Robot Claw

Miyajima island is about a half hour by train southwest of Hiroshima, and is a very famous tourist site with a rich history. Today we had a very full day visiting.

The ferry ride from the mainland is brief, and crosses the Seto Inland Sea. Naturally I didn’t get seasick, since I’ve got astonishing vigor, and I’m sure the calmness of the water had nothing to do with that!

Almost immediately we were greeted by the wild deer native to the island. Unlike Nara (which we’ve visited a few times), the deer on Miyajima can’t be fed and as a result they beg less and mostly just walk around and aren’t bothered at all by the people.

These are ‘sika’, a different species of deer from Nara (or the ones we get in our backyard at home). They’re smaller and have tiny (nonexistent?) tails. They’re cute to see and very popular with the tourists and I hope they’re living happy lives.

The island has several temples, one of which has a very famous ‘floating’ torii gate just offshore. When it is high tide – as was when we visited – the gate rises dramatically from the water and is very scenic.

At low tide it’s possible to walk out to the gate but at this time of year that doesn’t happen until early evening. The island has many inns on it for overnight stays, and is apparently very peaceful once the majority of tourists have taken the last boats to the mainland.

The mountain I refer to is Mount Misen, which at 535 m is the highest on the island. Two ropeways take you about 80% of the way to the top, and then you have to hike. And – in typical Japanese style – the hike wasn’t easy!

We navigated steep stairs and uneven ground as we relentlessly climbed, and the temperature rose high enough that our coats came off. We passed through a small temple complex which holds an eternal flame that has allegedly been burning for 1200 years, and continued on toward the very top.

It was worth the climb since the view from the top was wonderful, and you could see almost the entire Seto sea in every direction. It was a little hazy but we could clearly see Hiroshima (on the right in the above pic) and the countless oyster beds and many boats cross-crossing the waters.

We returned to the base for some shopping and eating. By now (about 3 hours after we arrived) the place was mobbed with tourists. The thing to do on Miyajima (aside from admiring the scenery) seems to be eating oysters, and there were dozens of stands selling them fresh or grilled or fried or even on burgers! We passed on the oysters but the fried dango (sticky rice cakes) were absolutely phenomenal!

It was a long day and we may have worn ourselves out a bit. But Miyajima was a beautiful place and absolutely worth the visit.

We bought this yesterday:

It’s a Fukubukuro, or ‘lucky bag’ that claims to contain 40-50 ‘character goods’ (anime merch). We got it from an anime shop for only ¥2024.

Fukubukuro is a new years custom here and most shops sell them. We had great fun with the ones we bought last year and have been looking forward to getting them again, so this deal was irresistible. As for why it was already on sale; we didn’t question that 🙂

The above were the contents. 58 items in total, including a few duplicates. They ranged from badges and stickers to paper craft kits and Yu-Gi-Oh card packs and even a pair of salt and pepper shakers. Much of it is trash (common for many Fukubukuro) but we easily got items exceeding the money we put in, and even if we didn’t it was fun to open!

This won’t be our last Fukubukuro this trip…

We visited the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum this morning. It chronicles the experience of the inhabitants of this city after the first use of an atomic weapon on August 6 1945.

It was a harrowing and very emotional experience, to the point some visitors were openly weeping. The museum does not hold back and presents history in grim detail, including photos of the dead and injured. I don’t want to say much except that I wish everyone on this Earth could visit this museum to get a first-hand account of the effect of war on those most affected: innocent civilians.

The above is the ‘A-Bomb Dome’, one of the few structures that survived the bomb and has been preserved as a testament. Where once this structure was at the hypocentre of ruin, now it is surrounded by a vibrant and modern city. This is a measure of the strength of the people of this country, and is an achievement I hope no other nation ever again has to reproduce.

Not far from peace park is Hiroshima Castle, which we also visited today. It is of course a reconstruction since the original was destroyed in the atomic blast, and to be true its little more than a facade with a museum inside, but it was worth the visit regardless to see a blade made by none other than the legendary Masamune himself:

The castle grounds were quite lovely, and since it was warm today and felt more like Spring than winter, we enjoyed our stroll around the moat.

The afternoon was spent shopping, and snacking and game-centering. We had learned yesterday that Hiroshima is known for hand-made brushes for calligraphy or cosmetics, and Kristin wanted to buy some. Look at this display we found in a dedicated brush store:

Many of those are made from natural fibers and are very expensive. Kristin found a nice set she liked, and her brushes are made from squirrel and goat fur! We also saw some made from weasel, horse and even raccoon fur. A single brush can cost up to $2000, although the ones we saw today were much less.

Tomorrow we’ll visit one of Japan’s major tourist attractions, and the other reason we’re here in Hiroshima. The weather forecast is lovely, so it promises to be a wonderful day.

We left Tokyo this morning to travel to Hiroshima via bullet train. It was a comfortable trip and the views were beautiful, including Fuji.

Of course we ate ekiben (prepackaged meals designed for travel) on the trip, and mine was the usual pork cutlet sandwich but Kristin’s were more interesting so I’ll show them here.

For starters she had a simple trio of thinly sliced salmon on ginger rice. They were wrapped in real leaves and packed in a faux (actually styrofoam) box. Beautiful presentation!

Her second was this crab rice, which came in a plastic crab-shaped bowl. The ekiben shops at Tokyo station had dozens of different types to choose from and I’m sure on our return trips she’ll get something different again.

The trip took about four hours which is amazing since the distance was over 800 km and takes about 11 hours to drive! For the Australians reading it’s about the distance from Sydney to Melbourne. Imagine doing that by train in only four hours!

The above is the view from our hotel, which is right next to the station. While Hiroshima is small compared to Tokyo (about 1/50th the population) it’s a large city compared to where we live, and from what we saw exploring the downtown this afternoon it’s an interesting one too. As you know Hiroshima is historically important but the reasons we have visited is to see more than the obvious. We’re only here a couple of days but they will be full ones.

It’s Christmas Day! Here in Japan, it’s (mostly) just another day. People got up and went to work as normal, shops were open, and all services were active just like any other Monday.

But for us it’s a special day, so to celebrate we went to the movies. And since this was to be the first time we’d see a film in a cinema since before Covid, it couldn’t be just any film. So we carefully selected and with great enthusiasm headed over to the Toho cinema complex in Shibuya to see Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy * Gotcha Great Operation!

Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy * Gotcha Great Operation is a film featuring a crossover of two riders from recent series as they struggle against the evil of ‘Geats Killer’. As a bonus Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy * Gotcha Great Operation also includes the debut of Kamen Rider Majade, and I daresay all five people in the cinema were on the edges of our seats when that occurred!

Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy * Gotcha Great Operation was of course insane, full of overused cgi and explosions and unbelievable athletics and cuts. It didn’t even matter we couldn’t understand a word of it because the story had nothing to do with logic or reason anyway. But it was also very enjoyable, and a fun way to spend Christmas morning. I’d score Kamen Rider the Winter Movie: Gotchard & Geats Strongest Chemy * Gotcha Great Operation 10 Chemys out of 10!

Afterwards we had Christmas lunch at Kura sushi (anyone that visits Japan and doesn’t go to Kura is a fool). Ten plates we downed, and we still didn’t win a toy from the gacha (you get a chance every five plates). Maybe next time?

A traditional Christmas meal here is KFC, and once dinner rolled around (we spent the afternoon shopping) I wandered in to see if it would be my dinner too. Alas they were only selling boxes, so I passed and had a pork tonkatsu instead 🙂

Christmas is actually most obvious here in the convenience stores, which are flogging fried chicken like mad poultrymen and filling their coolers with all sorts of Christmas cakes, which strangely enough are usually strawberry.

Last night we availed ourselves of two such cakes which were inexpensive, rich and quite delicious. Why isn’t stuff like this easily available in the USA?

So a fine and memorable Christmas today was, but the true Christmas miracle actually occurred yesterday. After we bought our wrestling tickets we were walking around at Tokyo Dome when we saw a sign promising an impending appearance. We were just in time! I scuttled to the front of a crowd, sat down amidst a gaggle of children, and only moments later this happened:

It was a Christmas appearance from Ultraman, Ultraman Taro, Ultraman Mebius and Father Of Ultra! I was absolutely giddy with excitement.

It was a bit awe-inspiring to see an actual Ultraman in-person so close! The suits were amazing, and the actors reproduced the mannerisms perfectly. We couldn’t understand the narrated story (these ultras don’t speak) but given they are wearing Santa capes it was obviously Christmas related! There were some laughs and thrills and then the lights on the tree behind them came on and to my astonishment the crowd was invited to walk past all four of them to say hello! Naturally the kids chose to but most adults stepped aside. Not me!

I ‘met’ Ultraman and three of his kin. I even fist-bumped them and looked into their eyes. Thats one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received and a memory that will stick with me for ever 🙂