Hello from Fukuoka! I am using the Japanese keyboard in the lobby of this ryokan, so this entry will be very brief as typing on it is difficult. Also, there will be no photos. ._.
Today, Mrs. Black and I took the ferry from Hiroshima to Miyajima, site of the famous "floating" torii gate and temple. It wasn't so much floating today, as the tide was very low... in fact, people walked right up to it.
The shrines and temples and everything else in Miyajima was beautiful. The sun got a bit hot, but it didn't keep us from appreciating what the area had to offer. We actually both agreed that it would be a great place to return to some day and spend a night. I would like to talk a lot more about Miyajima but this keyboard is so awkward :< (PS, tame deer wander all over the place in Miyajima... so cute!)
I took the shinkansen down to Fukuoka, where I am staying in a ryokan, which is essentially a Japanese-style hotel. This one in particular feels like some combination of hostel, hotel, and house. You take your shoes off when you come in and don a pair of the awaiting slippers; you transfer into seperate slippers when going to the bathroom. You don't wear the slippers in the rooms, like I almost did ._.;;
The rooms have tatami mat floors, a futon on the floor to sleep on with a buckwheat pillow, a low table with cushion, and a small shrine space. Mine has a cute cow in it ^_^ Later on I'm going to try and look up those sorts of spaces and see if I can figure out the significance of the cow. But for now, it's just my adorable companion. :<
There are a lot of Buddhist temples and shrines sprinkled all throughout the city, many wedged in unlikely places. I'm going to try to revisit some tomorrow when it's lighter out.
All the temples being dark and closed, I went to Canal City, which is a giant shopping mall with water going through it. It's right on the river and lit up on the outside like the Vegas strip (there's even a fountain show to music ._.;)... but it's really cool.
Also at night, especially along the river, these little food stands are set up selling delicious looking and smelling items. This is a thing that is unique to Fukuoka. I didn't eat at any of them because they were all packed ._. maybe tomorrow if I end up being here another night.
I'm going to see how the day goes tomorrow as far as if I leave for Nagasaki tomorrow night or the next morning. I will keep you posted as able :<
I've had enough of this keyboard now, hee. Goodnight ＾＿＾；；
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
And another thing... (Harajuku)
I forgot to mention that while walking to lunch on Harajuku day (see post for Monday, Sept. 8, "Day Four - Yoyogi Park and Harajuku"), there was a parade down the street that we happened to be able to see. The procession was lead by (I believe) Shinto priests, who were followed by three miniature shrines carried by groups of people dressed in festival attire. They were yelling and smiling and looking for encouragement from the crowd, which I'm sure they needed carrying those undoubtedly heavy shrines on such a hot and humid day.
That's all... I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget to write about it. :< Oyasumi~
Day Six - Shinkansen and Hiroshima
Hello from Hiroshima ^_^
I finally got on the Shinkansen and made my way out of Tokyo. Mrs. Black came with me... she's going home tomorrow.
We had to get up very early to ride the Shinkansen, but the ride was nice... from Tokyo to Osaka we had big seats with lots of leg room, and I managed to sleep for an hour ._. The Shinkansen is ridiculously fast... when we were at a station a few passed by, and each one took approx. four seconds to pass totally, and that's fifteen cars. It took about five hours total to get to Hiroshima, including transferring and taking the subway initially. We checked into our hotel, which is a Comfort, and the rooms are small and cute ^_^ We arrived a bit early for checkin so we just hung around for about half an hour, heh.
After dropping off our things we had planned on taking the ferry out to Miyajima, where you can find the famed "floating torii," among other things, but the ferry schedule was such that we would've only had about 15 minutes to walk around, which is stupid. We put that off til tomorrow and spent the day at the Peace Museum and the rest of the Peace Memorial Park, which was all really nice and pretty and sad.
As it got dark, we made our way to Hiroshima Castle, a reconstruction, though a pretty one. The grounds contained the castle with a moat, another nice compound, and an active shrine.
The park areas in between were also nice, though we couldn't do much to appreciate them in the dark. The castle was pretty lit up at night, and the lights were all sparkly in the moat, so it was worth walking under the scary underpass to get there. ._.;
It was only scary because it (1) contained spiders, and (2) had lots of people on bikes whizzing through, deftly dodging between barriers... we kept stopping to watch them because we were sure they weren't going to make it... but of course they always did. :< I didn't like it!
Afterward, all tourist attractions being closed of course, we headed to find the food basement of the nearby department store. It proved to be difficult and frustrating, as the store has "main" and "new" buildings, and the maps and signage weren't clear or consistent. We finally found the food about 30 mins. before close, which is actually good because fresh food vendors lower
their prices dramatically by then to get rid of the food. We got some gyoza-but-not-really (as it turned out). Additionally, I got yaki-onigiri (yummy! ^^) and a chocolate roll cake slice, and Mrs. Black got some tuna rolls and a strawberry cake. We ate out in the big plaza outside the stores, which contained tables of businessmen watching the giant TV screen, as well as some sculptures and a water feature. It made for a nice little meal.
We walked back to the hotel afterwards. Tomorrow we're going to take that boat out to the shrine and back, then go our seperate ways. There are also supposedly deer there walking around which should be cute :<
Hiroshima has a really modern and cute tram system. We took it down the street and they're way nicer than even the new Boston green line trains, which I thought were nice until now, heh. The doors are really big and flat and open out within about two inches of space from the car... it's really cool.
I'm going to head to Fukuoka tomorrow by Shinkansen, and hopefully I will be staying at a Ryokan... otherwise, probably a hotel or hostel I suppose. Whatever has the best reviews. I'll update whenever I can get internet access... lucky me that the hotel I'm in now has free wireless. . _.
I finally got on the Shinkansen and made my way out of Tokyo. Mrs. Black came with me... she's going home tomorrow.
We had to get up very early to ride the Shinkansen, but the ride was nice... from Tokyo to Osaka we had big seats with lots of leg room, and I managed to sleep for an hour ._. The Shinkansen is ridiculously fast... when we were at a station a few passed by, and each one took approx. four seconds to pass totally, and that's fifteen cars. It took about five hours total to get to Hiroshima, including transferring and taking the subway initially. We checked into our hotel, which is a Comfort, and the rooms are small and cute ^_^ We arrived a bit early for checkin so we just hung around for about half an hour, heh.
After dropping off our things we had planned on taking the ferry out to Miyajima, where you can find the famed "floating torii," among other things, but the ferry schedule was such that we would've only had about 15 minutes to walk around, which is stupid. We put that off til tomorrow and spent the day at the Peace Museum and the rest of the Peace Memorial Park, which was all really nice and pretty and sad.As it got dark, we made our way to Hiroshima Castle, a reconstruction, though a pretty one. The grounds contained the castle with a moat, another nice compound, and an active shrine.
The park areas in between were also nice, though we couldn't do much to appreciate them in the dark. The castle was pretty lit up at night, and the lights were all sparkly in the moat, so it was worth walking under the scary underpass to get there. ._.;It was only scary because it (1) contained spiders, and (2) had lots of people on bikes whizzing through, deftly dodging between barriers... we kept stopping to watch them because we were sure they weren't going to make it... but of course they always did. :< I didn't like it!
Afterward, all tourist attractions being closed of course, we headed to find the food basement of the nearby department store. It proved to be difficult and frustrating, as the store has "main" and "new" buildings, and the maps and signage weren't clear or consistent. We finally found the food about 30 mins. before close, which is actually good because fresh food vendors lower
their prices dramatically by then to get rid of the food. We got some gyoza-but-not-really (as it turned out). Additionally, I got yaki-onigiri (yummy! ^^) and a chocolate roll cake slice, and Mrs. Black got some tuna rolls and a strawberry cake. We ate out in the big plaza outside the stores, which contained tables of businessmen watching the giant TV screen, as well as some sculptures and a water feature. It made for a nice little meal.We walked back to the hotel afterwards. Tomorrow we're going to take that boat out to the shrine and back, then go our seperate ways. There are also supposedly deer there walking around which should be cute :<
Hiroshima has a really modern and cute tram system. We took it down the street and they're way nicer than even the new Boston green line trains, which I thought were nice until now, heh. The doors are really big and flat and open out within about two inches of space from the car... it's really cool.
I'm going to head to Fukuoka tomorrow by Shinkansen, and hopefully I will be staying at a Ryokan... otherwise, probably a hotel or hostel I suppose. Whatever has the best reviews. I'll update whenever I can get internet access... lucky me that the hotel I'm in now has free wireless. . _.
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