so on the 25th, i left hk to go to macau. on the way to the ferry, i ran into another celebrity. well, a dj radio host that was talking on the bus on her cellphone about predictions. she was yapping to some client how good their luck was for the year of the monkey. then at the "orchid flower street" (or "drunkard foreigner street" as it used to be called), passed by an actress. actually, i really didn't notice her til my aunt mentionned it cuz she didn't seem that pretty. hong kong is crawling with celebrities but i have yet to see aaron! >:(
macau used to be run by portugese. the city has lots of old european style architecture buildings, churches that makes it feel like it's not asia anymore. but then, there's lots of picpocketers instead. in hk, it's illegal to gamble , therefore, no casinos. but in macau it's ok so people all head over there to gamble. i saw tons of jewelery store cuz people pawn their valuables b4 heading over to the casinos.
on the way to the old church, the street leading up was FILLED with stuff to eat and handing out samples. always being hungry, i took every sample of those almond cookies and stuffed myself to the point where i had no appetite to eat lunch. those cookies made from rice really fill u up, i had no clue, just like how i ate that egg tart a few pics down, was made out of lard! no wonder it tasted so good when the whole things was made from fat!
the church area was crowded and almost all of the tourist were either from hk or china. the church burned down a long time ago except for the front part. they never bothered to rebuild it so just the front part is left standing.
near the church was a bit of a hike up to the top of the fortress hill. i didn't know there was an escaltor to take u up otherwise i would have done it coming down. each step was huge and it was a good workout for about 15 minutes or so. behind me is macau but the green mountain, is mainland china. lots of illegal workers swim across the river to come to macau to find work.
after that, on to a temple. this temple lets u buy firecrackers for only $5 for u to lit up. this one isn't mine. but i did buy a pack and accidently broke off part of the string to light it. so.... it was fuking short and i was very nervous to light it up cuz i was scared of it blowing up in my face. my uncle took a video camera of me holding a giant ass fragance stick and inching towards my firecracker. it took me a good 20 seconds cuz i was scared and the stupid thing didn't lite. but once it lit up, it was loud! everyone was liting up firecrackers. makes me wish that canada would let me do that on canada day....
then on the 26th, 2nd last day, went up to the top of hk to see the view. it was pretty hazy and didn't offer a very good view.home to about 6 million hk people all jammed on the tiny islands.
the whole peak took me about an hr to walk around in a circle, the area infested with expensive houses, ACTUALLY houses and high rise apartment buildings. i didn't see any celebrities there. :( but there were several old structures there, like this 100 year old stone chair.
this concludes my 10 day trip to hk for chinese new year. overall, i walked a lot to see places, i ate lots of family dinners, i lots of stuff in the streets and i got fat! >:( now i'm back in osaka for a new semester. next plans, trip to sapporo in early february for the yuki matsuri, snow festival.
January 24th, 2003
another day to another temple, this time to the wishing tree. people buy oranges tied to papers and people write their wishes on it. and they fling it up and the higher it goes, the higher the chances it will become true! man, as soon as i got there, the tree was on fire! people lit those fragance sticks and put them near the tree. then as soon as the wind comes, the paper bits catches on fire and so does the tree! i already know that the tree caught on fire several times and police and firefighters are there to help out. after putting out the fire, people start flinging their oranges. but u have to be careful! if they miss, they come flying at u! the guy standing RITE NEXT to me, got an orange wrapped around his neck. good thing i wasn't standing in that spot otherwise i would have shot the person! but yes, oranges flying around everywhere, then when they get it on a branch, the juice is also dripping. when i was walkign around, i had to walking careful with my hands on my head and try to avoid all the bullets! the 1st time i threw it, it went flying too far and landed in the crowd. so i went digging threw to retrieve it and therew 2 more times b4 it caught on! yeah for me!
so here's the tree on fire.
here's me flinging my orange! this was the 1st attempt.
my orange rite in the middle!
next to the tree, the lion dance was on and then the lion goes greeting at all 3 temples. it dances a bit, bows 3 times b4 going off to the village.
after that, headed off to wan chai, the place where england handed hk back to china on july 1st, 1997. the golden statue was from the chinese government to the hk government. the 2nd last pic of the nite b4 the camera ran out of batteries! >_<
tomorrow, overseas to macau, an island that used to belong to portugal, about an hour away from hk.
January 23rd, 2003
another day of eating a lot= doesn't look good for me -_-' i'm getting worried since i'm here for anotehr few more days! another day of going out. this time, to a temple where it's famous for it's luck windmills. the fast it spins, the more luck u'll get. but if u were lucky last year, don't get one! why get rid of the luck? but if u're luck sucked, get one! a lot of them were carrying it. chinese new year day 3 is a really good day to put those fragance sticks into the pots so already, people are lining up at the temple to do that. i went today cuz i don't really wanna line up. if i can cut in line, that works! but i went in the afternoon and it was sorta crowded. everyone carrying those fragance sticks and ashes everywhere!not as crowded as the pic in the 22nd entry where they were all crazy to be the first.
after that at nite time, the official new years fireworks. we went as close as possible to the harbour. the fireworks lasted 23 minutes and it was really something. the best fireworks i saw. i didn't know that we were at an angle til i saw the highlites of it on the tv. seeing it face front is totally diff from an angle but i guess, it's alrite. next year!
after that, just a walk to the "lan kwai fong", but actually , it's supposed to be sounding "lan gwai fong". meaning "drunkard foreigner area". cuz the area is full of bars and lots of foreigners go there, but seeing how bad it sounds, they changed one of the sounds to making it a "orchid flower area."
here's me!
besides bars, the area is famous cuz 10 years ago on new years eve, more than 20 people died on that one nite. cuz of the sloping street and people walking in both directions and everyone spraying those white mousse from the cans, the street became slippery. so one person slipped, it became like a domino, and everyone fell down and the people at the bottom got crushed. so on that celebration nite, at least 20 people died.
(need to find the pic for that)
um yeah, not too sure how to end entry talking abotu this this fun nite with this bad event. lesson, don't get too drunk!
January 22nd, 2003
happy (officially) chinese new year people! 新年快樂! it's too bad that coming to hk, i was born the year of the monkey cuz it's also year of the monkey. to be born the same animal as the new coming year, it's always bad luck for the person. so i read magazines, it's advised that i don't change anything, so even if i wanna get a job. this year is a bad year. oh well, don't have to worry about that, can use that as an excuse j.k. :)
even if coming to a diff country, i'm still a klutz...ie. i almost fell flat on my face when walking towards the harbor to watch the fireworks, then i almost fell on someone in the bus. the bus drivers here are insane. they step on the gas pedal with so much force, u're thrown backwards if u don't hang on. that was my prob, i didn't hang on, and i ended up sitting on some guy's lap! well, i guess maybe he liked it , maybe not, but i learned my lesson. hang on the bloody rails when u get on! since coming to hk for the last 3 days, it's so diff from japan. people in japan, is quieter than chinese people. when i went dim sum, i thought i was gonna go deaf cuz people were literally screaming at each other over the noise. plus while waiting for my order at a small restaurant in Central, the bus drivers were honking their horns continously til i thought my head was gonna split. traffic jam sucks here and people get impatient and start honking even though it'll get them nowhere! what else, i guess manners. if u bump into someone, u would at least say excuse me. nope, they look at me and i glare back at them and they continue walking. even the salespeople are pretty rude, but it's normal here. i just hope that i DON'T bring those manners back to japan cuz i'm gonna piss off quite a few people that way!
i encountered my 1st brush with celebrity. i was hoping to run into aaron kwok, this hottie. i DID see this giant cardboard cut out of him next to the store, i was pretty tempted to have felix take a pic of me with him but looking at the crowds around me, they'll prob think i'm some sort of retard or something. but at the Landmark mall, while "browsing" (shopping) at gucci store, this guy was next to me also looking at bags as well as hats. i totally didn't recognize him til my aunt said he's from this drama. thinking thinking, i remember! the monkey dude from journey to the west drama, but curses! i forgot his name! i so wanted an autograph plus pic but i didn't know what the hell his name was til my sis told me. there were no security guards around him or anything or trailing fans so i guess he's not very very famous. recognizable yes cuz someone else did recognize him but didn't ask for autographs. damn, shopping in hk is so much cheaper than japan, even designer stuff by like a good 40-50%!
anyhoo, so went to the chinese new year festival , packed with people. PACKED. a sea and mountain of people. i was happy cuz i got to push people >:) it's pretty sim to new year's in japan except there's more people crowded at this one market plus there's more stands. this was around 10:30pm ish or so. it gets even more packed by 11-12.
chinese new year is all about those 4 characters saying, i got mine done by this famous anti-goverment 70yearish old guy. lots of hk people also got theirs done, b4 it was free, but he charges money ...so i got one done meaning, 10,000 things, will always win. i'm hoping no matter what i do in school, work, life, things will always go my way. holding my white cat "doko demo issho" too, it's so cheap! only $13!
besides going to the new years market/fair, people can also go to temples. as soon as the bell strikes midnite, people all jam their stick of fragance/insence into the pots. it's a huge deal to be the first. i couldn't go cuz it would be impossible to be the 1st person to jam the insence into the pot cuz i was already at the fair. but i some some on tv, and they were RUNNING, holding huge asses of the fragance sticks, some with a huge handful of it, and some guy managed to beat the crowd to stick those fragance sticks in first. i have no idea how long these people have waited by the doors to be the first. oh well, if i come back next year, i'll have to do that. i'm always up for a challenge to push people! i just found a shot of how insane it is if i end up doing this.
first day of the new year, i got a shot of the otherside of hk via the window by carefully making sure i don't drop my camera from the 26th floor! this was actually a clear day compared to the last 3 days, cloudy and rainy and cold.
after a breakfast of chinese new year cakesat 10 am, off to lunch at 12:30 pm at another aunt's house to eat. after that, continue on to my dad's sister's house to once again eat and then for dinner. over the next 2-3 days, people go out to visit relatives to pay their respects, wish them happy new year, and kiddies go out for red lucky money >:) btw teatime snacking and dinner time, my cousins took me out. passing by mong gok, the "ladies street", a cheap ass market selling clothes, bags, etc. i would so 100% of all the stuff they sell, are fakes! i mean designer stuff, like gucci, dior, louis vuitton, burberry etc etc. i knew they were fake cuz of the obvious price, but if i look at it, could u really tell? until my cousin told me the obvious diff with vuitton, but i'm looking at gucci, but the diff wasn't that noticable except for the lack of gucci tag label, and the cheap looking leather material. but from a distance, it's pretty passable. but then i guess if it's cheap and fake, probably doesn't last long. it was pretty crowded, but then this area is always busy after 3 pm, no matter what day it is. here's the entrance of the market, and then , a shot of what the market is like.
thinking tomorrow is another dinner, but the thing i've been looking forward to, huge ass fireworks! no way am i gonna watch it on tv, came all the way to hk, want real live action to record.
January 21st, 2003
hello people! it's chinese new year's eve! so tonight from now on til the next the 4 days it'll be dinner with relatives and a chance to get lucky money >:)i finally figured out how to resize pictures cuz my laptop isn't here. but til the 27th , i'll be able to constantly update with pics.
on the 19th, i went to a jade market where vendors , about roughly 100 of them, selling various kinds and grades of jades and other kinds of rocks. the whole point is to haggle with them til u get the price u want.
after that, i met up with felix who's also from the same school in japan and we met up. we just wandered around in tsim sha tsui , close to the waterfront property to wait for the fireworks at the harbour. here's where we were with all the neon lights that's even brighter than osaka!
and here's the fireworks that i watched, with it being 80% laser lites and 20% fireworks. but that's only to celebrate a new skyscraper but for chinese new year it's gonna be even better!
since chinese new year is the year of the monkey, they had lots of monkey decorations.
and around the area of tsuim sha tsui, they still have xmas decorations up.
then yesterday on the 20th,eating! not at restauarants, but at cheapie restaurants and side street stalls. this cantonese noodle shop is really good, but bloody expensive!
next stop, egg tarts! i must have looked like an idiot eating and taking pictures on the street! >_<
in preparation for chinese new year, everyone goes out and buys flowers and it was insane to avoid being crushed! i took this picture safely above the crowds.
next to the flower markets, was the bird market. they sell not only bi rds but the cages, grasshoppers along with it and little water and food dishes. but the bird's prices doesn't depend on the color, it depends on how well they can sing.
besides flowers, people also buy huge ass trees of mandarin oranges. i have no idea how much they are but some even were bigger than me ! (and i'm not very tall either...)
people also buy these little plants, supposed to represent 5 generations of family living together. course now a days, that's very rare and unlikely, but people buy them cuz they like the thought of it.these ones u can't eat.
lastely, to get ready for the crowds of chinese new year, pushign people thru a busy street market! they sell dirt cheap stuff for like only $5-10 bucks, and of course, bargin!
January 19th, 2003
ok! can now update pics from my kyushu trip, rite now in hong kong at relatives house to spend the chinese new year.
first up, went to fukuoka, the start of the island kyushu in southern japan. i figured that since it's more south, it would be more warm. nope, it was even colder than osaka and it was snowing!fukuoka's more famous for it's ramen and it resembles more like cantonese noodles. i actually went to a ramen stand where they put me into this little cubicle and i filed out the order sheet of how i want them to prepare it. the soup base if it should be strong/medium/weak, fat content, the strength of the noodles, how much of their secret sauce etc etc. i also went to a zen temple where for once, i didn't have to pay an entrance fee! the temple is where green tea first originated. and since i drink green tea like almost everyday, thought i should pay homeage to the place!
after a nite in fukuoka, moving on to nagasaki, the place where the 2nd atomic bomb was dropped and the strong christianity influence.i went to the tomb where they persecuted 26 people, 6 of them europeans, cuz they were christians and at the time, roughly 1570's, christinity was outlawed.
next to the tomb, i got a nice overview of the harbour. the city was so clean! but then, the city was 1/3 destroyed more than 50 years ago so they had to rebuild the city.
after that, the peace park. the entrance to the park, they had the fountain of peace and it looks like the crane's wing. the pic is small so i doubt u can see the rainbow in the water.
the statue, the arm pointing up represents the atomic bomb being dropped and the outstretched arm stands for peace.
the park next to the peace park, is where the bomb was actually dropped, the hypocentre park. the black stone is the exact spot where they dropped. nagasaki was not the actual spot where the US wanted to drop it, but they changed their minds to that city cuz they were some trouble spotting the original spot.
and the wall, is actually the wall from the oldest christian church in japan but the whole thing fell down when the bomb was dropped. so they managed to salvage part of the wall and they rebuilt the church a bit further away.
after a day in nagasaki, off to the mountains to the hot springs resort. they had so many hot springs in one spot! even if i stayed at that one hotel and they had a hot spring, i could walk my ass to other hot springs just down the street. but i was more interested in the outdoor hot springs. i imagined hot springs to be hugeass if their outdoors and i could bring in hot bottles of alcohol but nope! they were actually small and they were hot! and the bamboo fences were pretty tall , i guess to actually keep out the pervs :) also, i can't meet you guys request, i don't have to write any names down but u know who u r! i couldn't bring my camera in to take pics of the naked females. so the best i could do was to take a pic of the outdoor springs when there was no one there.
and b4 i went to kyushu, my host mother brought me to 2 other shrines. the first one, was on the 3rd. again more shoving people but not was bad as the one in kyoto! u can see how crowded it was to get to the bell and ring in. everyone rings in to make the gods listen to their wishes.
the shrine is actually famous for its numerous tori gates. i counted them, the ones that i walked past as i walked up the mountain. i counted up to 1589! and there's more since i didn't walk to the other side.here's an example of it.
then on the 8th, the shobai festival. where businesspeople go to ask for money! the new years is usally for health and luck for the family. on the 8th, it's for yourself!people threw money into the centre, gotta be careful that people don't bean u in the head with their coins! i saw 1000 yen notes, and even 10000 note too! close enuf to 120$ canadian! i was so tempted to climb over the barrier to take all that cash!also , people also buy bamboo shoots for luck. the bamboo had all sorts of decorations. but if u don't wanna pay, get a plain one!
January 18th, 2003
i do have pics that i wanna upload but the computer at the internet cafe is refusing to read my disc and it`s taking all my effort to not smash the computer to the ground in frustation. the pics were all from my trip to kyushu plus another money festival thing before i left. and i`m gonna be leaving for hong kong soon, in about 1 hr or so to catch the bus to the airport before departing at 6:30pm. i guess i`ll just have to wait til i`m over in hong kong at the relatives house to upload the pics :(
chinese new year is gonna be coming up soon and that means stuffing my face with chinese food >:) for those whose gonna see me in japan, u`ll see me fatter rite away when i come back on the 27th. from then on, it`s moving on to a new host family`s place by the end of the month. HOPEFULLY, this time i`ll get to actually stay in the same house as the family. i probably told everyone by now that i actually had my own house for the last semester. course everyone said it was a good thing, yes and no cuz it was pretty boring at times. i`m hoping the jap university is smart enuf to actually realize this cuz i made changes to my application form in big red letters!
January 9, 2003
here's the update of what i did over the past few days in january. i'm gonna be traveling again soon, this time to kyushu for about 3-4 days before heading off to hong kong on the 18th to see chinese new year! then i can stuff my face with dim sum and chinese food! :) so who knows when i'll update again. maybe the break between kyushu and hong kong, or just even after hong kong on the 27th. but in the meantime, i guess i should update the site with pics from tokyo way back in september since i finally got my hands on the pictures from other people's digi cam.
skiing in hokkaido, was sorta sim and sorta diff from the rockies back home. similar in the fact that yes, it does snow a hell lot but diff in the way the mountains are smaller therefore, the ski runs will be shorter. plus i was surprised that they don't groom the ski runs very often.
skiing for 3 days near sapporo, at rusutsu ski resort, almost made me forget the snow in calgary. when i went back home for xmas, chinook was in calgary with a 7C, but jumping back to another country , snowing for 2 days -10 C, it gave me a sorta nostalgic feeling. the ski area was quite similar to banff, lots of mountains, trees and u can see the lake ( like lake louise) and the surrounding town.
my fav pic of the ski area, overlooking the lake.
ashamed to admit, i had a bit of hard time skiing -_- , my skis kept on crossing so i fell quite a bit. but! luckily i didn't break any bones or killed myself.(i had a habit of doing so back in september when i went to tokyo and before. ie. scooter incident, almost getting my arm caught in the train doors) the mountain in the back on the left hand side, looks a lot like mt. fuji. i saw the real mt. fuji while flying to hokkaido in the airplane, a single lone mountain with clouds surrounding it. if i feel brave enuf or crazy enuf in spring, i might consider going on a tour to climb mt. fuji.
besides the skiing in hokkaido that makes it famous, the chocolate "shiroikoibito" (that stuff is good stuff! mmm.... biscuits with chocolate) but also the seafood. the crab, i'm not too sure what it is, alaskan crab?, is ridicuously expensive. it's some crab with sharp spines on its legs and it's pretty butt ugly. i attempted to eat one leg since i'm not that crazy for crabs, but also i couldn't use my teeth to break the leg open. us chinese people like to do so, using our teeth to get to the crab meat. :) i saw at the airport, that u can buy the crabs to take home with u. one crab sells for 5000 yen, roughly $60 ish or so. at the resort, there was a buffet, 3500 yen , and my classmate did take advantage of that. ie, he stuffed his face with at least 3 of them. just looking at him eat, made me feel full already.here's the monster, debating if i should call the circus to make him a star freak attraction since the pic makes him look like he's also eating the scissors!
January 8, 2003
another trip was done, this time to hokkaido, the northern part of japan is so much like calgary. it's clean, cold, lots of nature, population wise. the update today will be just for sapporo, tomorrow will be the skiing trip.
sapporo's main claim to fame is the tower that resembles much like tokyo's tokyo tower. the tower overlooks the odori koen, that's home to the annual snow festival, yuki matsuri, where they have tons of huge ice and snow sculptures. i already booked my plane tickets and youth hostel reservations so i'm really looking forward to seeing and taking more pictures of it :) already, since buying my digi cam from sept. , i've taken well over 1000 pics. since u people ask me what i did, i gotta have proof to show u!
so here's the tower that overlooks the park
going up the tower into the observatory platform, here's the park where it's gonna hold the snow festival with me blocking the view and not blocking the view. the city still have some of the xmas lights up from the annual xmas illimunation festival which ended a day or so b4 me arriving in sapporo.
just outside the tower, there were these 3 cute dogs wearing sweaters sitting next to a xmas tree and i guess it's owners/fans were surrounding them. they were too cute! i wanted to steal one!
finally, i met up with my sister's kindgergarden classmate, shoko and her mother, who moved to sapporo 12 years ago. my sister insisted on seeing some pics of her on this page since she's so JEALOUS of me cuz it's her friend yet i'm the one seeing her >;) ha ha, sorry jennifer! if u behave well, maybe i'll take u to japan so we can visit her again!
anyhoo, that's all the updates for sapporo, tomorrow using the school computer (i'm at the internet cafe now since my own bloody internet connection at the host familys's place is crappy), upload more pics of the ski resort.
January 3, 2003
Happy new year people! あけましておめでとう！spending new years in japan is completely different from canada. people go out new years eve to go to shrines and pray. of course i wanted to do that and also, seeeing the pic from above, i also wanted to wear... a kimono. kimono's are fuking ridicuosly expensive and most females wear them at least 3 times in their life. for the coming of age ceremonies and new years during the same year and their wedding. kimono's vary in price but they can go up to a crazy price of $5,000 -10,000 bucks. hence, people sometimes rent them for the coming of age ceremonies. my friend, kaori below, rented her's for about $2,000. if i rented, my host mother asked and it's like $1,000 bucks and up. buying, was $1,000. since i was planning to wear it for my graduation ceremonies at the japanese university, we agreed it would be more beneficial to buy one. i actually got mine for a little above $1,000 cuz the department store was relocating so they had to get rid of their inventory since it'll be another year b4 they can reopen. as my family already thought, i must be crazy and yes i think i am crazy! but i really wanted one for a long time so i did get one. unfortunately, they did not have pink >:( so we went along with purple.
going to kyoto that nite to the most popular shrine, yasaka jinja (see the last entry for december about me going to the shrine) was full of people and the police were there to do crowd control. waiting took like an hr b4 i could get in around 1 am. it was bloody freezing and luckily, the host mother lent me her mink fur wrap, i was determined NOT to lose it cuz it cost her like a good $10,000 at the time she bought it 20 years ago when she got married.
here's where i wanted to go
here's what's in my way to that temple!
normally, people throw money into the box slot and ring the roped bell b4 clapping their hands and asking for a wish. the shrine's is insanely popular during the new year and police were there on stage screaming at us not to push and the bells were tied up so we couldn't ring it. people pushed me, i pushed people to try to get to the front to throw me coin in. it was good fun pushing people around >:)
after that, headed over to kiyomizu dera, the temple that i went to near the end of august when i got to japan and the last one in december. this temple is different cuz temples and shrines are different. shrines always have the red torii gate whereas temples are usually like pagoda buildings. stayed there the whole 2 hrs ish or so cuz i wanted to see the sun rise in the morning. i never did this in canada but for some reason, i wanted to do in japan cuz i'm in a totally different country and people were staying up to do so too. but the sun refused to come up even thought it was 7 am and the sky was turning pink. plus it was freezing cold and we ended up heading home b4 the sun could rise. all i could do was take a shot of the sun refusing to grant my request >:(
lots of people also doing the same thing as me, waiting for the sun, the land of the rising sun but the sun refused to do so!
i got home at around 8:30 am january 1st and my host mom helped take some shots of me in front of the house. so here's the get-up of what costed me over a $1000.i really liked it and it wasn't uncomfortable or tight despite what everyone told me. good thing the shoes were comfortable too cuz of all the walking! walking around in a kimono required me to walk in a pigeon toed way but , it was do able!
the back of the kimono, the obi done up in an elaborate bow and my hair all pinned up.
after eating breakfast with the whole family, this is the 1st time i actually ate with the whole family! the mom, dad, and 2 bros. the mother made traditional osechi, japanese style cooking. supposed to last 3 days cuz the mothers aren't supposed to cook. new years is a time to relax. the stuff was not too bad, reminded me a lot like chinese food. some tradtional stuff japanese people eat, like tai = sea bream. the tai is supposed to be a pun for the congragulations part, omedetou = omedetai. also, money! i can' wait to go to hong kong to repeat this for chinese new year!
right after breakfast, went to a close by shrine with the whole family to pray. i'm still working on energy from last night, i didn' sleep that nite and when i got home, no time to sleep! eat and went out again! at least this shrine wasn't mad shoving, i could actually see the shrine.
the host family's dog, shell, all cleaned up for the new years!
January 2, 2003
hey people, now that i'm back in japan since dec 27th, i went on a trip to hiroshima to visit a friend of mine also from the same school dec 28th-30th. let's just say that the lack of sleep on the airplane from 3 babies crying the whole night, causing me not to get enuf sleep was one of the causes for jet lag. cuz of that, it was pretty exhausting trying not to show it too.
hiroshima is so much like calgary, in the way that the population is about the same and it's clean and there's lots of room. unlike tokyo and osaka where it's wall to wall with people.
the only places i really wanted to visit there was the atomic bomb dome, the memorial park and to see the floating shrine. so... being a natural tourist again, my friend took me to all those places.
the atomic dome was ... how to say it, interesting to say the least. when america dropped the bomb on hiroshima, i think it flattened the city to about 2 km wiping out everything. this is one of the building that survived, it used to be an industrial production place and the government has set up that this building is to be preserved to remind people of war.
the back view of the building
the building is part of the memorial park and it's really pretty, well, i'm sure it's more pretty without that bombed out building there. if it wasn't there, it would have just been an ordinary park.
i guess i was a bit late coming there cuz they chained the chime up so i couldn't ring the bell. u ring the bell so it sounds throughtout the park to remind people of the horror of the nuclear weapons.
in the childrens memorial park, we have the statue of sadako and her crane. she was a 10 year kid who died from leukemia 10 years after the bomb was dropped. in hope of curing her disease, it's believed that if u fold a 1000 cranes, u will get your wish granted. she folded about 640 but died b4 completing the rest. so her classmates folded the rest after her death. children all over japan send paper cranes to the memorial park too. i was hoping to fold one there but u have to provide your paper plus send it to them.
b4 , i don' think it was like it because last august, some sicko decided to burn the cranes. now, the cranes are protected in plastic cases plus there are cameras watching the area 24 hrs.
next stop was miyajima with my friend kaori who i stayed at her house for over the 3days, to a small island away from hiroshima not too far away. the place is famous cuz of the red torii gate that's out in the ocean. during the low tides, u can walk out under the gate. unfortunately, i got there during high tides and couldn't go unless i really wanted to swim out there.
the area also have deers like nara, (see october news) but the deers here are more gentle. at least they didn't start eating my shirt unlike the last ones! i had no deer biscuits so we had to use our rice balls to feed them. :)
but then they also smelled the food in kaori's paper bag and that one took a bite out of her bag!
kaori's sister , fumika, who i got to be pretty good buddies with chatting over the last 2 nites.
