Weekend 21 of 52: Japan.

Beetle Ferry, Fukuoka, Tempura, Karaoke, Miyajima, Ryokan, Torii Gate at the Itsukushima Shrine, Buddhist temple at the foot of Misen, Manju, Hiroshima, Peace Memorial Park, Okonomiyaki, Pachinko, Shinkansen

All of Korea has been on summer break for the last couple of weeks. We spent ours in hot, hot Japan. Dan planned the whole trip, organizing transportation and housing, dealing with all the money, speaking Japanese, being awesome. Dan, as his name would have you recite, is the man.

We trained down to Busan so we could take the 3 hour Beetle Ferry, dodging dolphins and sea creatures with speed and precision, over to Fukuoka. I have a friend, Anson, from my high school days who is currently living in Fukuoka, and he let us sleep over for the night. Sleep we did, but not before Anson took us out for lunchtime tempura where we bought meal tickets out of a vending machine, then for karaoke where we did some Disney sing-alongs, and finally for some dinnertime sushi. It was great to see Anson, great to meet his roommate Danny and his friend Kengo, and even greater to participate in a house church gathering before we had to catch our Sunday train to Hiroshima.

Once in Hiroshima, we boated to Miyajima Island, where we stayed in a ryokan for the night. Ryokans are sort of like the Japanese version of a Bed and Breakfast. Our host was named Yoko, like Yoko Ono she said, and she was funny and kind and very welcoming. She encouraged us to go visit the Torii Gate both before and after nightfall, before so we could walk up to it, after so we could see it lighted up. The gate rests at the entrance of the Itsukushima Shrine, and it is not tethered, it is secured by its own weight. Depending on the level of the tide, it variably looks like it's standing or floating.

We checked back in at our ryokan for our 8 course Japanese dinner, full of amazing fish and homemade sauces and tasty soups. We finished the night with a classy bath and a dip in the hot spring tub.

The next morning we had a traditional Japanese breakfast and then walked around the island some more. Dan walked up to the Buddhist temple at the foot of Mount Misen. I stayed back and hung out with the island's presumptuous population of wild deer. So bold are they that they sometimes eat guide maps and clothing. It's pretty hilarious.

After Miyajima, we went back to mainland Hiroshima. We spent the day at Peace Memorial Park. I don't know how to talk about the atomic bomb without complete incredulity. I don't know who made that call, and I don't know who didn't stop him, but I do know that it's got to be one of the greatest evils ever touted as simply an act of war. Of course the museum was horrifying. The temperature of the bomb pretty much melted all things, buildings, rocks, skin, internal organs. What the heat and explosion didn't kill, the radiation took care of. The worst of it all, of course, is that it happened again several days later. And it would have happened to the rest of Japan's cities had they not surrendered. I am firmly on the side opposing all nuclear things.

Well, Hiroshima is also known for their okonomiyaki, sometimes referred to as Japanese pizza. It's a cabbage, flour and egg base loaded with toppings and tastiness. We ate some of that, played some Pachinko, which I just did not get at all, and did some serious window shopping. Fun. Then we took the Shinkansen to Tokyo.