Adventures in Mainland: Part 4, Hiroshima

At last, the final part of our trip to mainland Japan: Hiroshima! We traveled to Hiroshima by bullet train, which was something we always wanted to do. It was pretty awesome! I thought that it felt extremely smooth and the trip was definitely quicker than I expected.

Hiroshima was not at all what I expected. It was a thriving, modern, beautiful big city. The foliage continued to add beautiful colors among the city buildings and waterways lined several of the streets.

We took the the city trolley (yes, one more train!) to our first stop. It was crowded but very easy to navigate. I love this picture that Sara took on the trolley.

The first stop was a sobering site: the A-bomb dome. This building "survived" the atomic bomb blast and still stands today as a reminder of the loss and devastation that Hiroshima experienced in 1945.

This statue marks where the bomb exploded about 600 meters above the ground. The interesting part of this memorial is that it's right up against a building, with more buildings beside it. You could easily walk by and not realize you passed this historic site.

We spent the next several hours learning about the devastation caused by the atomic bomb in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. I have to admit that it was a little strange to be there. But, seeing the destruction and hearing the true stories of survivors made the past more real to me. It is an excellent museum, filled with tons of artifacts and information.

This a view of the A-bomb dome and eternal flame near the entrance of the museum.

Outside the museum, thousands of paper cranes represent prayers for peace and the memory of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako Sasaki developed leukemia as a result of her exposure to the bomb blast. In the hospital she worked tirelessly to make 1,000 paper cranes. There is a Japanese legend that says that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, you will be granted a wish. Sadako never made it to 1,000 by the time she died, but her friends folded enough so that she was buried with 1,000 paper cranes. There is a children's book that tells her story: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

After our sobering visit, we still had time to visit one more historic landmark in Hiroshima. We decided to check out Hiroshima Castle. This castle dates back to about 1590, but was destroyed in the bombing of Hiroshima. Reconstructed to look as it originally did, the castle now serves as a museum and we were fortunate enough to visit it before it closed for the day.

We got some beautiful views of Hiroshima at night from the top of the castle.

For dinner we went downtown and decided to go with something totally un-Japanese. We found a local Irish Pub and settled down for some much needed food. Little did we realize this pub had something special. It was only after one of the guys used the restroom that we were enlightened to the secret that this pub held. Check this out:

Yes, you are seeing that right. The urinals look out into the street. Here's the picture of the outside of the pub where the urinals look out into the street.

Besides the crazy urinals, the food was yummy. I had traditional shepherd's pie. Mmmmm...

Since Thanksgiving had just passed days ago, they still offered their Thanksgiving-themed shots and we had to try them. Those were also yummy.

After our delicious dinner at the weird-urinal-Irish-pub-in-Hiroshima, we decided to walk back to the hotel. As we walked we took in the sights of downtown. Look what we found - Big Echo - 7 floors of karaoke!

We are goofballs, but having a good time in downtown Hiroshima.

Sara and I tried to blend in, but I think our coats are giving us away in this window ad.

We turned the corner, only to find....a lighted winter wonderland! How fun!

Peace, baby!

Our gang!

It was soon afterward that we realized we had walked in the complete OPPOSITE direction of our hotel and it wasn't getting any warmer. So, after a warm taxi ride back to our place, we decided to have a celebratory drink to toast our adventures.

But, first a dance with the mechanical Santa.

Here's to many more adventures in Japan!

And to our travel buddies, Gabe and Sara: thanks for the great times! We hope to travel with you again!

Adventures in Mainland: Part 3, Nara

It's here and it's a long post, so grab a cup of coffee and stay awhile!

After visiting the Golden Temple, we took a train out to Nara, Japan. I was really looking forward to going to Nara, since I had been told that wild deer roam free in the city.

Upon entering the city, we picked up a tour guide at the train station, who led us around and told us the historic significance of what we were seeing. On our way to the sights, we walked through downtown and I could tell that deer were coming up.

And then, I saw it...my first Nara deer! This is what we were waiting for! I quickly ran over to pet it. I mean, how often do you get to pet a "wild" deer?! Can't you see my excitement?

The deer was just a distraction from what we were headed to see: Goju-no-to, the 5-storied pagoda at the Kofuku-ji, a Buddhist temple. It was pretty awesome.

As we continued to walk the ground, we saw a lot more foliage. As usual, it was beautiful!

Here we are (well, Sara took this pic, so she's not in it), looking like tourists and learning about the current state of many of the historic-looking buildings.

When we came upon a clearing, Sara and I almost bolted: DEER! LOTS AND LOTS OF DEER! And you could feed them and pet them and take lots of pictures of them! It was very exciting, I tell you.

Ah, yes. The deer were cute. True, they can get pushy if you don't offer them food, but I found them charming.

We quickly realized that these Nara deer are EVERYWHERE....literally. Look, they are in the streets...

...in the crowds...

...chilling with Gabe on the steps of the shrine entrance....

...everywhere. But, enough with the deer (for now...). We kept moving with the large crowds to Todai-ji Temple, which was constructed in the late 700s. This temple is the largest wooden building in the world and is only 2/3 of the original size (it was reconstructed in in the late 1600s - early 1700s)! It also houses Japan's largest Buddha statue. But, before entering the temple area, our guide showed us how Buddhists first light incense before entering a temple. We each put an incense stick into the cauldron, but my coat did not like this experience.

Yup, those would be burn holes.

The temple was an impressive structure and extremely crowded. Considering it's history and the value to this culture, it shouldn't really be a surprise.

The Great Buddha, also known as Diabutsu, was huge. It's over 50 feet tall!

Me and Sara!

Within the Todai-ji complex is another temple up on a hill called Nigatsu-do. We trekked up there and enjoyed some spectacular views of Nara.

There was also a little resting station where you could sit and enjoy some tea.

As we walked towards the exit, we ran into some more deer, but this time it was a deer family! They were really cute and we just HAD to feed them.

The walk back was stunning. The foliage was just breathtaking...and you know what that means? Photo op!

Another beautiful element on the premises are all the stone lanterns. Our tour guide told us that they are still used once or twice every year.

Finally we made it to back to the entrance of the park and had to say farewell to our helpful tour guide, Hiroshi - well, not without snapping a picture first.

After a train ride back to Kyoto, we decided to walk around Kyoto Station. Kyoto Station is a huge hub of activity in Kyoto that serves as the main train station. It's a pretty modern marvel in such a historic area and apparently Kyoto was hesitant to embrace it at first. However, we quickly learned that there is more than meets the eye in this train hub. To our surprise and delight we found that there were sights to be seen!

Ten stories of shopping:

Architectural marvels:

A lighted skywalk:

A lit-up holiday display:

We traveled back to our hotel and realized that, one, we were hungry and two, we weren't ready to call it a night. I had read about a little restaurant called Lugol that was close to our hotel and was popular with the locals. So we set off to find it. It wasn't so easy to find though and we quickly realized that we were somewhat lost. While we were searching the map, a local man came up to us and asked (in English, I might add) if we needed help. We all ended up finding the restaurant and he joined us for dinner. While eating, we found out that he is a Buddhist monk. As I sat back and enjoyed my food, I just couldn't believe that we were were sitting in a fun, local restaurant in the middle of Kyoto, Japan with a Buddhist monk days after Thanksgiving! What a trip this was turning out to be!

And I promise, part four of the trip is coming soon! Stay tuned!