Hiroshima

Hiroshima was really nice! We took a high end night bus to Hiroshima. It was comfortable but not as comfortable as the picture made it look like. We tossed and turned a for a bit but finally dozed off for a few hours. The bus ride was very bumpy and noisy. It was okay for the 12 hours but we arrived with a bit of lost sleep. We dropped off the big suitcase at the hotel and went into town. We arrived at 8 am but couldn't check-in until 2pm. With a little suaveness we got a nice room overlooking the river. We spent the day walking around the city and visiting and sightseeing. First we went to the Castle, a pretty cool castle with many places to enter and visit. We went inside the outside wall and then went inside the castle itself. It was very nice inside and it had English audio for the video presentations which means this is the best historical place I have visited yet. I was looking at some traditional clothes they had for people to try on and a security guard seeing two foreigners jumped in and pushed pulled and dressed us up in these complicated Japanese clothes faster than we knew what was happening! Then he took pictures of us. It was really nice. We then visited the Peace park and the Atomic Museum. It was very interesting but I was a bit disappointed that the Room with all the shadows wasn't open while we were there. That night we went to the Okonomiyaki street (actually more like a tower) and we had the best Okonomiyaki ever! I loved it! We ate at a place on the 3rd floor, and at the back right.
The next day we went to the island of Miyajima. We checkout out of our hotel and left the big suitcase at the reception. We took the tramway to get there and back. And the ferry was very quick. We took pictures of the famous shrines, tori gates and buildings. My favourite building was the senjo-kaku. it was very old an many old paintings and carvings were still there. It was good that we went to the castle first because we could understand more about why and how it was all built thanks to the English videos explaining Hiroshima.
We also found Deer there, they looked a lot like the Nara deer. They also ate people's maps just like Nara deer. On the island it seems the famous thing is maple leaves. I ate a big fried fish paste stick with cheese inside and bacon on the outside. It was okay but very greasy and fishy. We also ate Okonomiyaki again for lunch! It was also good but the first place was best. We went around town and did some shopping then. After the shops closed and a few things were bought, we went back to the hotel get the luggage, with a bit of repacking the new stuff fir into our suitcase. Then we went to the station, and hung out at a MacDonald's from 8:30 to 10:30pm waiting for our next bus. This time we took a cheap overnight bus, no blanks and special seats. We got on and had just as much trouble sleeping as the first bus.

Western Japan trip

Well today we leave for our great western Japan trip! It's currently pouring rain in Yokosuka, however it looks like it's going to be fairly warm and sunny for the rest of the time in Hiroshima, Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto!

Everything is packed, the house is clean and I'm just making the final preparations.

Kamakura

WHEN I think of horseback archery I think of something pretty much impossible. I've gone horse riding a few times and I'm not bad at archery, on the ground that is. But I have a hard time imagining how difficult it must be to ride a horse and shoot a bow at the same time.

So on Sunday this is what I went to see. In Kamakura for the city's festival they had a special horseback archery demonstration and competition. The archers had really nice clothing and the horses they were riding were strong looking.

It was really packed! there must have been thousands of people. We were running a bit late so we didn't get to be close to the front. This was a bit of a problem but with some careful maneuvering in the crowd we got a spot where Jen could lean over and see and I could look over the heads of the people.

I thought they would be trotting by and shooting, and some riders did go slower than others. Btu most of them galloped at full speed. It was so fast we only managed to get a few decent pictures and videos.

Later we moved to another spot where we could see more. It was much better since we weren't being crushed by the crowd.

One of the archers had his arrow get stuck, he then had trouble getting the reins back and ran off the track, into a couple officials who ran out of the way, and almost into the stage at the end of the track. I think the rider was pretty shook up. He looked pale after stopping and turning around to get ready for his next try.

It was a fun experience but I think next time we should be there early and find the best place to see the show.