The yukata I’m after stays illusive.

We ate at Moss Burger this lunch time. Been along time since I had this sort of junk food, but boy was it awful. Supposedly it’s the premier Japanese rival to McDs.

At least the rain has now stopped, so we’re off to Miyajima.

It is presently absolutely pissing down in Hiroshima. The long time forcast is sun, so it’s just for today. Good job we did the Peace Park and Museum yesterday.

We’ve decided to put off Miyajima till this afternoon under the hope the rain will stop, and instead this morning we will shop – maybe for more umbrellas …

We set off tonight to hit a recommended tempura restaurant via the park so I could take some night shots of the eternal flame and the dome. Imagine our surprise to see the lights on at the baseball stadium. Now baseball, or basu-baru, is the most popular sport in Japan, it’s on TV all the time all the time, so we decided to take it in.

We got in to the stadium midway through the 5th of 9 innings. We knew one team must be Hiroshima, but not what the other one was, nor which was which. After an innings I spotted an ex-pat, so went to ask him. The red team were the Hiroshima Toyo Carps. The blues team were the Chunichi Dragons. Oh and we were in the visitors enclosure. Actually it was hard to tell. Obviously they do not have crowd trouble here as both sets of cheer leading fans were in the same section.

It was rather good fun, though the Carps lost. From our untrained eyes they always looked second best. We might attend the second game (of 3) tomorrow night.

Oh by the time it was finished the restaurant, like most others was effectively closed. (The Japanese eat early).

Well we’ve now arrived at Hiroshima. This place looks good. Obviously very modern, and by the looks of things, not too large. The hotel (Hotel Dormy) is a modern business hotel that’s probably the best place we’ve stayed yet (and being back to individual rooms, no queuing for the shower in the morning, or me keeping Dave awake with my snoring). It is also only about 5 minutes walk away from the Peace Museum and Park.

Lunch was a little sureal. We ate at an Italian place, which was very Italian on the inside, while sitting by an open window, looking over a tree’d boulevard with bicycles and scooters parked up on the grass. We could have been in France or Italy during the summer. Even though you could see the museum in the background, it is rather Franco-Italian in style. Food was good too.

The museum is a must for all coming to this city. It is very good, giving a very ballanced view, though obviously much emphasis on an end to atomic weapons. The only problem is you get lots of school children being shown around – and that can flood the place, as happened to us.

The park is also very good, with a visible constant reminder of the A-Bomb Dome. From the middle of the museum you can look right down a long wide path, through the cenetaph, over an internal flame, down to the Dome.

These are a must see, but are certainly worth it.

The modern history books tell us the castle was destroyed in a 1945 air raid and rebuilt during the 1960s, but car was made to make it look like the original from outside while housing a modern museum on the inside.

The entry was expensive (800 yen) and the reality was there was not much inside, aside from the knowledge the teh jo was originally rather large – 35 turrest and 21 buildings (I seem to recall), however during the Meiji era the lord could no longer afford to own it, gave it to the government, who could not afford it either and so ripped down most of it. What was left, if it was as it stands, was not much and would not have given the real flavour of it. My advice to anyone going to Okayama is jsut view it from outside, you can go right up to the donjon for free, but don’t bother going in.

I was very cruel on Okayama when we arrived. I compared it to Clapham Junction due to it’s role. The reality is it’s nothing like that. it is actually a rathyer pleasent, though presently humid, city which looks like it might get potentially vibrant for the 20+ generations. not sure there’s much there for kids though.

We arrived at the hotel, all of 3 minutes walk from the station. It’s not bad – looks like a 1970/80s place on the outside and in the reception, and the rooms look like a normal ryokan for that period, so as expected.

The plan always was to wander down in the afternoon/evening and do the famous park, plus maybe the castle. Once getting down that far, despite knowing it was made of ferous concrete, the small castle looked quite good. It’s black due to dark wooden storm covers and as a result is known as crow castle. There was only an hour till closing and 2 till the park closed so we decided to do the latter.

The Japanese do like their lists and to them Okayama-koen was the third best of their parks. It was also the first to have grass in it. As we wandered round we found it relaxing, but to us it was just like a Vistorian era English park with a Japanese twist in buildings. Relaxing yes, but what all the fuss was about we’re not sure. Still it was a pleasant way to pass severals hours, even if it did involve yet more walking.

From the park we decided to wander to a restaurant for an evening meal before heading back to the ryoken. There is a covered shopping street there, seemed rather good, which was meant to have food places on it so we went for a wander down. As we passed a second hand music shop I decided to pop in. I’m a big fan of a Japanese electronica group Pizicato 5 (this is your fault Timo), but there stuff is expensive in the US/UK. Got a very good deal on three from a very helpful sales assistant, so it’s only fair to mention Groovin’ Disc Shop in the Omote Mache arcade. As we walked further down we then found near nirvana. A real manga shop – large inside and two floors. We spent a fait while in there despite the fact there was nothing in English, and I walked away with the latest issue of Inital-D – issue 30.

Food was not that hot and we decided to call it a night, but we’ve decided to hit the castle tomorrow before we head off – so an early start as we’ve reserved our shinkansen seats with the view of doing the Peace Park and Peace Museum in Hiroshima in the afternoon.

The original plan for today was to move from the ryokan to a near by coffee shop to kill several hours while writing post cards, then moving to the station to get the shinkansen for Okayama. While having breakfast, the woman (and 10 year old daughter) we were sharing our table with piped up that they had been to Sanjusangen-doh, where there are 1001 statues of the Kanon buddah, and how good it was.

One bus trip later and we arrive at the temple. From the outside it looks like an office car park and 1 story building, the temple, with the longest wooden building in Japan, was not visible from the outside.

The complex itself was rather plain. The building is very long, but just doesn’t really stand out. The background to it is that an emperor stood down, and became a monk who followed the Kanon buddah. he insisted that the building, with 33 bays. Most of the kannon statues were done by different craftsman, and those who did multiple ones still made sure there were differences, net result was 1001 (or more) different statues, which at first glance all look the same (they have variations in mouth, eye brows, clothes, etc). You enter the main temple building at one end, walk down past all these statues including a double size one in the middle, plus 12 shrine gaurdians, while trying not to disturb the few worshippers (you pay for entry, you pay for candles, you pay for insense wood for prayers, but hey this is buddism). At the far end you then walk back along a rear corridor with a few exhibits in it. Personally I was not exactly enchanted by the place, but it was rather different.

Now we’re back drinking coffee, writing postcards and about to head on our way to Okayama.

Final note about the second ryokan. It was not perfect, but it was still an o.k. place to stay. given the choice though, I’d most certainly go for the first one with some certainty.

Oh almost forgot one thing – a continuation of the umbrella thing. We could not be bothered carrying 500 yen’s worth of umbrella around with us so David gave his to the ryokan owner. I did like wise, and the pair of us were rewarded with a bag of macha candy – good deal 🙂

Well tonight we decided to try some thing different. There’s a garlic restaurant in the station complex, and even though Dave wants to avoid ‘European foods’ we decided to try it.

The portions were small and we are a lot, net result was quite a pricey bill, but it was fun. We also discovered the Japanese know garlic bread as Garlic Toast

Think Dave might also let me off eventually for swiping his clove of garlic. One of our dishes was gioza (Chinese style fried dumplings) with garlic in them. I saw a clove sitting there and assumed it had been cooked along with them so swiped it. Alas it had jsut fallen out of the gioza Dave had just picked up. Watashi-wa bakkah desu !

Kinjkaku-Ji is probably the most photographed location in all of Japan. The Golden Pavillion is considered the most famous natural landmark in the country, so we expected it to be busy. Noty sure what went wrong, but the crowds, while present, were lighter than expected. The pavillion is stunning. It’s the only word I can think of for it. As soon as you enter the grounds, it is there on your left in all it’s shining glory. Walking on round from there the gardens are nice and relaxing. Certainly a place to see. I know David wasn’t bothered about the visit as the guides seem to part poo-poo it, however I know he was glad.

On the way out I grabbed a quick photo of one of the fire signs on a near by hill. There are a number of these around Kyoto, which during the fire festival, are lit up at night. Apparently you are able to see at least one letter from where ever you are in Kyoto once on fire.

The next stop was Ryoan-Ji, site of the world’s best Zen rock garden. While there is a bus between them, it was crowded so we decided to walk. Seems to be a common thread here – walking – my poor legs. Anyhow it was a nice days and some 15-20 minutes later we arrived to find the numbers of people picking up. The rock garden, what can I say. Not a lot. I always thought I’d like this sort of thing, but it did absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps it was the large crowd on the viewing platform that did it, I’m not sure. All you could here was the electronic sound of mobile phone’s taking pictures and receiving SMS/MMS messages. There is a moss garden just round the garden, in the same building, and this I found to be far more relaxing, even with Dave laughing over a typical American being typically yank – coming out with the comment of “Now I want to see a moss garden” as he walked past us and a rather nice moss garden. An American (with English hubby) we talked to at lunch thought this was rather amusing.

Still, after these, even with walking back to the Kinkaku-Ji to get the bus back, we still had time left before the evening so we hit the famous Nishiki-Koji (Nishiki Market). This is a long, narrow, covered market where the local restaurants get their produce from in the early hours. it was interesting, but after several blocks of it (it goes on for 4 or 5), you start to get fed up with it. Still it was another thing ticked off our list.

The Japanese have always loved cameras and photography since it was first introduced, however the latest thing seems to be using camera phones. O.K. some of these now have 2 megapixel camers, but not many, plus there is no zoom, or at least optical zoom. The funny thing is they are more commonly used at the major sites than normal cameras. Why I just do not know.