Digital Vortex A-Go-Go

Tuesday 28th October

Yes, I did the walk. And didn’t even get blisters. Huzzah!

OK, what I mean is that today I’ve been mostly walking, all around parts of Hiroshima and Itsukushima (an island off the coast of Hiroshima and better known as Miyajima).

This morning I wanted to go to the ginkō (bank) to get some cash. Well, we know how that turned out. Thanks for there being a yūbinkyoku (post office) nearby, where I did get my hard-earned cash.

Anyways, after that I simply started walking in the direction of the train station (Hiroshima) and seeing what I would come across.

First I did some shopping at a small sūpā (supermarket) so that I would have a nice lunch later. At some point, when walking along the isles, I thought to myself how.. remarkable how all this kawaii (cute) packaging is put on things as totally serious as packs of rice. Japanese be Japanese. 😉

Along the way I found a store where they sold games for many of the popular (and has been) game consoles. They even had some Game Boy Advance games or even Game Boy games. Nostalgia almost got the better of me, but then I remembered I never play on my DS (which plays GBA games) anymore, so.. Nevermind.

A bit later, I entered some shopping mall, where I visited a bookstore and I realized why I definitely at one point need to learn to read Japanese… (Japanese texts are way more dense in regard to information density, which is practical, is what it is) So, now I’m proud owner of two books that I have no ability to read for. Yattah! (Huzzah!)

After that, I entered what I suspected might be ōtaku (geek) heaven, but turned out a whole ‘arcade'(?) filled with just grappling machines, which tempt you to spend coins to try and grab a prize. Sorry, not for me. I’ll happily go somewhere else and buy something I want to have. So I quicky departed.

I just kept on waking and browsing. That was quite nice and relaxing. At one point I decided I was getting hungry, so I whipped out my lunch and found it totemo oishii desu (to be very tasty). *nom

When I had finished lunch (and spotting some chicken pigeons) I walked back to the river in the city to go and visit Hiroshima Gokoku shrine, where there is also a ruin of a very old castle that did not appear to have been a-bomb proof. All that remained were the foundations. The site was pretty, however, and fortunately not overcrowded with tourists.

After that I walked to the Peace Memorial Park, where there’s a ruin which they now call the a-bomb dome. Many tourists there and also busloads of children, who all apparently had some kind of school assignment to go talk to gaijin (foreigners), in English. Well, I support the notion of having more Japanese that are able to speak English, so how could I resist helping them. It sufficed to write little stories or have little conversations. And see them get big eyes and start to giggle when I would speak in Japanese. *giggle

But now it was time to go take a team ride to Nishihiroshima station and a train ride to Hiyajimaguchi. There I would walk to Hirodenmiyaguchi to take the ferry to Miyajima (train + ferry free on account of my JR pass, w00t!).

Side note: while waiting for the tram, there was another gaijin traveling in the same direction. Turns out that was Stefano, from Belgium who almost spoke better Japanese than English and Dutch combined. So with my poor French and Japanese, we had a wonderful time trying to communicate.

It turned out he is staying on the island, rather cheaply I might add. Only ¥4000 per night including breakfast. Not bad!

While on the island, he was able to recommend a place to go eat, where they would serve okonomiyaki. Since both Bryan and Midori had recommended to go try that I’m Hiroshima, I was very much looking forward to that!

So Stefano and I went there, had a talk amongst each other and also with the lady preparing our food. She was very nice and she and her daughter were very interested in hearing where we were from. Oh and let’s not forget that the okonomiyaki was totemo oishii deshita. I mean, for real! Wow. Go try that. Oh, be sure to go for Hiroshima style as opposed to Ōsaka style.

Afterwards Stephano went back to his hostel and I to the ferry. After waiting a bit in the cold (it had gotten quite cold due to the clear sky and the fact that the sun sets around 18h and it now was almost 21h), I could return to my apartment. I made sure to get off at Yokogawa station for a nice walk back to Hirosenkitamachi.

I stopped by the kombini (convenience store) to get breakfast and lunch and I was all done for the day. A good day, I’d say!

Next thing: checking out in the morning and heading for Himeji with another ride on the Shinkansen. Yatta!