D'oh, a deer . . .

Today (well, it was when I first wrote this) was 緑日 (midori (come on people, the drink?, green) day) and was thus a public holiday. The name tickled my fancy so much when our Japanese teacher told us about it that I couldn't resist a lame crack about soft-punk and the like. I asked a Japanese friend what it was all in aid of and even he didn't know. Then I remembered it was to celebrate the birthday of the last Emperor - Showa, whereas right now it's Heiwa 17 (17th year of 平和 reign).

(Third time lucky - I've lost this post twice already!)

Anydeways, in an attempt to seize the day a group of us decided to go to Miyajima -　宮島 - for the day. It's famous for it's old shrine and 'floating' torii (shrine gate) which graces the front of many a promotional brouchure about Japan and postcards of the thing are everywhere. It's just out in the bay from Hiroshima so we set off at about 9:30, taking two trams to get there - a learning experince in how to use the public transport system. We then took the ferry across to Miyajima which is where the fun really began!

I'd been told of the deer and Karl had proposed we 'walk' the mountain. In hindsight I think both items were grossly misrepresented to me. The deer are insane! It was reminiscent of when I went to a 'museum island' in Finland where they'd transported a whole tonne of traditional Finnish buildings. When we first arrived we were completely astounded to see a rare red squirrel and we couldn't understand why no-one else seemed quite so excited . . . by the time we'd thoroughly traversed the island we had seen that in this particular locale they were prolific - ahh tourists, you have to laugh. But back to the deer . . . Karl had said on his last visit there'd been a deer in the ferry terminal and a lady had been shooing it out with a broom. It seemed a quirky anecdote, unlikely to be repeated, but as we emerged there was a deer on the steps . . . not only that, there were deer almost everywhere you looked around the plaza. These were not your ordinary, startle-easily kind either . . . I distinctly heard the terrified, dying screams of some young child echoing in the distance as Julie took her life in her hands beckoning one beast with a banana skin for the sake of photography.

It proved to be a rather warm day, and not warm in the Adelaide sense of nice and 25, it was warm in the humidity-so-high-when-you're-stupid-enough-to-climb-this-goddamn-mountain-your-sweat-won't-dry-and-you'll-suffer sense. The place was packed with deer and people, a vertiable tourist town which looked like something out of an old samurai movie only in colour and more fashionable.

We took a few photos of the torii while it was high-tide, apparently it's often not so picturesquely surrounded by mud rather than water, and then went through the temple - whilst a traditional marriage ceremony was in full swing . . . with gorgeous 着物 (kimono), crazy demonesque dancer and traditional music ensemble doing their thing. It was pretty nice to wander through the old temple and contemplate what it might have been like before it became a tourist trap and was almost completely destroyed last year by a hurricane or something. It amazing to see a 'traditional' wedding, but I was mainly aware of the masses of money you'd have to spend to have your wedding there and wear what they were wearing and all to be surrounded by tourists on your 'special day' - ちょっと変、ね？

We went for sustenance, before our proposed mountain climb, at one of the many over-priced restaurants. Originally we were seated at a Western style table but interest was expressed in sitting on the raised tatami section at low tables . . . much to the later discomfort of all . . . one to experience.
I keep hearing that oysters are one of things Hiroshima is famous for, but so far I've seen little evidence of why that should be the case, so I decided to go for かきラーメン (ramen with oysters). The oysters were rather amazing - huge and plump unlike those in Auslandia, but ramen (though maybe not all ramen) merely reminded me of eating maggi noodles - a thing I'd not done in years and had no immediate intention of doing ever again . . . notch up another to experience! (I've since learned that winter is the season for oysters - the silver lining to freezing my arse off - I thought the start of spring was quite cold enough)

Eating done, we had come to an ultimatum . . would we be tough and climb or would we be wimps and windowshop ? Back down from the challenge? Not on your life! So, inadequately equipped with one small bottle of drink each we headed off minus one member (piker!). Though not far up we began to see the reason in her decision . . . it was a gruelling climb for the currently unfit me, but reasonably serene and solitary one which afforded some great views, especially (though not from the very summit, but from another shrine on the back side of the mountain) out over the sea towards further islands, rather than inland to the city sprawl. At the very top I, for one, thanked commercialism for the existence of a drink seller regardless of his exorbitant prices. There was also an Australian flag tshirt-wearing guy wandering around in a group of Latin American-language sounding tourists . . we enjoyed that along with our お茶(tea).

It took about 3 and a half hours all up but we returned to the mud-ensconced torii with a sense superiority and achievement. We were also able to purchase and consume, without guilt, the yummy もみじ (momiji - maple leaf) shaped sweets that are a big touristy icon in the region. You could get them hot off the press and I had one filled with あん (red bean paste) and one of almond, which was superduper! And I'd go back right now to get one only it's a week later and I have heaps of study to be doing, but damn it was good!

Calling it a long day we took the ferry back to the mainland and headed on back home, via the speedier though a little dearer train. One of our ranks was so tired they were asleep on the train and I almost missed 横川駅(Yokogawa Station, a 5-ish minute walk from our building) because I was nodding off too!

A day thoroughly seized and trumped!

ET still hasn't gone home

自転車 (bicycles) in Japan are an interesting thing. A very different beast to those found in Australia. Most everyone has them, they rarely have gears and possessing brakes that squeal and shudder doesn't seem to be a major cause for concern. They generally possess a front basket, and sometimes a rear. A bell can be useful but don't expect anyone much to pay attention to it. Oh, you don't have to wear a helmet . . . but hey! They ride on the footpath which is so safe!!　ね？

My old steed, Misty, was no top gun （no offence, Misty, you got me around) so I'm used to bikes of mediocre standing, but really, just a few gears would be nice! It's amazing what people here are prepared to do on their bikes. I find it terrifying enough just to attempt riding, with all wits at the ready, along the decently sized footpaths negotiating all of the pedestrains and other cyclists. However, I regularly see schoolgirls dinking their friends, boyfriends dinking their girlfriends, students emailing by phone whilst riding, mums riding with kids and talking on phones . . . I have yet to encounter a phone-using, umbrella-wielding cyclist but I have been assured they exist.

Gangs of uniformed young schoolboys seem to delight in riding three and four abreast in what appears to be a determined ploy to run you into the street or nearest wall or pedestrian. I don't seem to have acquired the adequate gumption for dealing with this yet.

Julie has seen two accidents involving bikes hit by cars in the past week so I'm keeping my hands on the handle bars and my phone in my pocket.

When Dan visited last week I saw an example of someone taking their life in their hands! What he was prepared to do with a bike in a crowded street defied . . . well, my imagnation, at least. They have laws about that sort of thing, don't you know?! He was far more daring than I, but maybe that's 'cause he's tough and braved cycling in Kyoto . . . The baskets on the bikes eventually meant that he put his hoodie up and started quoting ET but this led to a near-miss crash so he settled for doing crazy jumps and weaving between traffic going in the opposite direction. (Now, my reputation, so long sullied, is salvaged and my riding can only be called sane by comparison!)

Whilst he was here we had some fun cycling adventures - it's great and crazy that you can feel so safe wandering around a town in a foreign country late on a Saturday night - it's so country-town in feel. At one point we discovered the start of a bikeway that followed the river near my building (one of the many here - the town is built on a delta, so what can you expect). Therefore on Sunday when the weather was so entrancing that I shunned work of any kind for the day, in the afternoon, I took Sir Gearless for a near two-hour bike ride. It was great! Especially on the way out, the way back was something of a hell-ride when I turned only to realise I'd had a tailwind which was now to become a headwind - lovely!

During this escapade I did see a number of people on fancy-arsed bikes with helmets on, kitted out in oh-so-fashionable cycling lycras. Thus I surmise that should one feel compelled to do cycling trips around Japan there are ways to obtain the appropriate machines for approaching the frequently mountainous terrain . . . No-one locks their bikes here so stealing one should be a cinch!!

Up and not quite running

Thanks to a lovely lady of the plains I now have a blog all of my very own! Only so many things have happened since arriving in Hiroshima at the start of April that one doesn't know quite where to start . . . Thus! I declare this the start of what is sure to be a blog of dubious quality!

It's a very sparkling day here - they are reasonably rare. When I first arrived I thought that life would prove to be a uniform grey glare but this presumption thankfully was incorrect and we do have moments of warm blue that can't help but lighten the spirit!

It's week three of classes at Hiroshima Shudo University and I'm starting to get into the swing of things, though 宿題 (homework) is still not managing to rank up there amongst priorities. It's great to finally have manged to get to Japan after years of planning and scheming. I feel really motivated to learn all I can, but there just don't seem to enough hours in the day . . . hence I'm about to head off a my International Relations class without having finished the last few pages of the reading or formulated the required response to hand up. I'm not too concerned however, as the teacher is an older American and his love of rambling makes the class regularly digressionary, and enjoyable. It makes a nice change to have a class where you don't have to worry about a language barrier, quite aside from actually understanding course content!

I have joined the Art club and have that this afternoon from 4:40 until 6pm. I joined last Tuesday and though very few people could speak any English they were so friendly that I'm really looking forward to it! Crazy Japan and their clubs . . .

Yay to fun with friends visiting from home. Life is getting into a better routine now and weekends are proving charmed for great weather and hanging out with lovely people!

Dear Ellie

I made you this blog.

It won't be too hard to get the hang of it...

Love Pippa