Day 1: M is for Midnight, Miyajima, Mountains, and Missing Monkeys

Okay the delay has gone on long enough. Gooey brain or no gooey brain the golden week joys must be shared before more time has lapsed. Knowing my head is struggling to form complete thoughts pictures will have to make up the difference –they are worth a thousand words.

Our voyage began at Kong station, then to Umada to catch an overnight bus to Hiroshima. Sleeping on planes or buses even in cars in not a simple task. After twisting and contorting you body only to wake with a crink in your neck and pain everywhere else. The trip to Hiroshima should only take about five hours, yet our bus stopped through out the night for twenty mintues or more each time waking us up when the fans were shut off and the stale air settled. Not the best way to achieve a restful sleep.

We arrived at 5:30 am and waited for everything to open. Its odd being up at that hour I don’t think I like it. The city was actually quiet felt very odd in an eerier way. The only people out were runners and over zealous businessmen. Ate at McDonalds’s, a few seats away from us a guy had fallen asleep at the booth and was snoring up a storm.

Around 7ish or so we hopped on a streetcar heading to docks about an hour’s ride outside the city. I am sure it would have been wonderful to take in the sites –I slept. From the docks we took a very short ferry ride to Miyajima island which is one of Japan’s "three most beautiful spots". It is famous for Itsujushima Shrine and the O-torii gate (also called the floating shrine). The gate is set in the bay and at high tide looks like it is floating on the sea.

We took in the sites. Looked at tourist shops. I came very close to buying myself a set of samurai swords. Fed carrots to wild deer. Took a nap on a park bench. Visited an aquarium. All before lunch. It is the most I’ve done in a morning since coming to Japan. We had an amazing lunch. I tried something new. I am not sure what it is called there were many syllables to remember. The dish had rice in the bottom and the tempura shrimp with a sauce on top. Super good!

It took us awhile to get motivated but after lunch we took a trail up Mt. Misen. Our goals were to reach to top and see wild monkeys. We trudged and trudged and trudged. The closer we got to the top the more breaks I needed to take. Really wanted to give up but once we got to the top it was worth the view. Each break we looked for monkeys even tried to lure them out with monkey calls. Sadly no monkeys were found. On the way down Tiffany and I raced Steve to the bottom. He walked/ran while we took a cable car. Steve beat us by thirty minutes.

We returned to the city, found our night’s lodging. They directed us to a restaurant run by an American, which meant americanish food for us. Oh the joys of a taste of home. Called it a night around 10 and slept soundly.

Thus ended the first day.