Category — Japan

Not far from Hiroshima you can catch a ferry to Miyojima Island.  I had read that there was a community of deer living on the island but when I read notices at the hostel in Hiroshima warning tourists to protect their train passes, I was intrigued.

“Japan Rail Passes are non-refundable and cannot be replaced.  Please do not let your pass be eaten by a deer (this has happened!)”

When we got off the ferry, we soon found out what the sign was all about.  There were deer waiting for people coming out of the ferry terminal and as soon as you got close they were sniffing you over to see if there was anything interesting in your pockets or bag.

There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the deer as they get sick from not grazing properly – which they’re obviously not doing.  Within our first 10 minutes on the island, we saw a deer trying to get into a plastic bag that had had a sushi lunch in it.  He gave up trying and just started eating the whole thing – plastic bag, plastic box, chopsticks – everything!  I attempted to wrestle it off him and he was not happy!  Luckily they’re not that big, as he wasn’t backward in having a go at me.

A little way down the road, we found another couple of deer breaking into a pannier on someone’s bike.  They had already opened all the flaps that had been buttoned down and were now working on the zip.  After a few minutes of patient nudging they were in – and scoffing biscuits!  Only problem was the biscuits were individually wrapped in foil packs and they were eating the foil
as well.  It’s no wonder they all look a little bit mangy and sick.

Miyojima is a big tourist destination for the Japanese so it was pretty busy but the weather was beautiful.  There’s a shopping street, various temples and the famous red gate that stands in the water offshore.

There’s also a mountain you can hike up (or if you’re sensible take the cable car).  Typically Paul wanted to just go up a “little” way to have a look.  Turns out it was steps all the way and by the time we’d been going about half an hour, the girls and I rebelled and refused to go any further.  Paul, of course, insisted it wasn’t much further to the top and that he was going to keep going.  So we parted company – us girls to the shopping street and the boys up the mountain.

2 1/2 hours later, they turned up having discovered that we had been nowhere near the top and they had walked up another 2km of steps before getting the cable car down. 

Us girls had obviously made the right decision as we wondered through the tourists – many of whom had little dressed up doggies and we sat and had a nice drink and some M&M’s.  That was of course until the deer realised we had food…

Hiroshima was a pleasant surprise after our whirlwind through other parts of Japan.  It’s quite touristy here and very well designed for foreigners and also very pretty.  We caught a tram to the Museum and Peace Park, which was something a little bit different, after flying around on the  bullet trains.

I have to share with you Georgie’s comment about the Shinkansen trains – she is such a world traveller!!  She said – “They aren’t that fast!  I don’t think it’s any different to the Eurostar!”  Pretty good comment for a 9 year old – she still has no idea how lucky she is!

Anyway, as you would imagine the A-bomb Dome was very thought provoking.  The bomb was detonated about 600 metres above Hiroshima and almost directly above the Dome – they believe that is why it was not completely flattened like most other buildings close to the hypercentre. [Read more →]

We’ve been and gone to Japan and it seems like the 10 days we spent there were over in an instant.  We started with Tokyo and firstly we were struck by the difference to Beijing.

Beijing is on the move..  It is bright and shiny and there are building works going on everywhere.  Tokyo looks like it moved about 1980.  We supposed this was when their economy was booming and probably Beijing will be like that in 20 years. 

Japan was a bit of a culture shock – a lot of which we can contribute to the fact we weren’t in any place long enough to get comfortable and some to the fact we’ve been travelling in the East for a while now and Japan is very western by comparison.  So whilst it was nice to be in cities that weren’t all that different to Australia – I’m sorry to say Westerners are probabaly far more concerned with getting to wherever they’re going – usually to work! and this can make them appear to be less friendly?  I think Japan suffers from this as well.

In Beijing, we only had to hold up a map and we’d have someone come up and ask us were we ok, could they help?  In Japan, we spent an awful lot of time just trying to find our way around – the maps were terrible and when you asked directions, it usually consisted of something akin to “just around that corner” with a vague wave of an arm.   We both had a bit of a meltdown with some staff at the Tokyo station when we were told to validate our train passes at the office “just around the corner”.  After wandering aimlessly for about 20 minutes, we finally discovered the office – around the corner, walk about 500 metres, up the stairs to another level, through a labrynth of tunnels, around several more corners etc etc!!!  Not happy Jan – I can tell you!!

You can imagine what we said, when after having validated our passes and got our tickets for the train, we asked the lady where we should go to get to the platform.  Guess what she said?  “Oh not far - just around corner” and vaguely waved her arm!!!  Paul made her come out of her ticket office and show us – she ended up walking us all the way there!

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