Hiroshima, Miyajima and Fukuoka

I have been home for 4 days and I have caught up on sleep. I had to work on Friday. Only Friday. I had Monday through Thursday off for vacation. Yes, work on Friday. That's the Korean way.

I really miss Japan! Its my favourite country now. People were so kind and considerate. They stopped at crosswalks. They didn't run red lights. They held the door for me. They didn't spit. There were no motorcycles on the sidewalks.

After Kyoto, I went to Hiroshima for 2 days. I back tracked a little and went to Himeji Castle. It was old and beautiful. I went to the Peace Memorial Museum and the A Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. It was interesting. I didn't feel as much as an impact after I visited the Hollocaust Museum in Washington DC. Its hard to explain, but Hiroshima did not affect me strongly the way I thought it would.

I hooked up some friends at my hostel too. Romi had just arrived from Korea and some people she knows had been in Japan the same amount of time I had. We had dinner. It was nice to talk to people again.

The following day I went to an island called Miyajima. There are wild deer everywhere and this island has the famous gate build out on a mud flat, so when the tide comes in, it looks like the gate is floating. It was beautiful there. I bought a round trip ticket on this gondola thing cause I was feeling lazy. I got to the top and there were monkeys everywhere. I walked to the other peak and took tons of pictures. The skies were getting dark though and I could hear the thunder. By the time I got back to the tram, they had postponed service because of the lightening. I waited for about 30 minutes and knew that it wasn't going to be soon. So I started walking down. It was pretty easy. However the skies opened and I got poured on. It was the same in Jeju. I looked like I had gone swimming in my clothes. I had just given my umbrella to a girl I met at the hostel that morning, thinking it won't rain. That's the problem in Asia, it can change so fast.

So I was soaking. I stopped for some food and then sat in the sun (which had just come back out conviniently enough) to try and dry my clothes off. I even went into the bathroom restaurant, took off my shorts and top and rung them out into the sink. I was too cold to stay there so I headed back to the mainland. I really wanted to see the gate with the tide in and get more pictures. I was just a series of unfortunatly timed events.

This was my last night in Japan so I had to get back to Hiroshima station, retrieve my backpack from a locker and change. Then I got on the train to Fukuoka. I wasn't really excited about going to this city because it didn't seem to have a lot to do.

I ended up renting a bike on my last day. I rode around Fukuoka and went shopping. AMAZING shopping FYI. I found this one store, sort of like a department store, IKEA style, but they sold everything. Appliances, food, bikes. But everything they had was gorgeous and simple. I jsut bought some tea cups, traditional Japanese style ones but they are way more modern. And they were $3.50 each as opposed to the $35 ones I had seen at other pottery stores.

I was sad to get on the ferry and head back to Korea. I truly had a wonderful trip and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed traveling by myself. I did what I wanted when I wanted. The only crappy thing about traveling solo is that there was no one to put sunscreen on that middle part of my back that no matter how I bend my arms I can never reach. Having a friend around would have been nice for that.