Hee-row-shee-mah

I believe that when in a foreign country, you should try to pronounce names the proper way - with the accent of the native language. I would especially expect this from an audio recording at a museum in the home country. Apparently the A-bomb museum in Hiroshima does not have the same belief and pronounces the city's name with a fantastic American accent.

Recently, I decided to check out Hiroshima and see all of the history (or you know, some of it). I invited some friends, and Sunday morning we were on our way Luckily, it's only a short 3 hour bus ride to Hiroshima. We oriented ourselves to our surroundings a bit and, with the help of a smartphone, we found ourselves at the magnificent Okonomi-mura. It was a 3 story wonderland of stand after stand of Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is really fantastic because it is fried noodles with egg and cabbage and your extra mixins and the classic fantastic okonomiyaki sauce. I chose to add garlic, kimchi, and pork. As with my other okonomiyaki experiences, it was simply amazing- but I do prefer the more pancake-like Osaka-style.

Okonomiyaki master

The marvelous results

After filling up on lunch and maybe some icecream cones (but who can remember, really?), we made our way over to Peace Park. It was pretty strange looking at the A-bomb dome because it is surrounded by lush greenery, but it is an out of place skeleton of a building. I looked at it and knew that it is a historical site and that in the not-so-distant past was the scene of such terror, but now it is so calm and surrounded by life that I found it impossible to imagine this area after the bomb. That was, of course, remedied by pictures and displays in our next stop, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This museum was one part background history of Hiroshima (which I mostly skipped.. sorry I'm not sorry), one part information about countries with atomic weapons now, and one part graphic, horrific artifacts (the worse of which actually included biological matter- grossss).

A-bomb dome

World Peace Bell. Yeah, I rang it.

Paper cranes. Fold 1000 and your wish comes true (I think?)

More paper cranes

Hiroshima post-bomb

Dear North Korea,
No one likes question marks.

Where the bomb went off. It was in the air to cause the most damage.

After having our minds blown by history, we went out and enjoyed the nice weather in the park and sat under some trees. We attempted a visit to Hiroshima castle, but unfortunately we got there just as the sun was setting and it was closed. One of the group had to make it home for work the next day, but the other three of us went and checked into a hostel. The hostel was actually pretty cool. It was normal as far as hostels go, and it was traditional Japanese style as far as tatami mats and futons. We didn't let ourselves get too comfortable because we had to go off and look for something to eat and do. Unfortunately, it was Sunday night and that is not quite when things are happenin'. We did manage to find a restaurant with some good food and, after a lot of searching, found a venue with some live music. Oddly enough it was all reggae - but we weren't too picky by that point. The DJs were fun to listen to for a while, then a band came on that was, well, as good as you would expect a Japanese reggae band playing on a Sunday night to be.

The next morning, we caught an early bus back home and I can't speak for the others, but I fell straight back to sleep after I got home. Traveling over the weekends is really fun, but so tiring! I was happy to spend this weekend around Matsue hanging out and doing nothing. I finally got the chance to go to an event put on at another eikaiwa in town. Every few weeks, there are dinner parties thrown with food themes. This time it was Southern European Tapas and included hummus, couscous (the food so nice they named it twice) and some other various dishes. It was really good and I got to make some new friends which is always great.

I have gone swimming twice now at the city gym which is actually a pretty nice pool. It's pretty difficult to want to try to go fast when I am so out of shape, but also I think maybe the pool is just where I belong.



Now it's time for some culture facts!

Tonight while walking home from work, we heard a man who was walking and would bang two wooden sticks/planks together twice, then rest for about two beats, then do it again. My coworker Izumi explained to me that it is called Hino youjin. The purpose is to walk around and remind people of fire safety - check your gas pipes, stove, etc. Good job, Japan. Good job.

Today at work, we had our first lesson with a student taking private lessons. Since they have private lessons, they get to dictate more what we study. Part of the lesson included talk about the three different types of Wagashi, or Japanese sweets, that are famous or important to this area. I forgot the names of the three, but it was interesting to learn about them. One is rice cake - mochi - covered in macha - ground tea leaves - rolled in sugar, one is basically compressed sugar, and the other is sort of a combination between the two. They all have different representations that have to do with the seasons. All three were very sweet- still feeling all the sugar I ate.

In other news, I just saw my first giant spider. Japan is known for massive, terrifying, bigger than a person arachnids (think Aragog from Harry Potter). Maybe possibly yes that is an overstatement, but with it's legs, this spider was bigger than my palm. Just chillin outside my front door. Waiting for me to get home. Then on my neighbor's door there was some creepy bug that I'm not sure what it was, but I was sure to, ahem, keep everyone safe in case it was deadly. I killed it. I killed the bug. But now what better way is there to unwind from such a terrifying entrance into my house than some Black Keys and stuffed bell peppers? I cannot think of one.

Woo-wee adventures!