Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan - 03-08 Aug 2012

Prologue: Why Japan?  Why Hiroshima?

In keeping with my goal of visiting all seven continents, an Asian destination made the most sense to me this time around - it's winter in the southern hemisphere, and I'm iffy about Africa.  I considered Seoul South Korea, Shanghai China, Taiwan, and of course Japan.  Visa issues made me decide to put China on the back burner (although I very much want to go there at some point), and I considered trying to cram Seoul, Taiwan, and perhaps Tokyo into one massive trip.  Then I realized that I could satiate my armchair-World War 2 historian buff in a major way by visiting Hiroshima on August 6th (or Nagasaki on the 9th).  The way my work schedule and optimal vacation time lined up, a trip from August 2nd through the 10th made the most sense.  To be safe (due to flying standby and whatnot), I knew I'd have to start heading home before the Nagasaki anniversary, so I focused on Hiroshima.

Unfortunately, my idea of traveling to Hiroshima on the 6th is not a very original one.  A search for hotels on Priceline and Travelocity quickly revealed that hotels in the city were booked solid.  The closest hotel I could find was nearly 50 miles away, in a small seaside town called Onomichi.  The wikitravel entry lists Onomichi's attractions, but I wouldn't exactly call it complimentary.  A quote: "Unless you have a keen interest in Pure Land Buddhism or Japanese literature, it's probably not worth your while to spend the night in Onomichi."  And here's me about to spend five nights there.  Still, experience has shown me that I prefer smaller towns to big cities when I travel, so I was confident I could find things to do in Onomichi and the surrounding areas.

One thing I found prior to leaving (and which turned out to be my salvation later) was the website of a Mr. Seiichi Matsuuras.  Matsuuras-san absolutely loves America and Americans, and since 1977 has been heavily involved with coordinating student exchanges, hosting American speakers, etc.  I emailed him before I left, asking him if any major events were going on in Onomichi between the 3rd and the 8th.  He replied enthusiastically, inviting me to an English-language karaoke meetup he was hosting on the 4th.  He went on to say that "any time any day please come and I am willing to take you to many places of interest."  Sounds good - I've got a ready-made tour guide in Onomichi!

So I felt prepared and confident when I left the house the morning of August 2nd.  Oh, and my friend Emily gave me another final forewarning: southern Japan is legendary for its extreme heat and humidity in summer.

2-3 August: The wonderful Japanese train system, and the kindness of strangers.

My itinerary was to fly from ORD to SFO, and from there to Kansai (KIX), just south of Osaka.  Not only is KIX closer to Onomichi, but my chances of getting first class were much greater than if I flew to Tokyo.  I was 4 for 4 on getting first class on international overseas trips, and my streak continued - I flew first class from SFO to KIX, and it was wonderful as always.  The good thing about flying to Asia is that jet lag is actually pretty minimal - we departed SFO at around 5pm, and landed in KIX at 3pm the next day, and I predicted I'd arrive at my hotel in Onomichi around 7 or 8pm.  However, between the airport and Onomichi, I got to experience the wonderful Japanese train system.

I had brought $500 in traveler's checks with me, and stopped at a currency exchange booth to cash them in.  The man said it would take about 20 minutes.  I decided to just wait until I got to Onomichi - I was eager to get on the train.  Oh, and yes, by this point the heat and humidity was smacking me in the face, so like everyone else, I was pretty much dripping with sweat as I made my way to the train station at KIX.  The people at the counter were Japanistically polite and accommodating of the fact that I had no clue what I needed to do.  When you buy a ticket, they print out all your connections as well (on a dot-matrix printer...hmm), so that's helpful.

I made my way to the train platform, and soon met a young Western guy by the name of Vin.  Vin had been to Japan before, but wasn't exactly sure which train he was supposed to hop on, and neither was I, so we bonded over our mutual apprehension.  We were both heading in a Hiroshima-ish direction, so we stuck together for a little while.  As trains would come and stop in the station, a small army of teenage boys dressed in funny black-and-white uniforms would converge on each car, give it a quick going-over (including dusting), and run back out again.  Those same boys would line up at the far end of the platform, and wave to the passengers as the train left the station.  And it wasn't a cynical, jaded, sarcastic performance either - they put on a damn good show and I admired them for their dedication.

It's important to note that the train I was on, while wonderfully air-conditioned, was not the legendary "bullet train" that Japan is famous for.  Japan has numerous train lines and I won't even attempt to explain them all here, but this was a "local" train with several stops between KIX and Osaka.  However, once I reached Osaka, I would transfer to the Shinkansen - the bullet train.  I was very much looking forward to this, and it didn't disappoint.  I even splurged on a "midori" seat - first class, and it was the most futuristic train ride I've ever been on.  There's talk of increasing the amount of rail travel in the U.S.; two things will prevent this from happening: one, lack of infrastructure that can support high-speed rail like in Japan, and two, the infestation of the TSA - they're already setting up shop in Chicago's Union Station where the Amtrak trains depart.  But, I digress.

So after a couple of changes and three hours later, I arrived at Onomichi at around 7pm.  I was happy and excited to be there, even though it's a fairly quiet little town.  There was certainly no lack of activity - I think Onomichi Station is pretty much the cultural as well as geographical center of the town, and there were a lot of shops and people milling around.  However, this is also where I ran into my first major snag.  There was a line of taxis outside the station, and I approached one hoping to get a ride to my hotel.  Only problem: they only accepted cash.  No credit card.  And there I was, having foolishly foregone the currency exchange booth at KIX, and yet waited for a train for more than the time it would've taken to cash in my traveler's checks.  There was a bank nearby by it was closed, of course, and even if there had been an ATM in the area, I'm not sure I would've felt safe putting one of my precious debit or credit cards into it.

(It was during this time that I realized how un-original my Hiroshima idea was: while contemplating my next move, I came upon a couple from Holland wandering around the area.  They told me that they too couldn't find a hotel in Hiroshima, and had to come all the way out to Onomichi.  Small world.)

It was also during this time that I met my first savior in Onomichi.  I went back into the train station and asked if they could call my hotel.  The staff in this small-town train station was not quite as fluent in English as the staff at the KIX train station had been, but we managed to communicate somehow.  One of the employees there was a young girl who knew that the hotel's phone number was listed on the map that they hand out to tourists.  She called the hotel, and they sent a van within a few minutes to pick me up.  I saw that girl a couple more times throughout my trip, but I never did catch her name or properly thank her for her help that night.  My only other recourse would've been to walk the 1-2 miles to the hotel, in stifling heat and humidity, dragging my suitcase along, and not knowing *precisely* where the hotel even was!

So, I got to my room, and I didn't care that it was the size of a shoebox, I was grateful for a place to call "home."  It even had air conditioning - not the most powerful system in the world, but it did the trick and I slept comfortably.

4 Aug - Time to Sing!

I started my first full day in Onomichi with a wonderful buffet breakfast at my hotel - which I found had been overrun by a truckload of middle-school age Korean kids who were touring Japan.  I found this out after I had sat down to eat my breakfast - they all rushed in like a tornado, spent five minutes eating their breakfasts, and were gone almost as soon as they arrived.  They were very orderly and quiet, but they still reminded me of a small Asian tornado.

The hotel I stayed at rented bicycles, and I had brought along my bike helmet with the intention of riding the Shimanami Kaido, a path that winds along several islands between Onomichi and Imabari (on the main island of Shikoku).  Welllllll...turns out that the bikes they rented were not exactly the high-performance 24-speed bikes I was kinda hoping for.  They were pretty cheap three-speed jobs with a damn wire basket on the front.  I could barely raise the seat up high enough to ride comfortably.  So much for the Shimanami Kaido - that would have to wait until next time.

I lazed around my hotel for a little while before heading out - Matsuuras-san's karaoke meetup started at 2 and I didn't want to get there too early.  I left the hotel at around 12:30, and made a stop at Onomichi Station where I was determined to cash in my traveler's checks.  The hotel staff had told me that any post office could cash them, and there was a post office near the station...which closed at 12:30.  I got there just a few minutes too late.  Crap.  Well, at least I had a three-speed bicycle.

I made my way over to Matsuuras-san's - he's a tall, polite, passionate elderly man who is still very spry for 75.  He was very happy to meet me, and I met several friends of his as well - Saito-san who was a HAM radio enthusiast; Fuka-san, a woman in her late 40s or early 50s who enjoyed hula hooping or hula dancing, I wasn't quite sure which; and Tetsuji-san who was only just beginning to learn English, so I didn't learn too much about him, but he was very happy to meet me as well.  We sang a few songs on Matsuuras-san's impressive karaoke setup and chatted a bit.  Fuka-san and Tetsuji-san left after a couple of hours, and Matsuuras-san made dinner for Saito-san and me.  He told me that his wife had passed away last year, and that he has a girlfriend now - she came over for dinner as well, and I don't recall her name and she spoke no English, but she was incredibly sweet.  Matsuuras-san, in keeping with Buddhist tradition, keeps a shrine to his wife in his house.  When his girlfriend arrived at the house, she took her shoes off, knelt at the altar, and said a prayer to the soul of Matsuuras-san's late wife.  I think she's a keeper.

It was around 7pm when I decided that I was ready to head back to my hotel for the evening.  Matsuuras-san and Saito-san asked me what my schedule was for the next couple of days - they wanted to take me to an "onsen" - a Japanese bath house!  I was a little intimidated, but hey, when in Onomichi...  I told them that Tuesday would be a good day to do that.  I hopped on my bike and rode back to my hotel and crashed.  (In bed, I mean...not on my bike.)

5 Aug - Miyajima and Hiroshima

This is where Matsuuras-san and Saito-san became my saviors in Onomichi.  Matsuuras-san invited me to have breakfast with them, and I accepted since I wasn't going to leave for Hiroshima until noon or so.  I told them of my problems cashing my traveler's checks, and Saito-san made a phone call...he apparently has connections.  After chatting with someone on the phone, he said "Let's go to the 7-11."  (Yes, 7-11 is huge in Japan.)  The 7-11 had an ATM, and the diagram showed the card going in with the stripe up and to the right.  I tried it with my debit card, and it was rejected.  Then I tried it again with my two credit cards, and they were both rejected.  There was a phone on the ATM for support, and Saito-san picked it up and talked to the operator at the other end.  He then had me try my debit card again, this time with the stripe down and to the right.  Lo and behold, it worked, and I was able to withdraw about 20,000 yen.  Hallelujah.  I was thrilled to finally have cash in my pocket as I headed to Hiroshima.

This is probably a good time to introduce Tara.  Tara is a fellow redditor who I had been in touch with for several months.  She teaches English at a couple of schools in the Hiroshima area, and she volunteered to be my tour guide once I arrived in Hiroshima.  She really really really wanted to take me to Miyajima - I had never heard of Miyajima, but I said sure, why not.  Turns out Miyajima is an island south of Hiroshima, and it is considered one of the most holy places in Japan for both the Shinto and Buddhist traditions.  Tara is involved with Taiko drumming, and has performed there on several occasions.  Historically, women and the elderly were not allowed on the island - the monks wanted to ensure that no births or deaths would ever take place on the island.  Since then they've kind of relaxed about that.

We took the ferry over and rented a couple of bikes (again...cheap bikes, in fact I think mine was a fixed-gear bike), although riding around was a bit difficult given the amount of tourists in the area.  (Tara in particular had a tendency to plow into little kids, but I think they were so impressed with her fluency in Japanese that they immediately forgave her.)  We wandered around the huge open-air temples, and ended up having lunch at a very good restaurant there.  I was pretty stuffed, but Tara then took me to a strip where vendors served all sorts of wares - and treats.  We had a deliciously simple concoction which consisted of hand-shaved ice and a strawberry topping (like you'd put on ice cream), and later I had a tiny star-shaped cake with a chocolate filling.

Following that, we took the ferry back to the mainland, and hopped on the Hiroshima trolley for a while.  We eventually went to an Okinawan restaurant for dinner - I don't recall the name of the place, but it included the word "turtle" or "tortoise," and sure enough, there was a gigantic live tortoise that wandered freely around the restaurant.  While we were there it was asleep underneath a table, but it was hard to miss.  We had delicious Okinawan food and I got more than a little smashed on what Tara described as "Okinawan moonshine."  I stumbled my way back to my hotel in Onomichi, very nearly sleeping through my stop on the Shinkansen, and accidentally leaving my bike helmet behind.

6 Aug - Hiroshima

Okay, we'll just call it what it is: I was hung over.  I did not make it to the morning commemoration ceremonies in Hiroshima, and in fact didn't really get out of bed until well after noon.  I did head to Hiroshima around 3pm or so, and I wandered around the Peace Park and watched them launching the floating lanterns in the river.  But I didn't stay very long - I wasn't really in the mood to deal with crowds and heat and humidity.  That and there were tons of Americans around...tons and tons.  I honestly prefer to avoid other Americans when I'm traveling.  It takes me out of my "mood."  I headed back to the Hiroshima train station and had a delicious meal at a cheap restaurant (only cost around $5 and hit the spot in a major way).  I went back to my hotel and had a drink at the fancy-pants lounge which happened to be right across the hall from my room - the bartender didn't know how to make a white russian (I think this has to be my new global crusade...first the Irish, now the Japanese), but I had some *excellent* sake and a pizza.

7 Aug - Onomichi Onsen and More Karaoke

So Matsuuras-san and Saito-san picked me up at my hotel at 9:30am on the 7th, and we drove far up into the mountains to an onsen (public bath house) that they go to from time to time.  Honestly, I don't see the appeal, but then again, I didn't grow up with this as a cultural practice.  It's essentially "let's all get naked and hop into a jacuzzi with all of our same-sex friends."  Yeah, good times.  I think at this point I was tired of being hot all the time - so the thought of going to an onsen in the dead of summer just seemed highly illogical to me.  We sat in the bath for maybe an hour or so, then had lunch while wearing the traditional green post-bath robes they give you when you check in.  Afterwards, we went to a state park at the top of a different mountain in Onomich - I got some decent pics of the town from there.

Thennnnnn it was back to Matsuuras-san's for more karaoke, this time in Japanese!  Yay!  Different crowd this time, there were two other guys there who did speak very good English, although I don't recall their names.  They sang mostly in Japanese, but then they decided to sing a round of "My Old Kentucky Home," and that was when I realized - I was homesick!  I just wanted to go back to my hotel, sleep for about 12 hours, get up, get on the train, get to the airport, and get home.

Don't get me wrong - I love Japan.  Everyone there was so nice and helpful.  I would go back in a heartbeat, although I would stick to Hokkaido in the summer!!  Every day when I returned to my hotel, I was essentially a bag of sweat.  I was thanking my past self for packing so many spare t-shirts.

So, I said my goodbyes to everyone, but especially Matsuuras-san and Saito-san, who were excellent hosts and very good friends to have in Onomichi.  I biked back to my hotel, but I made two stops along the way: first at the train station where I bought my tickets to KIX for the next day, and a second stop at a local grocery store where I bought a carton of grape juice.  (I dunno, it sounded good at the time.)  Oddly enough, I ran into a rather beautiful western woman in the checkout line - I introduced myself, and I learned that she was teaching English through the JET program, just like Tara.  Her name was Gillian, and she was from Ireland.  Small world indeed.

8 Aug - One Last Surprise

I got up the morning of the 8th and headed down to the restaurant for breakfast.  There weren't too many people there, so I sat down at one of the great big round tables.  Across the table were two girls who took an immediate interest in me - one of them, Aiko, wasn't exactly fluent in English, but she was chatty as heck, and they decided to come around and sit on either side of me.  Aiko asked me all sorts of things...what I do, where I live, etc.  She told me that she and her friend were both from Tokyo, and showed me all of the mosquito bites she's gotten in Tokyo recently - which makes me think that Tokyo might also be a place to avoid in the summer.  She then told me that she and her friend were both 19 years old, and then asked me, "What did you do when you were 19?"  I laughed and told her about my awkward years at Central Michigan, and changing my major every semester...she empathized with not being sure what she wants to major in.  Aiko was heading back to Tokyo that morning, and her friend was heading on to Hiroshima.  I wished them both well and went back to my hotel room to finish packing, but I enjoyed our little chat and Aiko's enthusiasm for meeting an American.

The train ride to KIX was uneventful, and I loved going through Japanese security...they were polite, non-invasive (aside from taking a closer look at the array of electronica I carry with me), there were no nudie booths, no power trips...we could learn a lot from this culture.  I was a couple hours early for my flight, so there was a bit of nervous waiting, but then they called my name from the standby list, and gave me seat 1A - first class.  Six for six!  (Upon reaching SFO, I was given a middle seat in coach between two other men my size.  Ah well.)

Epilogue: Lessons Learned

Like I said, I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat.  I would do several things differently: get cash sooner than later, stick to areas with milder climates depending on time of year, and bring my own bike.  I had placed an order for a folding bike from a company in the UK, but I did it too late and won't receive it until next week.  Ah well.  Other than that, Japan is a fascinating, fun country, and not nearly as "weird" as I expected it to be.  I think a lot of the weirdness we perceive is just the extremes that bubble up to the surface and make their way over the ocean.  Japanese people have their quirks, of course, but the ones I encountered were extremely pleasant and down-to-earth.

For those of you who have made it to the end, here are some pics. :-)