A Short Travel...

-Shinkansen-

On the list of great things I've done with my life, I can add peeing at 186 miles per hour. The Shinkansen (Bullet Train) was our means of transportation to and from Hiroshima and Himeji. It's the fastest, smoothest, and coolest train I've ever ridden on. I think it's the second fastest in the world, I think there's one in China that's faster. BUT it's pretty fast. I didn't even realize how fast we were moving until a non-stop train passed while we were waiting at the station in Himeji. It's dead silent until it's directly in front of you and it scares the crap out of you. It just blows by. Inside its pretty much exactly like an airplane, it's great. Chicago needs a shinkansen train instead of the El, imagine going from south loop to Evanston in like 4 minutes or something. (That was not calculated and was just a random number.)



-Hiroshima-

I saw lots of pictures of Hiroshima and the Atomic Bomb Dome and the peace park. I never would have thought it'd be as powerful as it really was. Our hotel was literally across the street from the atomic bomb dome. The atomic bomb that leveled the entire city went off 490 away from the building and it was the only building in the epicenter of the blow that survived. The building was left as it was after the blow as a memorial and a rememberance of what occured. It's a really beautiful place, but it kind of has this really heavy weight to it. The peace museum was definitely the strongest part. They have tons and tons of artifacts from after the blast that are just terrifying. Like someone was waiting outside of the bank when the bomb went off and the only thing that was left of them was this kind of shadow of them sitting there. They have the actual bank steps with the persons shadow in the museum, it's creepy... I figured it was a good place to see and experience though. I enjoyed it.
Atomic Bomb Dome


-Miyajima-

This could possibly be the most beautiful place in Japan. I can't say I have been everywhere but it's ridiculously beautiful. We took a little ferry out to the island and got off only to be swarmed by people loving deer. These things want food and if they don't get it, they will eat your map or clothes. I got a few butting me with their heads and chewing on my jacket. We bought some little crackers and fed them, it was fun and kind of scary. I never thought I'd be afraid of deers but those guys were aggressive. We went and visited what is considered the most beautiful shrine in all of Japan. It was. It's in the ocean so when the tide is up it is in water, when the tide is down it's on a beach. There was a shinto wedding taking place on it the day we were there and we watched for a little, as did tons and tons of other people. I felt a little awkward standing, so we left. We explored the island a little. We took a cable car up almost to the top the kind of hiked up to the top. There were little red faced monkeys up there. One of them ran over by us and hid then screamed at this lady and scared the crap out of here. It was hilarious. We stayed at the most awesome hotel ever too...



The shrine at lowtide




-Himeji-

Japan's national treasure. It's got a giant giant giant castle that has not been rebuilt. There has been a little bit of fixing up, but it's all done using the same techniques that were used in the times of it being built. It was really beautiful. I was pretty tired from traveling everywhere else that I didn't really get to take it in as much as I wanted, but it was still really cool to see. It's weird as hell to think that people live near a castle. I wish America had castles. They are such a foreign concept to me. It's just so intense saying something like "I live near a castle." A CASTLE. Just think about that. A giant white beautiful Japanese castle. Weeeeeiiiiiiird.