Miyajima Island

Nearby to Hiroshima is Miyajima island. We had to take a ferry like the one below to get to the island.


This gateway out front is the symbol of the island. It actually stands on its own (it doesnt have any supports that go into the ground).


When we get off of the ferry we were greated by some friendly deer! There are wild deer wandering around the entire island! This one was chasing after me trying to eat my map while my friend laughed and took pictures of it.


Even though he had JUST seen me successfully thwart a deer from eating MY map, he lets a dear get a hold of his!!! Plus, he tries to get it back!!! Hahahah. He was NOT successful.


There are a ton of landmarks to see on the island. One of the most famous ones is this temple "Itsukushima Shrine" dubbed a national treasure of japan built in the year 593:


During that day the tide was low, so the temple area was completely dry. But during certain times of the day when the tide comes in the temple is surrounded by seawater!

There is a little stream that runs through the city area of the island:


We followed a few walking trails around the island. Here is some of the sceneary along the trail:

We were trying to decide what area to visit next as it was around noon time. On the map there was a cable car ride to "Mt. Misen". We thought, oh cool, we will go for a "Quick" visit to see the mountain. Little did we know that it wouldn't be quick at all....



At the end of the lift, we step outside to these little signs! Click for a bigger version so you can read the text. Apparently there are monkeys running around stealing your stuff!



There are lots of photos, so this post will be continued the next day...

"Do not tell a lie!"

So last weekend we went to Sushi Gen in Los Angeles as a going away party for my friend Joe. He got a post-doc assignment in switzerland so he's going to be gone for quite awhile. It was quite an interesting night.

When we got there the restaurant was PACKED and the wait was 1 hour long! While we were waiting there was a party of people waiting to be seated. We heard a name get called, and they went into the restaurant.

Moments later, they were ushered back out of the restaurant, and I heard the host from the restaurant say in a heavy Japanese accent "Do not tell a lie!"

We were surprised to hear that, so we turned around to see what the commotion was.

This guy then proceeded to CHEW OUT the party that was waiting lol. He was like, "You cannot sit! Must wait until everyone is here! When sally comes you come tell me. Then you sit! You can sit Sushi Bar, or table! But do not tell a lie!! You wait for party." And he went on like this for a good few minutes!

After he left, one of the girls said, "Geez who is the customer here!?!?!?" Lol.... I guess that party tried to pretend that their whole party was there and get a seat. Apparently this other girl was over an hour late!

When they eventually called our name, two of our party was out in the parking lot in the car. The same guy came out and he said, "Are you all here!?!?!?" And we all looked at the floor and said ... "uhm.... yea, you see... we're all here but... Two people are in the car!"

And he was like, "OK!!! Four come in. Others must wait until party is here! Sit at other table!" Lol.

Wow what an experience! But I do have to say that the price was good. For $30.00 I ordered the Sashimi Deluxe plate. It's a Gigantic plate FILLED with sashimi. A picture is below. I cant believe how much fish was on there. I actually couldn't finish it!!!!! And for any of you who ate sushi with me you know how much sushi i can eat!



Below is a picture of the fried shrimp heads from the Ama-Ebi my friend ordered. He got it as an appetizer and I was jealous it looked so good!!! I actually considered ordering one myself. But when I started eating my Sashimi and realized how much there was, I was glad I didn't.

Here's a picture of all of us. Unlike SOME bloggers *cough* of whom i won't name -- I actually am in the picture!!!

Japanese noodle-pancake-like things

After the BaseBall game, we visited this place. We were told it was a specialty of Hiroshima -- some kind of pancake like noodle dish. It was extremely popular as you can see from the line outside. We had to wait a good 45 minutes before we could get inside.


We ordered a little dish of scallops as an appetizer. These were fantastic! Yum!

And we ordered three of these pancake things, one for each of us. They were MASSIVE! We didn't realize how much food is in it. I was completely stuffed after finishing it. It was quite a unique food! It is a pile of crunchy ramen noodles, 2 eggs, various vegetables, topped with a sweetish-brown sauce, and a shake of green herbs.

The line did not diminish late at night. This is the line we saw on the way out. It got even longer!

There is a restaurant here in Orange County that serves this pancake-like item. However, you are supposed to cook it yourself. We tried this once, and it was the biggest disaster of cooking I have ever had lol. We didn't realize we had to put oil on the grill.. We didn't know how to mix the ingredients. Overall, we were clueless on how to prepare this dish.

In fact two Japanese ladies next to us felt so sorry for our ineptitude that they felt compelled to help us and explain how it was done. Unfortunately by that time we had botched it badly enough that it was unsalvegable.

So we ended up with a mish mash of partly mushy, partly undercooked noodles, runny eggs, overcooked vegetables, partly burnt and stuck to the grill dish. Oops... It was MUCH better when properly prepared :)

When we got back to the hotel room I saw an interesting site. This little clock in the room was doing this for a good ten minutes! I thought we were in a time warp or something!!! It's just a normal battery operated clock. Hmmmmnh!

Just a bunch of Carp!

After the museum, we headed over to the baseball stadium to watch a ball game! Our team was the "Hiroshima Carp". Here is a picture of the stadium:


This guy kind of stood out in the field. I don't think he's Japanese???

I found that going to a Japanese baseball game is more entertaining than going to an American one. Why? Because there is much more audience participation! The Carp were last-place in standing, and they were playing against the first place team. For a home game like that you would expect empy stands and not much in terms of cheering.

But all the fans still come out and they cheer every play. Check out this video:



These guys are doing this, and various other cheers throughout the entire game! Non-Stop! They have a different cheer for throwing a strike, being at bat, getting an out, etc. It was quite facinating to watch!

How do they organize the cheers? By having a cheer leader instruct everyone what to do! He would hold up signs telling us what to say, when to say it, etc. A band would play behind us to give everyone a beat to keep in synch to.

For the seventh inning we were given a bag of balloons to blow up. I had no idea what this was all about, but here is mine! It's big... And Long....

Here is a video of what we did with the balloons:



You can barely hear it in the recording because the mic on the camera isn't good but all the balloons have whistles on them. When the balloons were released the roar of balloons flying through the air and the whistles was a fun experience!

Believe it or not, our team won by a huge margin! The fans were ecstatic as this was really an unexpected turn of events!

This was a fun evening event! I've gone to a few Angels games here in the past, and most of it the crowd wasn't nearly as animated / into the game. I spent most of the time chatting, getting food, wandering around the stadium, playing games on my cell phone, etc. Pretty much everything BUT watching the game.

But in Japan everyone loves their baseball, so all attention is on the game. Being in a crowd that is that excited about the game really adds to the fun!

Another type of Hell...

Another ride on the bullet train took us to the south-western end of Honshu. The next city we visited was a beautiful, clean, modern metropolis with a series of rivers intertwining throughout the city.

This first picture is from a bridge overlooking one of these rivers offering a view of the shiny new buildings along the bank.


It's hard to believe that only 62 years ago on August 6th that this entire city was destroyed when the atomic bomb landed on it. This building is the sole remaining evidence in the city that an event of such magnitude occured:


The city of Hiroshima houses a memorial museum that reminds all the visitors of the tragedy that struck here. Below is a picture of the memorial grounds. Entrance to the museum was only $0.50, and it was packed with visitors.

Inside the museum, they had a map on display of what the city looked like after the bomb. The red globe in the center marks the location where the bomb was dropped.


There was a life-size Diorama inside depicting a typical scene of the survivors after the blast.


Below are the trousers of a junior high school student. They were melted when the blast took him from behind.

A tricyle that was outside when the bomb struck.

The cloud of debris from the explosion caused a black rain to fall throughout parts of the city contaminating everything in the area with radioactive waste. Below is a section of wall that has been marred by the black rain.

A pile of glass bottles were fused together from the blast.

Click the image below to enlarge it. Look closely at the staircase. You will notice a darkened area. Someone had been sitting on these steps and his shadow was burned into the concrete from the blast.

After going through the museum I fealt heavy with the knowledge of what these people had to go through. The detonation of the A-Bomb was a tragic event, but it certainly lead to the end of World War II. How would the war have turned out if the U.S. did not drop the bomb? How different would the world be if the Allies lost the war? Does that justify what happened to these people?

I was amazed though at how quickly they rebuilt the city. Everything is new, and you could not tell that this city was the site of an atomic bomb.

Going through this museum reminded me of an Anime movie that I once saw called Grave of the Fireflies. It follows the story of two children after the firebombing of Kobe during WWII. Both experiences serve as a great reminder of how terrible a war can be.

How About Some Furry Cock 'Ay?

Ok I didn't have enough time today to go resize the photos from the next site we visited. So here is another food post!

This hotel we stayed at offered a Free Breakfast with the stay. Now judging from all the prior free breakfasts we had, I was expecting something pretty good. But when we got to the breakfast buffet we see this.

A tub of rice balls. Yep. That's it!


Not only do you get rice balls, you get to put your own seasoning on it like so:

And I asked my friend... "What is that (seasoning)?"

(Note: He speaks fluent Japanese and he didn't quite realize what he was saying in English.)

Him: "Furry Cock Ay".

Me: *COUGH* ... "What did you say???"

Him: "Furry Cock Ay..." (I give him a funny look)... "What????"

Me: "Did you just say you are putting Furry Cock on your rice balls?

Him: "Uhm... .... Yea I guess so!"

Me: "You're going to eat Furry Cock and balls?"

Him: "Yep... And it's good too!"

So... I had to make my own furry cock ay covered ball. And you know what? He was right!!! It was good! We even got seconds!

Apparently it is spelled "Furikake". It's a mix of various crushed peppers, sesame seeds, spices, and salt. They come in a wide variety of flavors and can be used to top all sorts of food. Would you like some Furikake???

To Hell With You!

This is our ticket to Hell. Luckily it wasn't a one-way ticket!


This bus is headed straight for hell!

That's us, the two poor unsuspecting souls.

This is apparently the water they serve from hell. Look closely at the little letters below. It says Natural Mineral Water "from the Aso". I'm not quite sure I want water that came out of someone's ass-o. That's just nasty. But hey, I guess when you're in hell you don't have a choice???
Here is the Devil, watching over his dominion.

It's hot in hell!!! Look at all that steam!
Even more steam flowing from underground!


Apparently there are still some nice areas in Hell. To lure you into a false sense of hope.

This little pathway has GOT to be a trick!
It leads to a boiling mud bath!


This is known as the "Sea Hell". It is a boiling pool of naturally blue water.


Another boiling mud pit!


This is a pool known as the "Blood Pool". I thought it was more brownish than red, but OK!

And so our trip ends, and we return to the hotel. The next day is filled with memories of another kind of Hell....

The Temple

My internet access at home has been flakey the past few days and I haven't been able to upload any photos to post. It suddenly worked today so I'm posting while I can :).

This next series of photos is from the same area of Japan as the previous post. A bus ride down the road left us at this temple gate. Inside it was not very interesting actually. At first I couldn't figure out why this would be a tourist attraction. It's just a bunch of old buildings in a foresty area. It was nice, but not that exciting.


But then we realised that there was a path leading down past the temple. So we decided to go walk down it.

We encountered this cool bridge which crosses over a small stream.

The path continues down towards the bottm of this stream. My friend was lazy and didnt want to walk so far downhill (since we have to walk back up afterwards). But I kept telling him, "ooh i see something i want to take a picture of" and headed a little further down.

A few more "ooh i need to take a picture here" led us to the bottom of the river bed:

Here is a view from the end of the river.

There is a little waterfall upstream:

Beyond the river is this moss covered path.

Which leads to a cave filled with rocks piled like so. What is this?

Turning around, there are thousands of piles of these little stacked rocks!

Inside the cavern is a little shrine where you can put in a donation and ring the bell. That's my friend Fu ringing the bell.
After we finished checking the area out, it was time to walk back up. Here's a view of some of the steps that lead us back to the top:

Along the road, we noticed something interesting. There are these stone steps that lead down. After about 7 steps there is... NOTHING!!!! That's right. If you walk down this stair case you will fall a few hundred feet down to your death. Scary!


This is for Cindy. She says I post food after my sight seeing stuff. So here was dinner for the night. We stayed at a traditional Japanese hotel (where you sleep on the floor with Futons.) This is the traditional Japanese dinner. It's a whole bunch of little dishes!
We had to eat up and rest.

Because the next day, we go to Hell!!!

I'm serious.

We really do.

We even had tickets.