Heres the highlights of our train trip around Kansai and Kyushu for Christmas and New Year:
Days 1-4: Kyoto
Fuji from the shinkansen
First stop: Ninja museum!
Ninja musuem, with re-enactments of ninjas flipping out and killing people for opening a window or dropping a spoon.
After the ninja displays were over, we were allowed to throw some shuriken! Thats my final throw, closest to the bullseye! Mad ninja skillz, right here.
(First throw didnt make the target and ended up in the dirt.)
Kiyomizudera Temple. Theres no nails holding that thing up.
Osaka Aquarium. Thats a whale shark and manta ray in the last photo.
Kinkakuji Golden temple
Ryoanji rock garden and surrounding real gardens.
And some stuff around the city of Kyoto (stupid no geishas):
Minamiza Kubuki Theatre
Well-padded karaoke room near our hotel. Well padded for karaoke ker-raziness!
Days 5-7: Hiroshima
The A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima city. This building was 150 meters away from the bomb epicenter, and has been preserved in much the same condition it was left in after the bombing as a symbol for peace and elimination of nuclear weapons.
The statue of the A-Bomb children, which is dedicated to the memory of the children who died from the bombing. The figure on top of the monument is Sadako Sasaki, a girl who survived the intial bombing but later developed leukemia. She believed that if she folded 1000 paper cranes, she would be cured. Since then, kids from around the world fold paper cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed around the monument.
After all that heaviness, we needed a drink from here:
The next day:
These are all from the island of Miyajima. No one is allowed to die on Miyajima. If you are unlucky enough to die there, they will write on your death certificate that you died in Miyajima-guchi, which on the mainland. Not only are you not allowed to die on there, but there are no pachinko arlours or fast food joints. Plenty of places where you can buy regional Hello Kitty products, though. And yes, there are plenty of wild deer there.
Day 8 (New Years Eve): Fukuoka.
Fukuoka started off promising enough:
...but alarm bells started ringing once we saw the description of the latest Harry Potter movie:
Anyway, instead of watching the gospel singers the hotel had arranged (whoo), we headed off to another karaoke room. Instead of being padded, this one smelt like rich mahogany. All it was missing was some leather-bound books:
Days 9 and 10: Nagasaki
Unfortunately, Nagasaki's cultural high points extend to eating contests:
And the televising of eating contests:
However, Nagasaki wasnt completely disappointing.
Those of you who know me well would be aware that I am always complaining about the lack of $2.5 billion recreations of 17th century Holland in this country. I never shut up sometimes.
Thankfully, the good residents of Nagasaki have listened. They even had the foresight to include a Miffy shop.
Presenting...Huis Ten Bosch
Days 11 and 12: Miyazaki
Miyazaki only needs one reason to be awesome.
Seagaia - the worlds largest indoor beach, built right next door to a regular outside beach.
Day 13: Beppu
Beppu is ace. Its full of hot springs. Below is the Red Hell - there are six of these Hells, but time allowed us to only go to one.
The rest of our time in Beppu was spent in family restaurants and bathing nude with strangers in hot mud at night.
So, thats it. After many bumps and bruises and mud baths and Journey songs and escalator tumbles and visits to recreations of 17th century Holland ($2.5 billion) our trek was over.
Sorry 'bout all the photos.
