Hiroshima and Miyajima

Today we did a few sights that we felt was important here in Hiroshima area. We had to visit the Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome. The last serving as a reminder of the awful event that happened here in 1945 when the USA dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and killed more than 200 000 people. We hope that the visit will give the kids a perspective on nuclear weapons.

Miyajima on the other hand was a nice place to do some sightseeing. We had close encounters with the local "wild" life as we began walking towards the floating torii, local shrines and temples. There were lots of signs warning us to not touch the deer. We thought that _if_ we did see any we would not go after it and touch it. We ended up seeing at least 10 of them and they were more interested in what we might have in our pockets than we were of touching them. They seemed to be very used to people and had no problems with following you around during your trip to the shrines.

When walking around in the unfinished building of Hokoku Shrine, also known as Senjokaku (hall of thousand tatami mats) I could not stop thinking of how it would be to train aikido in a building like this. It would be a great experience and the atmosphere it would create would really inspire people to enjoy practicing aikido. Imagine that this building was intended for buddhist chanting every month to console the souls of the dead in the war. It was ordered built in 1587 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but was not finished due to his death.

Tomorrow we travel back to Fukuoka and I can finally get back to some aikido practice! I really miss the training and I feel that all I have done the last two weeks have been eating and walking between looking at shrines and animals. And by the way if you wanted to know the japanese word for training it is "keiko" 稽古

Tottori and Matsue

After Osaka we decided to go north and visit some of the smaller cities in Japan. We choose Tottori for our first destination and decided to take a chance and look for accommodation when we arrived. This turned out to be easier than we feared. Friendly people at the "tourist information" office helped us get a room in a local Ryokan. It turned out that this Ryokan was actually mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Hotel Matsuya-so had a big, nice and simple japanese style room for us when we arrived after being notified by the tourist office that guest where on their way. Tottori is famous for their beautiful sand dunes.





After strolling around the area of Tottori for a couple of days we thought it was time to move on again. This time we choose Matsue to be our destination. We had very nice weather both in Tottori and Matsue. We enjoyed the sun although Japan is really hot these days. The news are full of stories about people having problems with the heat.





We have now arrived in Hiroshima and plan to stay here for a couple of night to view the sights of the A-Bomb and the Miyajima Island

2 Days in Osaka

After Kyoto we did the short trip to Osaka to let the kids have some fun in the Osaka Aquarium and Universal Studio Park. The aquarium gave us the chance to see some really nice fish up close. They even had a whale shark swimming around in the tank. I can not help feeling sorry for the fish that is out in a tank for us to watch. Hopefully it will excite children and others to maybe seek more knowledge of the ocean and all the living things out there. This makes it a place to learn and inspire instead being a place for entertainment. We even had some time for a visit at the well known Osaka Castle.





The next day we used a whole day at the Osaka Universal Studio Park doing various rides with the kids. What more can I say?

Queues, Rides, Queues, Rides and more Queues...

We stayed at a very nice guesthouse; Bonsai Guesthouse, but very unreliable internet connection in the room.

Last Few Days

Just a quick update on our travels. We are now in Matsue after being in Tottori and Osaka for a few days. We have been without internett for a few days and I am lucky to be able to connect to the net in this location. More to come with pictures later when we go south again and have a reliable internet connection.

Kyoto

We have arrived in Kyoto after a few hours on the train from Fukuoka with a quick change at the shin-Osaka station. It was really easy travelling with the Japan Rail Pass and we got to reserve seats and all for free at Hakata station in Fukuoka.

Ginkaku ji
Beautiful nature mixed with several old buildings built in the style of the Muromachi period. This was a great place to visit and was only a short bus trip from where we stay at Khaosan Guesthouse Kyoto


Nanzen-ji
This place was a great place for me to take a breath after walking a couple of hours in several small temples along our philosophic path from Ginkaku-ji. It was not crowded in any way and I felt almost alone sitting at the old floor looking on the beautiful garden.
Imagine doing aikido in setting like this with beautiful nature on all sides. The mats in the main house was softer than the tatami we have in Fukuoka!

We also planned to visit the Kyoto Zoo, but we were out of luck as it closed 30 minutes before we got there.

Since we still have not managed to experience all the sights we wanted to experience, it looks like we have to stay for another night or so. The things still on the list is:
Arashiyama: Tenryu-ji (There is a lot of things to experience here)
Kiyomizu-dera (Walking distance from where we stay!)
Kinkaku-ji
Yasaka-jinja