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!
(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!
posted by Eleanora Martinez at 3:28 PM
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