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I just wanted to put up a quick note that I’ve made it back to Kyoto. I’ve got some more photos to put up soon.

As I got off the train the day before in Hiroshima and headed towards the “You Are Here.” map on a wall in the station, I met Ceci from San Francisco. We caught up yesterday after some considerable confusion with the tram and train systems, and with the port of departure for the ferry. We headed out to Miyajima island to see the famous torii gate that occupies a small bay there. Of course, it’s best if you’re there when the tide is in, but we didn’t make it, so here’s a not-so-picture-postcard photo of the O-Torii. Miyajima also has a five-story pagoda and a shrine that sits on pillars in the water.

The photo below is from a sign on the trail up Mt. Misen on Miyajima. I used my sinus infection as an excuse not to take the four-hour hike up to the top and back. Ceci didn’t complain. Neither of us could figure out exactly what the sign meant. Big words are generally easier to translate than small words like “by,” “at,” and “for,” and Japanese doesn’t have any equivalent for many of our small words, like the definite and indefinite articles “the,” and “a.” This type of thing exists everywhere in Japan. Very often it is meant for Japanese audiences, but it makes for interesting reading for us as well.

After getting back to Hiroshima, we went to a building that houses twenty or thirty very small restaurants, almost like booths at a flea-market. All of which specialize in one thing: okonomiyaki, Hiroshima-style. Sometimes thought of as a type of cabbage pancake, at least in Hiroshima they’re a thin but normal pancake with heaps of stuff on top. I think mine had cabbage, sprouts, bacon, shrimp, squid, fried noodles, an egg, some oyster sauce and green onions, plus probably some other things I missed as the chef was constructing it in front of us. I think of it as the Japanese version of a Nick Tahou’s Garbage Plate, and think it would be a big hit with the 2 AM crowd in America. I almost ordered a second one, but I didn’t know if I could finish it. Once again a situation where solo travelers have friends for one day at a time, I had fun with Ceci and I hope she has a great trip.

This morning I packed up and went to the Hiroshima Peace Park on the way to the ferry terminal. It’s a strange thing to be in a city that, to Americans at least, is completely identified with its former destruction by the first the atomic bomb. In contrast with that image, this is a large, modern, thriving city. If not for the ruins of one remaining building, some memorials, some foreign tourists, and classes of Japanese schoolchildren on field trips, there would be no sign that anything so significant had ever happened here. This is the first place I’ve been where the foreign tourists outnumbered the Japanese tourists. Everywhere else we we’ve been outnumbered by no less than ten to one. In Japan, the crane symbolizes long life.

On December 2nd, after a couple of days in Kyoto, I headed out on a train to Himeiji Castle on the way to Hiroshima. I only had two hours at Himeiji, but I was able to walk through the castle and had enough time to get my fill. The interior of the tower was genereally quite dark, but the third floor pictured here was more open and well lit. Some of the staircases were very steep, and a bit slick for my socks. Visitors need to talk off their shoes before going inside. They offer plasitc shopping bags to carry them through the castle, and slippers to wear while inside. Generally speaking, these slippers aren’t big enough for western male feel, and on these staircases, I think would have died trying to wear them.

Later that day, I arrived in Hiroshima and while wandering around looking for food stumbled upon some rather interesting light sculptures. There were quite a few people out with their kids. It’s always fun to try to take pictures at night. Here’s a castle, a tree, a bear, and some unrecognized critter.

November 30th was my first full day in Kyoto. I went to three temples on what is called the Philospher’s Walk, after Nishida Kitaro of Kyoto University who used to walk this route regularly. Luckily for me, it was a perfect time of year to be in Kyoto for the changing leaves. Like the cherry blossoms in the spring, getting out to see the fall colors is hugely popluar with Japanese people. There were thousands of tourists and more than 19 out of every 20 were Japanese. The gardens at Nanzen-ji temple were terriffic. The Japanese Maple Trees were in full color.

Eikan-do Temple is especially popular for it’s landscape gardens this time of year. At the end of the walk is the Ginkaku-ji temple which may have been my favorite. Many people were taking close-up shots of the leaves, but I thought the view from the hill-side was great as well. Here was a little ravine where the leaves were falling with the breeze. I had a lot of trouble making these photos look real without unnaturally subduing the colors. They still need some work.

I’ve made it to the city of Matsuyama on the northwest coast of Shikoku Island. I have a few photos ready to go up, but have a lousy Internet connection. Half the city is probably using it. I spent the last couple of days in and around Hiroshima. I’ll be on Shikoku for the next three days before returning to Kyoto on the 7th.

I think I’m allergic to Japan. I’ve been getting worse since I got here. This morning I went to a pharmacy and between charades and a phrasebook was able to convey my symptoms. The pharmacist (well, at least he looked like a pharmacist) pulled six different medicines off the shelf and showed them all to me. All of them had five or six active ingredients which seemed a bit much, especially as I have no idea what those ingredients could have been—60mg this, 5mg of that. Who knows?

He recommended something he called “Chinese Medicine.” There was 1075mg of the first active ingredient, and four other active ingredients. I figured that if you need 1075mg of something it can’t kill you. He did a lot of talking in Japanese, and he asked one of the young women to translate into English. She said, “Chinese Medicine.” They looked at each other and then at me. They got a book, and looked it up. The book said—no lie—”Chinese Medicine.”

The medicine was actually an envelope full of beige granules that you take with water. He got me a paper cup of water, and I opened the envelope. Just to make sure I had it right, I motioned like I was going to pour the granules into the water. Nope, the trick is to pour the granules into the mouth, then the water is for “after.” I also bought a few travel packs of “tissues.”

After the pharmacy, I walked over to the “Cafe du Monde” and got a coffee and a muffin. The coffee made me feel better, so I washed it down with a “Mister Donut.” This particular Mister(y) Donut was your basic chocolate specimen with the whole in the middle, except it had more of these beige granules all of it. I thought maybe they’d be peanuts, but they were sugary. They tasted better than the medicine.

For the rest of the day I was still sneezy and runny so I went to the English-speaking tourist info office in the ninth floor of that department store in the train station. These are wonderful people. With some work they managed to translate “antihistamine” and “decongestant,” at least i think so. They wrote me a note, which I brought to a “Drug Store.” The young woman behind counter, who didn’t look at all like a pharmacist, gave me a box with a picture of a red, drippy nose. It had some active ingredients that didn’t require 1075 mg to be effective. She said something about “two capsules… morning and…” “Evening?” “Hi.” So is it two in the morning and two in the evening, or one each? Who cares. I’m going to take them until I feel better. There’s only 60 mg of whatever it is in each “capsule.” I figure that whatever it is, 120 mg can’t kill me.

Two hours after taking one capsule, I’m feeling a lot better. Forget the old pharmacist-looking guy with his “Chinese Medicine,” I’m taking the young Japanese woman… the drugs. I’m taking the drugs, with the picture of the runny nose on the box.

Tomorrow I’m headed out to Himeji castle and then to Hiroshima. Thanks to those great people at itcj.co.jp, I’ve even got rooms booked ahead for the next three nights. I took a couple hundred photos yesterday at some of the temples in Kyoto. The leaves are changing and this is a beautiful place. I’ll put some pics together over the next couple of days and post them.

Earlier today a monk came to the guest house and chanted for an hour or so in a back room. At some point there was the sound of someone strangling a monkey, not that I know what that sounds like—I’m speculating. And, I’m hoping it was just a coincidence. Just in case, I’m eating at the Yoshinoya tonight. I think maybe they have a parrot or something, a parrot with a sordid past.

Today I hopped on the Nozomi Shinkansen, affectionately called a “bullet train,” and headed to Kyoto. Traveling by train beats the heck out of flying, especially with lots of leg-room, no body-cavity searches at the airport, and really smooth welded rail. It does make me a bit nostalgic for the old days—the clickety clack of the rails, NOT the security check-points. I have not seen a lot of young children in Japan. When I have, they’ve always been with their mothers. This little guy was adorable.

In Kyoto Station I found there’s a great tourist information office. Actually there are a few. The one for foreigners is handily inside a department store on the ninth floor. It took me a while to find it, bt once I did they were great. They were able to find me a room in a Ryokan, which is a “Japanese-style inn.” It was a relief to have a place to stay. I had called three places this morning from Tokyo, and all were full. I ran out of time, and had to catch the train, so I wasn’t sure where I would be sleeping. The hotel that I was originally planning to stay at is booked-up on many days for months in advance.

Upon leaving the airport, I immediately headed south instead of north, and walked for quite a while without recognizing any street names; most are not in romanji. I have a small key-chain compass with me, which is great for self-orientation upon walking out of subway or train stations, but I didn’t check it. I guess I should have. Is it too late to blame this sort of thing on jet-lag? I’m still waking up at five. If I really needed an excuse, I’d blame it on the fact that maps in Japan do not always have north pointing up. North can be anywhere. One perk is that I got a couple of photos of a building under construction. It’s very precise mill-work with great joinery.

I got to Kyoto yesterday. I’ll write more tomorrow. It’s been tough to find Internet access. I had a good day walking the Philosopher’s walk, but I’m totally beat. I’ve uploaded some photos, I’ll link to them tomorrow.

I spent today with another Australian, Naomi. She just finished Uni, studying GIS, and she’s spending five weeks in Japan and then going to Europe for two months. She’s been studying Japanese on and off since Grade 7, which made today easy. We went to Akihabara, which the tech-gadget capital of Tokyo, and maybe the world.

Interestingly, in the US there is a radio company called Yaesu (Japanese name, must be good) which produced the VX-7R, the best radio ever. In Japan the company is called Standard (English name, must be good). Here it’s the VX-7. In addition to high-tech gadget stores, Akihabara has it’s share of the just plain weird.

Later in the day, we walked down through the Ginza business district and over to the Emperial Palace, which we could only see from the outside. Here’s part of the wall. There are more famous views online.

The vending machines here are great. They have hot drinks as well as cold. Bottles of hot tea are 130 yen (118 yen per USD). The machines are everywhere, but nobody seems to drink anything on the street. I saw one young punk drinking tea on the subway. He must have been some kind of radical. I also saw one Japanese girl eating ice cream while walking down the sidewalk.

I have not figured out what side of the sidewalk to walk on. It’s either chaos or beyond my understanding. There’s less order than I expected. There’s also a lot more English than I expected on signs. There is no garbage anywhere, even between the tracks on the subway. This is the only major city that I’ve ever been in that doesn’t smell like garbage.

There are at least three subway and train companies in Tokyo. Not all of them go everywhere. It’s been a little tough when the station names are only in kanji (Chinese characters), and not in romanji (our Roman characters). One person told me that the Japanese think of romanji as English characters. Young Japanese people have been very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and figuring out my fare. One trick is to buy the cheapest ticket and pay the difference upon exiting.

Pocari Sweat is a good-tasting Gatorade-type of drink. It’s not as sweet as it would be in the states. I got it at the 7/11. Japan seems to do fast food better than we do. 7/11 and “am pm” both have these great rice balls, sushi rice with various flavors, like “pinkish,” “purplish,” and “white with green stringy stuff on top.” Nothing too bad so far.