look on his face is a pooping face. 

The view, even without the water is beautiful. 

We enjoyed walking through the temple that honors that Torii. We also passed through their hall of treasures. 

Here is Theo pretending to be a Buddhist priest. 

The sunset behind the mountains was beautiful. 

We boarded the ferry again and then the street car and headed back to the city. 

This is the why are you taking my picture look. 

After we returned to Hiroshima we stopped at a wine bar/pizzeria for dinner. It was a quiet and very chill place. Great wine and good pizza. A wonderful way to end the day. We walked the long way home- Bill got a little lost. And picked up some breakfast for the morning. We leave on Monday and fly back to Okinawa. Our visit to Hiroshima has been very educational and humbling, but quite enjoyable. I love Japan! 

Hiroshima

So for MLK weekend we jetted off island to mainland. We headed towards Hiroshima. We flew ANA and they gave us two toys for the baby. We only took a picture with the toys- notice the tiny airplane- it is a total choking hazard! 

We took an hour bus ride from the airport to the city center. Then a short 15min street car. Yes a street car, I'll have to get a photo. Finally we arrived at the hotel. They offered Bill coffee for in the morning and they offered me some specialty bath products and some baby products. I took a bath in the morning, used a lemongrass bath salts- It turned the water lime green! It was shocking. I drained the tub and refilled it to bath the baby. He got a turtle sponge. An a toothbrush with stawberry toothpaste. The mint toothpaste they gave us was nasty- but the strawberry toothpaste was not any better! 

So we started our morning early- thanks to the most expensive alarm clock! We got breakfast at family mart and headed to the atomic bomb sight. The first atomic bomb was dropped at 8:15 August 6, 1945. Since that day Hiroshima has been trying to rebuild and make peace. There are 57 monuments at the peace park. We walked to all 57, I swear, Bill loves forced marches. 

The first one we came across was one for the girls school that was incinerated. It  has an umbrella over all the paper cranes. Love the Japanese thinking. 

Next we walked through the peace gates. There are words of peace inscribed on the gates. We went back at night. Really beautiful. 

Here is a quick selfie- Theo is sleeping. 

This is a statue out in front of the museum. It is heart breaking. Many people on the outskirts of the bomb sight survived, but were walking dead. This depicts a mother trying to pick her two children up and walk to safety. 

This is the tomb of all the unidentified bodies. It is the Japanese belief that if the souls are not identified, they can not rest peacefully. This is also the sight of whee Japan has declared to never go to war again. 

Here is a clock set to 8:15 surrounded by atomic bomb rubble. 

Below the clock is peace hall it is a place of silence and rememberance. It is soul shaking. I have felt American guilt at Okinawan battle sights and in Vietnam, but here I felt sadness. I did not feel we should hide that we are American.  I felt so sad for the city and is people, survivors and civilians. 

Next we walked to the peace bell. It is rung at 8:15am every day. Surrounding the bell are cases of art work made out of paper cranes. 

Here is a shot of the mall area with the museum at the end. 

This is one of a few remaining buildings from when the A-bomb was dropped.  This was a civic market center, considered advanced architecture for the time period. 

There has been a lot of controversy over this building. One side says tear it down because it is a reminder for all the lives lost. The other side says keep it up as a reminder of the cost of war. 

I think it is amazing to see the structure. It makes you think, if the bomb could do this to a building, imagine what it felt like. The bomb was dropped 300meters off target. It exploded 600meters above a hospital. It was 280meters diameter after 1sec after detination. And it was 6million degrees Celsius at its core. These are dumbfounding facts. After the bomb the ground temp was 5,000 degrees Celsius. 

After walking around outside we went through the museum. It was fascinating to look at all the artifacts and read all about the events. Surprisingly the museum was factual, not anti American or anti war. Just, this is how it was, this is what happened. I was thoroughly engaged in reading all of the information. It was like I was relearning about the war in the pacific. Many times Okinawa was mentioned and it is putting all the pieces together. I have never understood the pacific part of World War II in its entirety, but I am beginning to understand. The musem was very well done. I really enjoyed it. Great start to the day. We saw all 57 monuments- or it sure felt like it- and it was only noon. We headed to lunch. 

We wanted Okonomyaki for lunch, but there was a line out the door. So we had Mcdonalds instead. Afterrwards we had macaroons for desert. We had five different flavors- orange, lemon, chocolate, grape and frambrosia- whatever that is. They were so good. Neither one of us had ever eaten macaroons.  

Next we walke to the Hiroshima Castle. Here you can see it off in the distance. 

We walked onto the grounds, into the outside wall, and then Theo had a massive meltdown. We changed him, fed him and pulled him out of the carrier. Nothing was helping. So before going into the castle, we turned around and headed home. On the way out of the castle grounds we saw a bride and groom photo shoot. 

As soon as we walked away from the castle grounds, the baby fell asleep. We will hit the castle tomorrow. But since we had a sleeping baby we thought we would capitalize on that. When we arrived we went through this really cool mall. And I had seen a sign for baby clothes. I wanted to check it out. I love looking at baby Japanese clothes. They Are so darn cute. And expensive. They were selling onsies for $59. Crazy. They also had toys but they were really expensive. It was still really fun to walk through. 

Once we returned to the hotel we relaxed and had a snack. We had Mountain Dew fries. And interesting snack to say the least. And two hr rest and we headed out to dinner. Time to check out this Okonomyaki place. 

It was raining/spitting a wintery mix so our hotel let is borrow two umbrellas. We walked down to the restaurant and by the time we made it down there it was snowing.  

We ordered dinner and prepped for the feast that was to arrive. 

I am not sure what Okonomyaki means, but it is noodles, cabbage, meat (pork and shrimp) noodles, a pancake, cheese and egg topped with sauce all warmed on a griddle and served on a griddle. 

That was Bill's- covered in green onion. Mine is the one with cheese on it. To the left of his. 

It was so tasty. We have had something similar. But this was better. It was so good! 

To end the night we walked home via the peace park to check the sights all light up at night. It was drizzling. I know we have recently been to S. Korea and Nagano- both physically colder than Hiroshima. But inswear it is colder here that the other two places. I am uncomfortably cold all the time. My ears hurt, it's so cold. But we had a great first day. 

Tomorrow there is a relay road race through the city. We are not quite sure what that means. Hopefully it does not mean to mess up our plans. Also if it could warm up and stop drizzling from the sky, that would be awesome. 

New Year's Day in Nagano

We had purchased a bottle of sparkling apple cider- made locally from apples grown in Nagano- to celebrate and ring in the new year! Here is what my company looked like at about midnight. So I too went to bed. 

We slept in a bit because the baby had a rough night with a very stuffy nose. Poor babe couldn't breathe at all. But when we finally dressed and headed out for the day there was a performance in the lobby of our hotel. 

We started out day with an early lunch in this restaurant. Neither one of us were expecting a great meal, just fun ambience, but we got both. I had a bunless terryaki burger with warm potatoe mustard salad. And Bill had a loaded hot dog with herbed fries. Both were really tasty. 

After eating in a double decker bus, we decided to try to buy on and convert it into a play yard complete with a slide, climbing wall and fireman's pole. 

Remember when I said I was unsure about how Nagano hosted the Olympics. Here is a picture of their subway. People Stand inside the passageway area to take the tickets by hand as they enter and exit the subway train area. It is not automatic. Very outdated. 

We took the express train 45mins out of the city to visit the Snow Monkey park. We passed a temple coverd in snow. So pretty. 

Then we began our trek through the woods to see the monkeys. 

It was not a tough walk, but defenatly a little slippery. As we approached the river crossing area the monkeys were all around. Just as we arrived, we ran into one of Bill's NJS colleagues Rachel. She is stationed in Hawaii and was visiting Japan for New Years. So random. 

Here they are sitting in the warm hot spring. 

This little guy had such an expressive face. He kept nodding off. He was really relaxed and not concerned with the people around him. 

Here is a mam and he baby. We were so close. I wanted to touch them. Their fur looked so soft like a rabbits fur. 

Amazingly as they got out of the hot spring, their fur would dry cry quickly. 

Here is another mama and baby cuddling. 

I wanted to get a picture with the monkeys but was nervous to get to close. I was concerned they could smell food on me since I am a food source for Theo. 

I don't have any pictures on my phone of the events I am about to describe, but Bill has them on his camera. 

So Bill and I stopped in the little hut to get warm and pull Theo out and put him in his snow suit. We wanted some pictures with him out of the carrier. So we did just that an set out to get some family pictures with monkeys. I was very aware of the monkeys and how close They were to my baby. 

At one point, Bill wanted to take a picture with two monkeys behind us, he was saying stop watching the monkeys and look at the camera, but it was against my instinct to turn my back on a wild animal. We were perfectly safe an nothing happened. We got all the pictures we wanted. We headed back to the hut. As we crossed the river area, a monkey walked along side me on the hand rail. So I called to Bill, turned to be next to the monkey so we could get a photo. Never could I predict what was to happen next, the little monkey reached out and took hold of my collar to my coat. I was in shock, the monkey used his grip to pull himself up to a standing position. I was convinced the monkey was going to climb up my arm. Bill is snapping photos. They are humorous. I was so scared that the little primemate was going to latch onto me like I was holding Theo. But he let go and climbed down. I think the monkey was in just as startled as me when he realized I was a human. In the photos you will see, he reached out to me with out looking. 

Quite the experience. Bill and I bundled the baby back up into my coat and carrier and headed out of the forest. See how pretty it was. It was snowing on is at this point. I loved it. 

Bill had packed the apple wine and we drank it on our way out of the forest. It was perfectly chilled.  We popped the bottle at 3pm or midnight Texas time! 

We boarded the train and headed back. What a first day of 2014! 

We had a quick dinner at James Nagano Beer Brewery. We had the Nagano Beer, a salad and some bratwurst. Yummy! Then we retired to bed. Tomorrow would be a full day of travel by trains and airplanes! Awesome start to the new year! 

New Years in Nagano, Japan

We are ringing in the new year in Nagano, Japan! Hoping for some new year snow! We began our journey on Monday evening. Caught a 7pm flight from Okinawa to Narita Airport in Tokyo. 

An uneventful flight, we arrived and headed to the train to town. We planne on staying in Tokyo one night and head out to Nagano the next morning. 

I was non participatory when it came to planning this trip. And Bill had made some travel planning mistakes. We had a hotel near Tokyo station and we were going to be traveling in and out of Ueno Station.  No biggie, just a bit more time on the metro. We finally made it to our hotel around midnight. Hokke Inn was to be our home for the night. When we arrived there was a sign for a public bath and people kept coming downstairs in bathrobes. I was very concerned we were not going to have a bathroom in our room. 

We got to our hotel room and low and behold there was a bathroom. Yay! Very relieved to be able to use the bathroom in our own room. 

I ment to take a picture of the tiny room. But forgot. It was larger enough for a 14in walk way next to a double bed. The baby's bed went right by the door. Not a whole lot of room, but good enough for one night. 

The next morning, Bill got up and checks out the public bath. You rinse your self off and then soak in a warm pool. He said it was really nice. Not totally sure I want to bathe naked in public. But I am glad Bill had a new cultural experience. 

Once we were all packed and ready, we set out to board a train for Nagano. I have to say, I have done Tokyo metro with out child, pregnant and now with child.  It is not easy walking in and out, up and down all the stairs. I was exhausted and we had just begin our journey. We bought our tickets and boarded the train. It was going to be an almost 2 hr ride. 

Theo is intently starring at the Giraffe. Bill has named the giraffe Pig- to thoroughly confuse our child. Here is Bill in front of the Olympic sign. 

This is some traditional New Years decorations at our hotel. 

Baby bear on the subway! 

We ventured out into town to see Zenkoji temple. 

Here is a zen garden with snow and mountains in the background. So pretty. 

We walked through the tombs, I think they are really neat and quite peaceful. Not creepy like a cemetery. 

The Buddhas with their New Years attire! 

This is looking out on the temple complex , there were lots of temples and pagodas. 

This is a fence made up of thousands of tiny Buddhas. So cool looking. 

We have been to lots of temples. But this one was especially pretty with the snow. 

Here is the main drag leading up to the Zenkoji temple area. It was lined with vendors.  

We stopped for a snack, we had a soba crepe. It was warm and tasty! 

Theo sleeps a lot when we walk. He was holding my sunglasses for me. 

Here is the proud papa and the little one in his yetti suit.  

After seeing the temple we took a taxi a ways out of the city to see the Olympic stadium. I am not really sure how this town hosted the Olympics. Their public transportation system does not get you everywhere you need to be. 

We walked around stadium and enjoyed the lovely weather. But we didn't think about how we were going to get back to the city. The taxi left us. So our only way out was to walk towards a train station 4km away. So we set out hoping to come across a taxi to take us to the train station. We walked and walked and walked. Finally we hit the Main Street. The entire time we were walking it seemed like we were in small town America. It was a quaint, sleepy area and felt really American. Aside from the konji everywhere, you could have fooled me and told me we were in middle America somewhere. 

Once we got to the train station, we got on the train and headed back to Nagano. We had a 7:15pm reservation at Fujiya Gohonjin. We had an 8 course meal. In the next post, it is all about the meal. 

For desert they move you to another part of the house. You can see Bill playing with a stripped down baby, because it was so hot and Theo got to warm.