Tokyo Japan Marathon Trip - Feb 28 thru March 11, 2024 - Part 3 Final

 Back to Tokyo before heading home!

After Hiroshima, we headed back to Tokyo.  We stayed in the Kawasaki area near the airport.

The Japanese LOVE these claw games.  This was the largest claw game I had ever seen in my entire life!

Ichiran Kawasaki Store - This was the most amazing Ramen I have ever had in my life.  This is how it works: You pay for what you want at the kiosk when you enter.  You give your receipt to the hostess.  She tells you which 'booth' is yours. The chef/waiter opens the bamboo curtain and takes your receipt.  After a few moments, your food arrives.  You can keep the side partitions up or fold them back if you are sitting with multiple people  

Best Ramen EVER!!!  And if you need something, There is a red button on your table that you can push (in the picture above, it's just to the right of the rice bowl)

There are these wooden tags on the side wall that you can use to keep your seat or order more food.  The best thing is that you don't have to talk to anyone!

I started following a few people on Strava that were from Japan.  While I was in Tokyo, I actually met in person one of the people I follow.  Her name is Ellie.  She didn't speak a lot of English, but we used our phone to communicate and it worked great.  We went to breakfast and she even got me a gift!  Oh my goodness, she is the sweetest person and it was awesome to meet her in person.  I am hoping to get to do a 'shake out' run with her next year. 

The Japanese always give gifts.  She gave me everything in this picture above.  A lunch sack, protein snack for running and even treats for my kitties! 

After going to breakfast with Ellie, we headed on the train to go to this 'fire walking' festival at a Buddhist temple called Yakuo-in Temple.  Ellie even rode the train with us for a few stops to point us in the correct direction to get to the temple.

Once we were there, we headed to the temple, which was kind of at the top of the 'mountain'

We took this chair lift to the top.

There was this monkey zoo you could visit.  You couldn't get super close to the monkeys, but you could watch the zoo keepers feed them and interact with them.

The funny thing was, we hiked all over this temple looking for the 'fire walker' festival and we couldn't find it!  Turns out, it was in a parking lot kind of 'off campus' from the main temple.  At least we eventually found it!

The line to 'walk the fire' was incredibly long.  There were a TON of people wanting to walk the fire.  The monks managed the fire and they managed the people walking across.  They also banged this drum the entire time.  I'm not sure of the significance of walking across the fire.

Everything in this picture is delicious.  Upper left - Japanese Capri Suns. They have a jelly-like substance in a foil package.  Top center - Dorayaki. These cakes with bean paste inside.  Top and middle right - The dough bun things with bean paste inside.  Middle left - a Matcha waffle.  Everything else - These dessert things called Mame Daifuku.  They have cooked soybeans inside of this rice-paste ball material.  I think they are actually really good.  Not sweet like American desserts

This brand of electrolyte water has a terrible name but it is actually really good!  I order it on Amazon now to have at home :)

Picture of some Japanese Yen.  We really didn't need a lot of cash at all because Japan lives in the future and you can use your Suica card for everything, BUT some cash is good to have for the Temples.  It was good to have change to put in the donation boxes. 

On our last day in Japan, we took a walk to see this Japanese version of the Statue of Liberty (The Rainbow bridge is in the background).  I 'thought' it was a gift from America. However, the plaque said that it was a gift from France.  We thought it was funny that France gave the same gift to America that it gave to Japan.  We were like, "What the heck, France? We thought we were special!?!"

Anyway, Japan was amazing and I cannot wait to go back in 2025!!

Tokyo Japan Marathon Trip - Feb 28 thru March 11, 2024 - Part 2

Travel to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island: March 5th - March 8th

After spending time in Tokyo, I really wanted to visit Hiroshima.  I know that might sound morbid, but I really like history and I think Hiroshima is a very important place to visit and learn about.

We took the Shinkansen train to Hiroshima.  The Shinkansen is the high speed train.  I turned on my speedometer app on my phone to see how fast we were going.  This was the top speed that I captured.  

Arriving at the train station

It is very common for the hotels to have slippers and pajamas for you to wear in the hotel.  Almost everyone wears the slippers and pajamas.  You do stick out if you wear your own clothes and shoes.

We went to this restaurant with a Cat waiter!!! It was awesome.  You order all your food from the ipad at the table.  It tallies all your costs.  And it gives you a countdown of 2hrs before you have to leave your table.

The robot waiter plays a little song as it rolls around delivering food.  When it is coming to your table, it has your table number on the screen (you can see table 32).  It also lights up the 'slots' that have your food.  Because the robot can deliver to multiple tables on one run.  

This restaurant is called 'shabu-shabu'.  You have a pot of broth at your table, you order thin strips of meat and cook the meat in the both.  They have a 'salad bar' area where you can load up on veggies to add to the broth as well.  it's so good!!!! 

On March 6, we went to the Hiroshima peace museum.

In the center of the picture, you can see 2 bridges that look like a 'T'.  It's at the tip of the middle peninsula.  That was the the US's target to drop the bomb.  That peninsula was populated with schools, homes and businesses at the time.  The bomb wiped everything out.  Now, that entire area is a peace park.  There are markers along the way telling you what kind of building had been there and how many people were in the building when the bomb went off.

This is a picture taken of the aftermath.  The only building that still remains from this picture is the 'Hiroshima dome' that is in the center of the picture.  They left that building up as a memorial

The museum really reminded me of the 9/11 museum in NYC.  There are a lot of human artifacts and objects collected in the aftermath.  These were objects that were fused together from all the heat of the bomb.

Some families donated their loved one's clothing to the museum.  These were the clothes that people were wearing when the bomb went off.  You can absolutely see blood on most of them.

Because everything was destroyed, a lot of people recorded what they saw with written descriptions and drawings.

There were detailed descriptions of people jumping into the river to get away from the heat and fires. It was very sad to read and see the pictures

It is very true that when the bomb went off, 'shadows' of people were etched into the stone.  This is one example that they preserved.  They think a man was sitting on these steps of a bank waiting for it to open when the bomb went off.  They removed the steps and put them in this museum.  My phone camera actually makes the shadow easier to see than with the naked eye.

After the bomb went off, the heat pulled debris and dirt up into the atmosphere.  Then it cooled and came back down to earth as 'black rain'.  The picture below is a wall that they cut out of a house to preserve it to show what the black rain looked like.  There were some clothing pieces with this 'black rain' on it too.  They said it was black and sticky.

There were a lot of pictures showing the affects of the radiation on people. 

More artifacts recovered in the aftermath.

Clothing of some of the victims from that day.

I thought it was really interesting all the declassified documents that the museum had from the US.  There was communication discussing what potential cities to bomb, and the communication from the president giving the 'ok' to drop the bomb.  They chose Hiroshima because it was a major port city and because the city is surrounded by mountains.  They figured that the mountains would act like a 'bowl' and keep all the power of the bomb from spreading out.  The US thought it would do the most damage there....

Because the color black absorbs the most heat, this woman's kimono burned in her skin where the black fabric was.

A common item to leave at memorial stones around the peace park is bottled water.  This is because after the bomb went off, the heat was so intense for people that all they wanted was water.  But the infrastructure for water was destroyed and everything was polluted from the bomb, so there was no clean and safe water to drink.  There was also a theory that doctors were withholding water from patients until they could be stabilized.  This is because the body was constricting from the trauma and the heat, which was keeping people from bleeding out.  Patients who were getting water were suddenly bleeding to death and dying because the body would 'open up' and relax.  I'm sure I'm not explaining it in the best way....but that is the gist of what I read.

It's strange because the actual 'hypocenter' of the bomb is a few blocks away from the majority of the destruction.  There is just this small sign that marks where the bomb actually went off.

Hiroshima Castle - most of this area had to be rebuilt after the bomb.  There were a few ruins that survived, but it looked like a small pile of rocks.

Koi Fish!

The sign is difficult to read, but this tree survived the atomic blast

After spending 1 1/2 days in the city of Hiroshima, we took a boat over to the island of Miyajima on March 7th.  I booked a traditional Japanese hotel from 2/7-2/9.  These kind of hotels are called Ryokan.  This was the only hotel that I would consider to be 'American prices'.  But, the price included breakfast and dinner and use of the Onsen.  And to be fair, they had to haul everything over to the island, so it made sense.

You were required to leave your shoes at the entrance.  They had slippers laid out with our names on them.

Steps for wearing your 'robe'.  You were required to wear this in the Onsen.

Before the end of the day, the staff would come and 'roll out' your bed on the floor mats.  The wooden container on the table had tea and biscuits for us.

The food was incredible.  We ate with chopsticks every meal.  It looks like a ton of food, but everything is one or two bites.  The 'bucket' looking thing was a little cooker.  They would light one of those fuel cells under it and cook the item in the top.  We ate the most amazing sushi ever.  So much different than sushi in America.  The sushi here would melt in your mouth.  The one thing that made me uncomfortable, is that the Japanese are sooooo accommodating, it makes you feel unworthy.  If we needed something, a teeny Japanese women would literally scurry over to you to help you in a moments notice.  

This was another meal we had on a different night.  I don't know how they do it, but the raw fish is AMAZING.

This is the most notable site on the island.  It is called an Otorii.  It signifies the entrance to a Buddhist temple.  The cool thing is that when the tide is in, the gate looks like it's floating on water.  But when the tide is out, you can walk right up to the Otorii, like the picture below

The tide is not high.

There are a few Buddhist temples on the island.  It seemed like each temple had a little different 'tradition' to follow.  At this temple, I watched this man scoop water with that pole/cup and then he dumped it over the Buddha's head.  I do know that there seems to be a Buddha for everything.  Are you having pain anywhere in your body?  There's a Buddha that you touch to help heal the area on your body that you have pain in.  Having bad luck?  There's a Buddha for that.  Problems with money?  There's a Buddha for that.

Some of the Buddha statues at the temple

Each temple has items like these that you can purchase for a couple of bucks.  I used Google Camera translation a lot to know what everything said.  Each trinket would say something like 'for good luck' or 'for good health' or something like that.  You were supposed to write your 'wish' on the wooden items, then leave the item at the temple.  Every day they would collect the items left behind and burn them.  Then your 'wish' or 'prayer' or whatever you want to call it would come true.  But I wanted to keep these things as souvenirs so I never left anything behind. 

Pagoda on Miyajima

We hiked the 2000 stone steps to the top of Mount Misen!  My legs were shaking coming down, but it was really cool to do.  There is a tram that you can take to the top, but it was broken that day. :)

View of the harbor from the top of Mount Misen

No, I am not feeding the deer.  I am FIGHTING the deer! We were sitting there and the next thing you knew, his face was right in my face!  These guys are not scared of humans and the island is full of them!  They will pull stuff out of your hand! You can reach right out and pet them.  This dummy was trying to eat my paper cup and I was trying to get it away from him.  Gary just laughed and took pictures of me fighting the deer.

Riding the bullet train back to Tokyo, we got a great view of Mount Fuji