Global Village

October 26

What a calming place! With my culture shock still in full swing, the World Friendship Centre felt like a little North American oasis in the middle of this vast, strange land. Don and Pauline were the volunteer managers here, almost finished their 2 year term. They were a nice chatty couple and made us feel at home.
   Thursday morning at breakfast we met the other people who were staying at the centre with us. A teacher, his girlfriend (?) and two junior highschool students had come from Lithuania with a whole bunch of paper cranes they had made on the 60th anniversary of the bomb. The woman (I think her name was Auguste), had spent several years at university in Japan and was quite fluent. She speaks at least 4 languages. 2 secondary languagues are mandatory in Lithuanian public school. I always feel inadequate around travellers from other countries. Almost everyone I've met can speak at least english on top of their own language.

A-bomb Museum

We had 2 hours to see the museum before it closed, which turned out to be not quite enough time.

In the first section of exhibits we were each approached by a group of junior highschool girls with a typed script read by a nervous spokeswoman. All the other girls giggled behind their hands. They asked us to read and comment on a paragraph they had written about peace and then pose for a photo with them. When Matt answered "hai" in japanese they all gasped and giggled as if he'd done a magic trick.

The museum was all bilingual. They have english language recordings that are not very useful for most of the museum, but add interesting first person stories in the section with the burned up relics. It's worth 3 bucks.

   The exhibits were extensive and really quite intense. Afterward, we both sad outside and cried.

I was so wiped out that when we got back to our room at 8 pm I didn't even eat supper, I just laid down and went to sleep.

Hiroshima

October 25

We can never get away as early as we'd like.

At least Hiroshima was only a short jump on the bullet train from Fukuyama. There was so much more english in this city. This helped to ease my culture-sickness, but not my hangover.  The peace park was teeming with schools of japanese tourists - and I mean schools in a very literal sense. Most of them were school groups.

     

We finally got to check our email in the oh-so-comforting foreign exchange lounge & library at the park. I would never have thought I'd be so happy to see english magazines and books.  

By the time we had walked to the World Friendship Centre, where we were staying, I was dead tired, but we pressed on. Still lots to see and do today!

For lunch we were directed down the alley to a little Okonomiyaki shop. Finally we'd get to try this beloved japanese dish! It was a great slice-of-life experience watching the local cab drivers joke and tease with the woman at the grill. I think she was supposed to be closing up for the afternoon when we walked in, but she welcomed us anyway. Matt enjoyed his huge helping, but it turned out that I really don't like Okonomiyaki.

Last night in Fukuyama

We tried every night to go to this great Okonomiaki place that Dave knows, but it was always busy or closed.

Oh well.

Tonight went to a little Izaka-ya (pub) in the shopping arcade that comes highly recommended. It's a tiny place with dark wood beams. We sat right at the counter along the grill. The cook was young and friendly, chatting to us in a mixture of English and Japanese (to Dave) about music. He was excited that we wanted to experiment, and fed us several small, tasty dishes, as well as top-notch Yakisoba.

Afterward, we went around the corner to a Hawaiian-themed bar where many of Dave's friends hang out. The had electronic darts and free peanuts. I tried Shochu (basically japanese vodka) with black tea - potent stuff! I had a bit of a hang-over the next day after just 2 drinks!

James and Naoko stopped by to say goodbye. They gave us a bag of yummy green tea & milk hard candies. I really want to keep in touch with them.

We ended up standing in front of our hotel talking with Dave until it was way past all our bedtimes. Loud Canadians.

Labarynth

October 24

   Dave took us to a port town called Onomichi. The mountains practically rise up out of the channel, so most of the town is on a steep angle. We did the temple walk through the hills. Dave is big on temples. I must admit many of them are beautiful and we really enjoyed wandering through the maze of narrow streets to find them.

Of course we got lost.

There were no street signs, and many roads ended as private driveways and yards. It was great fun. We had to press up against the walls to let scooters past. I was fascinated with the glimpses I got of peoples houses and yards - their daily life. I also liked greeting all the elderly people we passed along the way.

We took a tram up the hill for a lovely view and saw statues of naked women (much more popular than naked men here, it seems), as well as "Monkey Land" - basically a cement pit with a mound of rocks and a handful of monkeys hanging out (there are many forlorn theme parks in Japan that were built during their economic heyday but languished after the bust). We were surrounded by elementary school children in bright, matching caps all shouting "hey Mister Monkey!" and groups of business men in suits. I have no idea why the latter group was there. Maybe seeing the sights during a business trip lunch break?

We had 'famous' ramen for lunch. It seems every second town is famous for it's ramen noodle soup.