121. Saturday Night in Hiroshima
I came back to A'precio after all - the hotel next to the train station was booked up (even as of this morning). I didn't get up here and book until after 9:30, but there were still a few cubicles left.
Today I visited the peace memorials, including the exhibition hall and the musuem. I will have a lot to write about later - suffice it to say that it's apt to call Hiroshima a mini-Holocaust. After seeing everything, it seems utterly inhumane that we would even have nuclear weapons.
I also got down to Miyajima, which was more tourist-trappy than Mount Koya and less charming, but it was still worth the trip. They built this big torii out on the mud flats and when the tide comes in it looks like it's floating. It's photogenic, but calling it one of the "top three views of Japan" is a bit of a stretch. I could probably find you three better ones in Tokushima Prefecture. Maybe they wouldn't be so iconic, though - I grant that.
I'm going to try having a shower, and then I'm going to rejig my trip back. I still want to be on the first train out of here tomorrow morning (around 6:30), but I don't want to be going back and then forth across Kagawa, even if it is the smallest prefecture (it's about the same size as Prince County). I'll be happy with doing just one or two temples and getting home in the early evening.
The recliners here are the max. And this place provides blankets. I think I'll have a good night's sleep after all.
Edit: ARGH - The showers have to be reserved. Right now there's a six hour wait - a shower door was unlocked just now, and with my things in hand I very nearly just hopped in, and it was a very good thing I didn't: that was the women's shower. ("AIEE! THERE'S AN OUTSIDE-OF-JAPAN MAN IN THE SHOWER!" "Calm down, calm down. Does he have a reservation?") I guess I'll just have to be smelly for one more day. Bummer.
Today I visited the peace memorials, including the exhibition hall and the musuem. I will have a lot to write about later - suffice it to say that it's apt to call Hiroshima a mini-Holocaust. After seeing everything, it seems utterly inhumane that we would even have nuclear weapons.
I also got down to Miyajima, which was more tourist-trappy than Mount Koya and less charming, but it was still worth the trip. They built this big torii out on the mud flats and when the tide comes in it looks like it's floating. It's photogenic, but calling it one of the "top three views of Japan" is a bit of a stretch. I could probably find you three better ones in Tokushima Prefecture. Maybe they wouldn't be so iconic, though - I grant that.
I'm going to try having a shower, and then I'm going to rejig my trip back. I still want to be on the first train out of here tomorrow morning (around 6:30), but I don't want to be going back and then forth across Kagawa, even if it is the smallest prefecture (it's about the same size as Prince County). I'll be happy with doing just one or two temples and getting home in the early evening.
The recliners here are the max. And this place provides blankets. I think I'll have a good night's sleep after all.
Edit: ARGH - The showers have to be reserved. Right now there's a six hour wait - a shower door was unlocked just now, and with my things in hand I very nearly just hopped in, and it was a very good thing I didn't: that was the women's shower. ("AIEE! THERE'S AN OUTSIDE-OF-JAPAN MAN IN THE SHOWER!" "Calm down, calm down. Does he have a reservation?") I guess I'll just have to be smelly for one more day. Bummer.