Mount Takao

about an hour outside of Tokyo is Takao-san.

it was worshipped as a god, so its covered in beautiful shrines and temples. there are waterfalls and monkeys and flying squirrels. it was a lovely day.

Obon!

Today, this is what happened in Shin Maruko.

Atomic Bomb Dome & Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima was the first city to be hit with the atomic bomb; it happened on August 6, 1945. Every year Hiroshima has a huge event on that day, which I just missed! Hiroshima is an amazing city. The people are lovely.

I went to the Peace Memorial Museum, which was an incredible experience. I had no idea what impact the atomic bomb truly had on the city. In one second, the entire city was in rubble. Only a few buildings remained (one of which is now the "A-bomb Dome" which was the Industrial Promotion Hall before). 100,000 people were killed instantly. The museum had horrific pictures of the victims.

The A-bomb Dome hasn't been touched since the bombing. There is still rubble inside the building, nothing has been cleared out. Its an incredible reminder of what happened; its quite insane that the building still exists. The museum, children's memorial and dome are all in the same park; its beautiful.

Miyajima

Miyajima is an island in Hiroshima. To get there, you take a short ferry ride. Its quite lovely! There are deer all around! Of course, the famous torii gate in the water and the floating shrine.

Himeji Castle

part of my "jumping around the world" series (those of you who recall my "jumping around france" series in 2006; yes, by popular demand, it has continued; my travel mate later complained that this was a "waste of time" to which i replied "NO IT ISN'T")

Train Trip

my hotel room





Okayama Castle at dawn


I've had the past week off for Obon, which celebrates the dead in Japan. There are tons of festivals all across the country. Two weeks before my Obon holiday, I decided to purchase the "Seishun 18 Nippu" ticket that allows for 5 days of unlimited travel on local trains in Japan....LOCAL TRAINS. Which meant that my itinerary for Tokyo to Hiroshima consisted of 16 hours of train travel...its quite intense. Everything in Japan is intense. The week preceding Obon, I was getting maybe 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night. During this train trip, I slept maybe 2 hours a day...I ended up cutting the trip short for a few reasons...one of them included being delirious with extreme exhaustion. The other included my travel mate; we simply did not get along. Nonetheless, it was WONDERFUL to leave Tokyo and remember that Japan is not only that city....I remember now that Tokyo is quite an absurd mix of sound and vision conjured up in some twelve year old boy's fantasy dream, and lacks any culture dating past twenty years ago. The rest of Japan? Oh right...it consists of TREES and MOUNTAINS and SHRINES that date back thousands of years ago.