I Heart Hiroshima

For my first trip to southern Japan, I decided to visit the ever-so-wonderful Callie and Phil- old college friends from Seattle and also English teachers in Japan. Lemme just say, I Heart Hiroshima! I absolutely loved it down there, although I can't really tell if it was just because I was with my friends or if really the city is all that cool. :) Compared to Tokyo, Hiroshima is a walk in the park. It is smaller, still beautiful and has the usual array of both modernity and antiquity. I'm a believer.



Allow me to introduce my lovely guides: Callie and Phil. Callie studied Education with me at Northwest and Phil and I were both athletes at our university. And... these guys are wonderful! I had so much fun with them and they were truly great, great hosts... letting me pick the tv shows we watched, graciously allowing me the first shower after a long day of hiking, and best of all, showing me local hot spots in Hiroshima. Thanks again you guys!



Here's the beautiful gate at Miyajima island, near Hiroshima. The gate is on every single flyer for Japan- it's known as the floating gate, as you can see it is surrounded by the tide and appears to be floating. The whole island was one great big fun memory... there are savage deer everywhere that you can feed but they will try and eat paper or your shirt. I was afraid. But otherwise the island was awesome!



I even brought a friend. A la Amelie... here's my Hiroshima/Miyajima Kitty... she's a deer, fitting of the island.

Lastly, throughout the day on the island we ate delicious food and hiked around checking out the view. Phil and Callie took me to get tempura style momiji manju, a deep fried sweet cake with anko (red bean) flavored paste inside. It was chou oishii! (that is, finger-licking good) Anyway, after a great meal of oysters with egg served on rice and shave ice, we hiked up to the highest point on the island to get a 360 degree view. It was breathtaking and worth every minute of the hike, even under the blazing sun.



Coming back down from the hike, the tide had gone out and we were able to go up to the temple gate and stand near it on dry land. It was awesome to see the temple both floating and standing on solid ground.

All in all, a pretty good first day in Hiroshima. Did I already mention that I Heart Hiroshima?