After hitting temples and wandering the shopping streets of Matsuyama, I was ready to take my last ferry across to Hiroshima. Usually being a resident foreigner works against you - we can't get the #-day JR rails passes, for example - but when I got to the port I was pleasantly surprised to get my ferry ticket to Hiroshima for almost half the price. I cringed when she flipped my passport to the back where my visa was, but she gave me the foreign price anyway, and pretty soon I was sitting in comfort looking out over the open sea. Of all the forms of transport I've used during this trip, I think the ferry was my favorite, leisurely floating over the water, up on the deck where you can feel the wind, or seated inside on a couch at a table. This time, I worked most of the journey in my sketchbook.
I hopped my first streetcar right after getting off the boat. This is a big thing in Hiroshima - they have all sorts of old streetcars, which they buy off other cities. It's kind of like a moving museum. I was glad I got on at the first stop; by the time I hopped off it was so crowded I had to body check a few people to get off, and I was right next to the door.
I scanned the area close to my AirBnB for restaurants while I was on the ferry, and found a Turkish place, at which I arrived perfectly in time for dinner. Probably I'm a heathen for not looking for a good Japanese restaurant. Hiroshima is famous for their okonomiyaki, and I made sure to eat some the following evening before getting on the Willer Bus back to Tokyo. But I love Turkish food and I owe a lot to the Turkish community in Japan, since they're sort of the reason I have a job, so I ate at Karsiyaka.
After stuffing my face with iskander kebab and hummus (I stopped short of the baklava...barely...) I started walking to my AirBnB, just on the other side of the Peace Park. I passed an Animate along the way, making a note to come back and check to see if they had any good swag.* I was feeling giddy - I had one more day of vacation, we'd just been paid - when I came to the river and found myself facing the Atomic Bomb Dome. I was steps away from ground zero.
The building before me reminded me of the old, crumbling churches you sometimes see in paintings, complete with a churchyard full of tombstones: the rubble from the blast serving as an additional reminder. One of the things I love about anime is the way it offers us an alternative reality - not just an escape, but a different set of possibilities. In Naruto - which I reference fairly often but it is just that good - the evil ninjas set out to create a weapon so bad that it will force everyone to make nice (nevermind all of the people they have to kill along the way). Naruto - who has literally lost everything - manages to come out of his rage and talks to their leader, and convinces him that causing more pain won't bring peace, but rather will just continue a longstanding cycle of revenge and hate. It's a pivotal moment in the series.
The real world might be a better place if anime was a religion. Probably a creepier place, too, but although there are at least a couple of things about Japan that drive me crazy, the creep factor is actually negligible. I feel far less skeezed out by the otaku in Akiba than by the gaijin in Roppongi...but maybe that's because they're my kind of people...
The next morning I got up and went to Miyajima - the temple group with the floating torii. One of the things I read reminded me to be sure and check the tide table, but ain't nobody got time for 'dat - another typhoon was headed that way, so as soon as I got up I headed out. I didn't beat the rain, but I hoped it might scare off the tourists. It didn't, but I think it might have put a dent in them when it started raining in earnest. Unfortunately, the day before the sole started to separate from the upper on my only pair of kicks, so my enjoyment of the shrine with fewer temples war marred by even squishier feet than at the beginning of the week.
(For the record, I am still wearing those shoes half the time. It sucks, but they're the only Chucks I've got right now, and I'm too busy - read: distracted - to buy new ones. I very nearly ordered the Hoozuki No Reitetsu sneakers I found on pre-order at Animate after I got back, but they won't really help me now, not to mention I can paint my own for cheaper and I'll like them much better...)
I sat on the...porch? Dock???...of the shrine for a while under the eaves of a pavilion painting the torii and watching the tide roll in. With it came the scent of the sea, the saltiness of things living under the water. It gave me shelter from raindrops, but when it began to rain in earnest the flood of water creeping along the plank toward the sea pushed me off. I got up and explored the rest of the area, watching the creepy deer and purchasing a couple more ema for my collection. And then I went back into Hiroshima. After a week of constant motion, I was pretty much done. I parked in Starbucks for a while to type, went after that okonomiyaki I was told I had to try (meh. I liked Osaka's better...), and tried to stay out of the rain while waiting for the Willer Bus to take me back to Shinjuku. I don't feel like I really did Hiroshima justice, but I think that's okay. I think it just means I'll have to come back, and I'm totally okay with that.
*I seem to do that with every one I pass. It's ironic, because Akiba is a straight shot up the Keihin Tohoku line, but I'm my mother's daughter after all, and I can't tell you how many times she dragged us through random Wal*Marts we passed on vacation...
The building before me reminded me of the old, crumbling churches you sometimes see in paintings, complete with a churchyard full of tombstones: the rubble from the blast serving as an additional reminder. One of the things I love about anime is the way it offers us an alternative reality - not just an escape, but a different set of possibilities. In Naruto - which I reference fairly often but it is just that good - the evil ninjas set out to create a weapon so bad that it will force everyone to make nice (nevermind all of the people they have to kill along the way). Naruto - who has literally lost everything - manages to come out of his rage and talks to their leader, and convinces him that causing more pain won't bring peace, but rather will just continue a longstanding cycle of revenge and hate. It's a pivotal moment in the series.
The real world might be a better place if anime was a religion. Probably a creepier place, too, but although there are at least a couple of things about Japan that drive me crazy, the creep factor is actually negligible. I feel far less skeezed out by the otaku in Akiba than by the gaijin in Roppongi...but maybe that's because they're my kind of people...
The next morning I got up and went to Miyajima - the temple group with the floating torii. One of the things I read reminded me to be sure and check the tide table, but ain't nobody got time for 'dat - another typhoon was headed that way, so as soon as I got up I headed out. I didn't beat the rain, but I hoped it might scare off the tourists. It didn't, but I think it might have put a dent in them when it started raining in earnest. Unfortunately, the day before the sole started to separate from the upper on my only pair of kicks, so my enjoyment of the shrine with fewer temples war marred by even squishier feet than at the beginning of the week.
(For the record, I am still wearing those shoes half the time. It sucks, but they're the only Chucks I've got right now, and I'm too busy - read: distracted - to buy new ones. I very nearly ordered the Hoozuki No Reitetsu sneakers I found on pre-order at Animate after I got back, but they won't really help me now, not to mention I can paint my own for cheaper and I'll like them much better...)
*I seem to do that with every one I pass. It's ironic, because Akiba is a straight shot up the Keihin Tohoku line, but I'm my mother's daughter after all, and I can't tell you how many times she dragged us through random Wal*Marts we passed on vacation...
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