Japan First 2 out of 4 days

Day 1- Burning Up

First quote of the day; I turned to Roberta looked at the beads of sweat forming like raindrops on her forehead, soaked my own hand in the small of my back where a pool of water (more like a hot spring) had formed and said, “ I thought Burning in Hell was for the after life.”

Words can not describe the sort of heat that Japan has in the summer. Every time we go to tell people about wonderful Japan and get to the temperature part people smile and listen politely. I want to wipe that smile off their face and say “You don’t get it!!!” 37 degrees Celsius and 90% or higher humidity means that one is never dry!!! Everyone has sweat stains and wet hair. It is like a live ‘Zest Fully Clean’ commercial only replace the sweet aroma of soap and insert the spicy aroma of Body odour!!! I will try not to talk about the heat for the rest of this blog but it did cause deliriously giggly moments, sleepless nights (no air con), and many stops to the convenience store. These stops were disguised as opportunities to hydrate when in fact they were a guilty pleasure inducing affair of free AIR CONDITIONING!!!


The trip began with us catching the bus to the airport with our friend and coworker Blair. We got ourselves checked in, ate some Subway (This is a HUGE DELICIOUS deal to us), and boarded the plane. Stuffed and comfortable, we fell asleep only to be woken up by plane food. Now I have to admit I take a ridiculous amount of pleasure from plane food and this was no ordinary food. Oh no! This food consisted of amazing noodles, rice with seaweed, cold ginger, and root vegetables, all arranged in cute compartments. Shortly after chowing down (again), we arrived only 2 hours after take off!

We grabbed our luggage from the small Hiroshima carousel and made our way outside. In hand were email instructions as to where we needed to catch a bus. We found the buses promptly and butchered the Japanese word we were trying to sound out. We were at the correct bus but when we tried to board we were gently ushered away to an automatic machine and assisted in purchasing a ticket. We handed the bus driver money (we were much to fresh with to consider valuable) and moments later we were on a bus hoping we were heading in the direction we wished to go.

Immediately our eyes feasted on the lush surroundings. Everything was so green! The road winded through rolling hills of trees. I actually want to compare it to Alberta but it has been so long I could be a just longing. We made one stop and agreed that it couldn’t be the right stop yet as our instructions were to go down an escalator and the little building that stared back at us couldn’t of had an escalator so we continued on.

We arrived at a large department store went down an escalator and stood at the front looking for our friend Tom. Sure enough, a sweaty Tom greeted us. Relieved to have made it we were struck that we too were soaked in sweat. MMMM sweaty hugs make one feel so close. Tom put us in a cab with a card stating his address and we were off. 4 blocks and $10.00 later we arrived at his apartment.

His apartment was so cute albeit similar to a sweat box being on the 9th floor with air-conditioning that costs enough to leave one ‘cute apartmentless.’ He had great mats all on his floor and just a thin mattress to sleep on (also on the floor). It was simple but nice because his ‘bedroom’ was separated from the living room by a small sliding door, unlike my room (which I do love) but is only one large room.

We left our things and we walked only about 3 blocks and found ourselves at the Peace Park. The Peace Park is a grassless park, spotted with trees, that accent various monuments. The monuments are each dedicated to different aspects of the world’s first nuclear attack… only 63 years ago! (August 6, 1945)

The building featured in the pictures is the A-Dome. It is the building that was closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb and remained standing while the rest of the city center was burnt to dust. The A-Dome served it’s chilling purpose; juxtaposed with the beauty of the river, bridges, and park one could see people’s potential for beauty and incomprehensible evil.

Besides the A-Dome, there was a monument dedicated to the Korean workers who were brought over as factory workers and killed in the blast, the children from various schools (including Sadako and a large display of paper cranes which are constantly replenished around the monument), the Memorial Centotaph with all the names of the victims, a peace bell (which we tolled for peace), and the Peace Flame (which has burned since 1964 and will continue until the world is rid of nuclear weapons).

From there we fed Tom (we still weren’t hungry from our plane feast). Then we headed to Hiroshima castle. Roberta the cripple ☺, didn’t go inside to climb the stairs but Tom and I checked it out with our cameras so Bert could live it too. Inside, there was some traditional weaponry, armour (including those to try on), and castle designs.

After the castle we headed back to Tom’s place to enjoy some convenience store grub and strange alcoholic beverages. Tom’s English friend, Ian, joined the impromptu party. The heat and the alcohol created many giggly session and brainy ideas to cool one down. After much revision we all agreed that robots that dressed you in frozen clothing was the idea that should be sold to the Japanese government. (ohhh dear ☺)

The night continued on with drinks by the river. We were met by more friends and laughed carefree at the river just opposite the Peace Dome. A strange situation indeed. From there we went to a bar for a birthday party. At this bar there was a Wii Nintendo system set up that we played. After ‘Wiing,’ we were at a Western bar, where ironically I got a lesson in Japanese from a table of Japanese boys. “I love you” is “Shit er you”… I laughed out loud and said “Excuse me???”… “Shit on me” hahhahahaha. Finally the night was capped off with some dancing in a basement club that was full of Brazilians. Apparently many Brazilians immigrate to Japan. I have yet to find out why but that is interesting eh???

Day 2; Miyajima Island

Miyajima is an island with Shinto shrines, deer, and monkeys… oh mi!

We boarded a ferry to this delightful island. As one steps off the ferry, the first to greet you are the wild deer! They come right up to you and nibble on your clothes. Don’t say you eat deer meat here. As deer to some Japanese people are considered sacred.


Walk a little farther on land and one can get an amazing view of the torri, or gate. This gate was constructed in 1168 but the current one we saw only dates to 1875 (only!). It is 16 meters high, built on 4 legs, and painted a beautiful bright red. At high tide the gate looks as if it is floating. Commoners were historically not allowed on the island and had to approach through the gate by ship to enter the shrine. The shrine is also built on the water. After our photo opt with the gate behind us, we hung out in a wooded temple and took pictures by a large red shrine dedicated to music. From there we went further up the hill.

We took two separate cable cars up the highest mountain on the island to get a view of the ocean and the city of Hiroshima. Now the whole way up I am hoping we will be able to see the monkeys I have heard so much about. At the top we exit to be greeted by these ridiculous signs about not looking the monkey’s in the eyes, not feeding the monkeys etc…. but NO monkeys! No matter, the views were incredible the blue sea was picturesque and it was worth the money spent on the cable car.

Just as we were climbing the rocks down to the cable car Tom stops to point out a monkey in the bush. I am elated and to my delight he comes out from the bush to stand on a rock about 1 meter in front of me. Possibly out of dizzy delight, or because I am just this talented I feel I loose some footing and stumble… My reaction is to put both arms out in the air, and let out an open mouthed “ahh” like a scream. WELL what do you think that monkey thought when he saw some ridiculous nut job make herself bigger, bare her teeth, and roar??? … the monkey does the predictable animal reaction… he jumps up and mimicks my exact stance. His arms are out, yellowish brown teeth are bared and beady eyes are staring right into mine….. I was frozen in fear... So many thoughts went through my head at this point… I was imagining him jumping out towards me and gnawing on my neck (Roberta imagined the same thing) and then I thought ‘I don’t know how I would fight this thing.’ In addition, my mind went back to when I gave blood to the red cross and how they asked me if I have ever handled a monkey before… How would I explain I was attacked by one! Finally I also thought about the irony in that the “Don’t look the monkey in the eyes sign is literally 2 meters away from this stand off.”

Sometime within all of these thoughts, I brought down my arms and hugged them toward myself. I turned my head to wide eyed Roberta and Tom and said “What should I do.” Roberta panickly responded “Don’t move.” So I didn’t … the monkey then backed down. His next response was to turn to leave back to the bush but not without one final cock of his head in my direction, as if to say “You crazy Waeguk (Korean for foreigner).” After the incident we laughed a lot. We are still laughing about it. I asked Tom where he was for me during this incident his reply, “I am sorry Meira, but my first aid training didn’t cover MONKEY attacks!”

After a long day of island exploring, cable car/tram riding/ferry riding, and close call monkey attacks we were spent. We had dinner at a Thai place (because that makes sense in Japan ☺, then some coffee on a cute second floor outdoor café. Here we overlooked some university students in big hair ‘flirt around.' Finally, we headed back to Tom’s to try and sleep but mostly just sweat.