広島・宮島なんよ～
Day 3: May 3rd
Day 3 started butt-ass early as I woke up at 5:30 and left the dude? pad at about 6am. I made my way to Tamade station with the rising sun.
I made my way to Shin-Osaka station and got on the first Shinkansen that came along... it was packed!
I got to Hiroshima at a little before 9 am and then headed over to the stadium for my first visit to Hiroshima Stadium! I was super excited and made my way to the line after picking up my new Carp jersey. I got in line at about 10am and waited... for a long ass time... in the baking hot sun! Needless to say, I got a horrible, horrible sunburn! I have pretty fair skin and just got scorched. I forgot my sunscreen in my other bag (the one I left in the coin locker at the station) and mornin' didn't arrive with some for me until around noon. The game was great (Carp held on for a 4-3 victory), and the stadium was great, but it was also really hard to enjoy because I was just scorched! scorched! It was really hot all day... I got some good pics, and here they are:
After the game mornin' and I headed over to the hotel, and I took a nap and then we headed out for some aloe and some of Hiroshima's most famous food; okonomiyaki! We went to a place that was in the Hiroshima magazine I had picked up a few weeks back that was pretty close to the hotel called Rei-chan (麗ちゃん). The line was pretty long, but moved fairly quickly, not quick enough for one screaming baby that ended up sitting right across from me... The shit was really good, again, hard to enjoy with my wicked burn... but, here's what it looked like:
Day 4: May 4th
The day started with the sun coming up (=early). We headed over to the department store down the street to grab some medicine and some breakfast before the big day of sightseeing around Hiroshima and Miyajima. God that medicine was great! I woke up in so much pain (by the way, really just my arms hurt. My face and neck and legs weren't too bad, but my arms...) and after taking some medicine, and smearing on some more I was ready to roll! We took a taxi over to the Carp team store to pick up a couple more things and then walked over to Tokyu Hands to get some sandals and a hat for me (I felt wrong walking around in a red Carp jersey and blue Dodgers hat...) and then took the street car over to the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム). It was really interesting. Lots of tourists, and that's cool, but it was strange to see so many people smiling or holding up their fingers in a #1 sign when they were having their picture taken in front of that building... Here's some pics:
After The dome we headed across the river to the peace park and then to the museum. It was quite a heavy feeling. It was a stark contrast between the glorious day, and the flower festival happening all around and the images that we saw inside the museum. A very interesting place, and an amazing 50 yen charge to get in. I was expecting 500, or maybe even 1000, but 50! That's great! I'm not gonna put up anything from the inside (I only took a couple of pictures of the models of the city that they had, and yes photos are ok, no flash though) because you should go see it yourself, but here's a couple of pics from the park that surrounds it:
So after the peace park, and the museum mornin' and I took a short break and then weaved our way through the flower festival traffic and headed back to the street car station and headed on our way to Miyajima...
Day 4: May 4th cont.
After a transfer in Nishi-Hiroshima （西広島〉we made it down to Miyajima-guchi （宮島口） sometime around 2pm and headed straight to an Anago-don restaurant to try Hiroshima's 3rd most famous food (#2 is Kaki （カキ）(oysters)) conger eel（アナゴ）. It was really tasty! Here it is!:
After lunch, mornin' and I boarded a ship and headed over to the island of Miyajima. It's a very short boat ride but pretty cool, you can get a good view of the island's most famous feature, the Torii （鳥居）in the water, on the way in. The island is pretty cool, after you get off the boat, you take a walk through the shopping streets and then you can enter the shrine for a price... don't remember how much it was exactly, but I think it was 300 yen. The shrine was pretty cool, like others, I guess most similar to Heianjingu in Kyoto, except that it's on the water. The only problem (besides the millions of people that were there) was that we didn't get to the place until the afternoon, so it was low tide and the water wasn't actually surrounding the shrine, and not even up to the famous gate (Torii). As the afternoon went on, the tide did begin to come in, but I recommend going in the early morning so that the tide is in, because the place closes at 6pm, before it's really back in again. Next time... Another cool thing about the island is all the deer that are just roaming freely around, and for the most part are cool with the folks. There are some signs up warning people of the deer, but no one seemed to pay much attention to them and I saw many people f'n with them a bit too much. I was hoping for the deer to start a revolution and kick some ass, but on that day, they didn't :(
On the backside of the temple is a street leading deeper into the island and you can find bus that will take you to the ropeway leading to the mountain in the center of the island. At the top of the ropeway is a monkey sanctuary! There are also a bunch of other sight spots up there and you can hike up to the top of the mountain, but I wanted to see some monkeys! Didn't happen... We debated for a bit whether or not we'd have enough time to do it and at last we decided to give it a shot. It's only a short ride up, and we thought about just taking it up and back, but when we arrived at the base of the ropeway there were soooo many people waiting! Of course there would also have been tons of people waiting at the top so we bagged it, and got our money back (I think it's about 800-1000 yen for the trip) and decided that something that can be saved for next time! We walked back through the streets and grabbed some Hiroshima sweets called Momiji-manju （もみじ饅頭）. The fried one was actually really good! We ordered 2 cream ones and I accidentally got a An (sweet bean paste) and normally I can't stand the stuff but it was actually good, but mornin' and I switched and I ended up with the cream baby! Tasty! We also got some cold ones with some kind of yogurt stuff in them that I didn't care too much for, but oh well. After that we just walked around, took a few more pictures and then got back on the boat and headed for the mainland, then back to the station to get our bags and jump on the Shinkansen headed to Osaka swollen red arms and all!
Hiroshima was rad, except for the wicked terrible sunburn!
I think I'll put out a bonus Hiroshima/Miyajima picture post, with smaller pictures, after I finish the whole trip update. I got tons of pictures from that part of the trip!
#3: Hiroshima Municipal Stadium 広島市民球場
One fault Hiroshima has is that it feels (and was) thrown together quickly. It was built in only 7 months! there are very few concessions available and about 2 tiny bathrooms for the entire left field section! What Hiroshima lacks in building planning, it makes up for in charm. From its retro-dirt infield to its minor-league dimensions to its reddish-orange foul poles it feels like a wonderful place to watch a game. it feels very intimate. Hiroshima also has a big advantage in that the team name does not (usually) contain a company name (along with Yokohama) and is owned mostly by the city. This leads to Hiroshima having some of the best fans in Japan, loyal to the end with one of the best chants in all the land. However, it is a bit overused. Hiroshima is also the only place where you don't actually need to leave the stands to smoke, just climb to the top of the bleaches and fire it up with a nice view of Hiroshima castle. Ah, location. Hiroshima municipal stadium had the best location of all. A perfect downtown spot, across the street from the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム).
This is a huge loss for the new stadium, however, it will be a bit more convenient as the new stadium is placed right next to the tracks at new Hiroshima station (新広島駅). The new location will be much better for out-of-towners, but it will lose a lot of its atmosphere. I'm sure the carp fans will still show up in force. I'm excited at the prospect of visiting the new stadium because it's a unique design and from what I've heard, it'll be more like a U.S. stadium as it's gonna be the only stadium in Japan with different distances to the right and left field walls! crazy! I'm not sure what the plans are for the land on which Hiroshima M. Stadium stood, but I'm sure it will not be nearly as interesting, nor have the cultural significance of Hiroshima Municipal Stadium For all its faults and because all of its charm, Hiroshima M. Stadium will be dearly missed. 
お疲れ様, 広島市民球場!
