Aoshima

What a difference a week and several hundred miles south make. When we arrived in Kobe, it was about 40 and windy. When we got off the train today in Aoshima, it was 65, sunny and beautiful. The palm trees didn't hurt, either. There's not much here in Aoshima, but when you have the ocean, sandy beaches, and hardly anyone around, you don't need much more!

Oh, yeah...

Being very off-season, there was hardly anyone here, making it difficult to find something to eat (all the shops closed early), but giving us the beach and the islands mostly to ourselves. After we arrived, we rented some amazingly bad bikes from the hotel and trundled off to the nearby island of Aoshima.

Aoshima Island. Population: 0

It's a tiny island (only 1.6 km in diameter), and the center is mostly a nature preserve that we're not allowed in, but it has some pretty unique things on it. One of the oldest shrines in Japan resides here. When it was first constructed, no one knows, but there are records of it being REBUILT around 700 AD. Today's structures are Buddhist and far more modern, but the site has been a continuous place of Shinto spirituality for over 1300 years, and the location is perfect

Not quite as big as Miyajima

Tiger guardians at the ancient shrine

Ignore all the merchandising...

The temple itself is pretty impressive, a combination of Buddhist and Shinto ideals.

Beautiful dragon head fountain

Apart from the temple, there is a curious geological structure called The Devil's Washboard (鬼の洗濯板), long straight striations of basalt that look man-made, but are naturally occurring here and elsewhere along the Nichinan coast.

Afterward, we biked up and down the mostly deserted, but beautiful coastline. Very relaxing, and very unlike the Japan that most people experience. Even in rural areas, you are rarely alone on a stretch of road for very long. The population density is just too high.

For dinner, we didn't have a lot of choices, since most places were closed, and so we braved our hotel restaurant. You see, as many of you know, I can't eat fish without it coming back up, usually quite a bit  faster than it went down. As many of you also know, Japanese are of the unfortunately misguided belief that adding fish to anything makes it better. Ice cream? Put some sardines in that! Beef and potatoes? Coat it with dried fish flakes! How about a squid and crab milkshake?* So when you end up at a nice resort hotel, the restaurant will most likely be pretty nice, with very well prepared seafood, and little else. So, knowing this, we still decided to give it a shot. I mean, they've got to have SOMETHING that's not fish, right?

Right?

It was a rather odd all-you-can-eat buffet. Juice, wine, beer, liquor, tea, coffee, rice, tiny desserts and miso soup(in a heavy fish broth) were all set out buffet-style. The main dishes were prepared for you, but you could order as much as you like. The main dishes, with the exception of a very tasty, but very fatty, pork dish and "pizza" all contained large to insane amounts of seafood. They brought the "pizza", topped with zucchini, some form of mushroom and bell peppers out two tiny pieces at a time, and it took twenty minutes for that. The pork was so fatty (which probably was very desirous for the Japanese), I couldn't take more than one serving. That left rice, juice and dessert....

Needless to say, we tried everything they put in front of us (though I passed on the crab and salmon, knowing what the likely result would be) before escaping to the vending machine at the onsen and our room where I had a packaged apple pie and some potato chips. Ah, well, it was worth a try, right?

After a nice soak in the open air onsen they had (free for hotel guests), it was back to our room to log in and get our work done (wait, this IS vacation, right?). Tomorrow we have four hours or so on some trains heading up the coast to Beppu, where Hell awaits us....



* I'm not making any of these up. They do exist.

Sakurajima

We had to change hotels, even though the ultra-cheap one we were at last night was quite nice. We had only booked one night, not sure if we'd stay on in Kagoshima, and they were full up for this evening, so most of the morning was spent searching for a new place. We found a very nice hotel in the middle of the "happening" part of the city for only ¥8000 including breakfast and the requisite internet. Things are cheaper here in Kyuushu than in the north. Unfortunately, we couldn't check in officially until 3PM (normal in Japan), so we left our luggage with them and set off to find some food and make plans.

We stopped at the very Japanese-sounding bakery "Vie de France", a national chain, mostly because they had free wifi. While eating, we decided on heading out to the very active volcanic island, Sakurajima, and I was confronted with an unpleasant surprise. My "Angel Soft" pastry (apple and cream filled pastry), was very light and fluffy. The reason, as it turned out was

May I have some filling with that air?

it was pretty much hollow. There was filling, and it was "Angel Soft", but it was quite a disappointment!

So, on to Sakurajima, which erupted no less than 1,300 times last year and already has over 300 this year. This is a place where they make the kids wear helmets to school, in case an eruption occurs on their morning commute. Eruptions are usually not very severe, and only blow a little dust in the air, sometimes not even noticeable. It actually erupted twice yesterday, enough that they could notice over there, but we didn't see anything across the bay in Kagoshima. That said, it is a dangerous place to be, if the southern peak, Minamidake, decides to blow. Fortunately, they are good enough at detecting eruptions that the last major one, in 1914, only killed 2 people. So we were pretty secure in being two of the more than 1.8 million people that visit the island every year. It's quite a sight.

View from the shore by the "lava flow" from the last major eruption, almost 100 years ago

100 years later, and the whole area that was covered in lava is still black, rocky and stretches for miles

After much walking around, we stopped at the local "足湯"(foot onsen), a public hot spring that they channeled through a park. You wash your feet at a spigot, then soak them in the naturally flowing hot water.

Shaving really cut down on the wind resistance. I'm 25% faster now.

It was really quite relaxing and a nice way to end the afternoon. On the way back, we passed signs for the great Rainbow Beach.

When we got there:

The only 200 ft of sand that wasn't covered by the lava flow

It was exceptionally underwhelming. I can just imagine in the summer 1000 Japanese with big umbrellas trying to fit down there.

One of the things Sakurajima is known for is its very large Daikon radishes. By large, I mean basketball sized radishes. Supposedly it has something to do with the volcanic rock, but since everything seems to die around the lava, I'm not sure about the claim. But the Daikon really are huge

22 Kg(45 lbs) of radish. We saw several of these around town.

Back in Kagoshima, we took a walk down another one of those nice open air shopping arcades and looked for some dinner. At the very end of the arcade, we found a little Ramen place, and were not disappointed.

Loose translation: A Boatload of Vegetables Ramen

Corn Ramen. Maruchan, eat your heart out!

And, of course, we had to find a good cafe for dessert.

They called it "Omelet". We called it a waffle ice cream and fruit sandwich.

On the way back, we found more wonderfully bad Engrish signs (we're saving those for a separate post. The further from Tokyo you get, the worse the English gets), and the mascot for a game arcade, who looked like a cross between Bert and Ernie and Stewie

Should The Childrens Television Workshop sue?

Tomorrow, we head even further south to Aoshima, a sub-tropical island, where we'll spend a night before heading back to civilization and Beppu (the Las Vegas of Japan) where they are having an Onsen festival this weekend.

Kagoshima - Day One

I've been getting more and more funny looks as we go further into Kyuushu. I guess white guys are a rarity around here. It doesn't help that I'm about half a foot taller than most people around here, even when the girls are wearing 6 inch heels. I've also had several clusters of schoolgirls (middle school is my guess), all say "Haroo" to me repeatedly, until I reply "Hello", then they giggle. I think this is sort of what a caged monkey feels like. I really wanted to say "今日は、みんなさん。いい天気ですね。お元気ですか？" and see their reaction, but that would have probably just disappointed them, so I played along.

This morning, before leaving Kumamoto, we checked out the Traditional Crafts building, where people make stuff in an old fashioned way and sell it for extremely large amounts of money. We figured we would take a look and see what they had. What they had was a lot of nice, well made stuff, be it pottery or Damascene jewelry or what have you. A bunch of middle-aged women wearing expensive clothing were "ooh"ing and "aah"ing over the stuff. I almost gagged when I saw a woven wicker basket going for over ¥15000 (US$170) and a medium sized ceramic vase for ¥545000 (US$5600). We clearly don't appreciate fine art, and I am fine with that. I also heard a woman use, without the slightest hint of irony or discomfort, わたくし(watakushi) to describe herself, repeatedly to others. Perhaps she was just being formal, but I got the impression that was how she always spoke. We were happy to leave.


<for those of you who aren't very conversant with Japanese, watakushi is a formal way of speaking about yourself. It is not common usage, and to consistently refer to oneself that way can be seen as fairly pretentious. It is also stereotypically used in TV to imply someone from a wealthy family and usually rather snobbish>

On another side note, I have mentioned before how the Japanese love cute things, and use them everywhere, especially in marketing. In the 750m walk to the train station, we encountered these:

A construction cone just isn't good enough unless it's shaped like a bear.

The caption reads "Exciting, heart-pounding Kumamoto service" It's for the new shinkansen service in Kyuushu. The bear is the "mascot" of Kumamoto, and is everywhere, from cell phone ads to official municipal postings.

So, we then took the shinkansen to it's final stop in Kagoshima, the biggest city this far south (600,000). With Sumi's bad ankle, there wasn't going to be much hiking today. She needs to rest it for a day or so. This was fine, as it allowed us to take it easy. Of course, we didn't actually DO that, but we had the chance....Instead, I walked and Sumi limped from our new hotel to the local aquarium (less than a mile) which had some very nice exhibits of marine life exclusively from the Kagoshima area.

It's a bird, it's a fish...it's a confused, prehistoric creature with wings, gills, fins and legs called a Gaspar.

After the aquarium, we headed to the nearby boardwalk (Kagoshima is on the sea) called Dolphin Port, and ate at a wonderfully named restaurant, "びっくりドンキー"(The Surprised Donkey). My guess is the donkey was surprised at being in Japan, since there aren't any here. In any case, it was what they call a "Hamburger Restaurant", which is different than our hamburger restaurants in that they, of course, don't actually serve any hamburgers. They serve things made with ground beef that more closely resemble high school cafeteria Salisbury Steak (which resemble steak about as closely as I resemble Michael Jordan). The presentation was pretty good, though, and the taste wasn't that bad, especially for the price. They have an interesting way of presenting the menu, which is to bring a large trifold wooden menu out and set it on your table.

The food comes on hot, sizzling skillets to try and convince you the meat wasn't boiled (it was, I'm fairly sure)

Seasoned fries with wasabi mayonaisse. The best food on the menu, not counting the desserts

They did have some other interesting items on the menu, though we didn't try them

They did know how to do dessert, though. Not quite as amazing as last night's Swiss Cafe parfaits, but quite solid, in their own right.

We'll see what happens tomorrow with Sumi's ankle. We may spend an extra day bumming around Kagoshima to give it time to rest. There are some terrible movies playing in the area, and we have yet to Karaoke (Japanese-style, in a private room). I also still have a ton of schoolwork to do. I'm sure we'll find something to keep us occupied.

Kumamoto - Castles, Ankles and Parfaits

We left Aso this morning without any untoward seismic or volcanic activity. Caught the limited express to Kumamoto where Tom had mentioned how nice the castle was. We weren't initially planning on going to Kumamoto, but who could pass up a nice castle?

That's a nice castle

It really was cool. Built in the 1600's during the Warring States period, in almost completely burned down during the Seinan Rebellion in the 1880's (the last Japanese civil war). They've spent a lot of time restoring the castle, down to researching old photos, blueprints, excavating pieces of the original castle, old writings from the time and even using period tools and techniques. The result is a really exceptional restored castle (most of the foundation and parts of the building remained intact).

The palace section of the castle is currently being restored, but there were several sections that were completed that we could see, including the main living area of the palace

Just the living area alone was over 3000 square feet

the main reception hall, where the Shogun was received upon the completion of the castle in 1606

Breathtaking artwork. These are all exact replicas of the original paneling

and other areas, including the kitchens. One piece that struck me was one of the original doors in the castle. It is on display next to some replicas of other doors, and looks like it is 400 years older, but to look at the detail and the artwork on a door that was in a minor area of the palace gives you a sense of what went into creating this castle.

A little faded, but still amazing

On our way back out, Sumi showed her impressive acrobatic skills. It takes a certain amount of skill to sprain an ankle while walking down some stairs. Lacking such grace, I've never been able to accomplish such a feat. But to sprain TWO ankles at once is a rare gift that a lucky few of us are blessed with. With a great deal of hobbling, sliding and occasionally crawling, we got her from the palace level, three stories up, down to the ground level and found a nice, comfortable tree stump for her to sit and attempt to recover. Being the concerned, dedicated husband I am, I took some pictures of the surrounding area while waiting.

Sakura are starting to bloom. Maybe they just required a blood sacrifice. I wonder if a broken leg might have been better?

I'm kidding. Actually, I think this was her picture, not mine. After she was good to move, we took a very slow stroll back to the main street and hopped the tram to get us back to the hotel. We found a drugstore in a small shopping mall next to our hotel and got an ankle brace for her to wear, which helped some. We'll be doing a little less hiking in the next day or two. While she was convalescing, I took the opportunity to stock up for our travels tomorrow and stopped at the nearest konbini. Never send me food shopping when I'm hungry

Chips, juice, 500 mL cans of Coke(only ¥100!), anpan, bread, yogurt, chocolate and sandwiches. I don't think there's a single vegetable or whole grain anywhere here.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the quality of bread in Japan. These sandwiches are a prime example.

Wonder Bread, eat you heart out

No crust, thin as a cracker, texture of styrofoam and as little real flour as possible. My kingdom for whole wheat anything. Otherwise, not a bad little sandwich.

So, anyway, after our Rachel Ray-would -hyperventilate lunch, rather than trek around some parks like we intended, we chose to do some city-type stuff and go souvenir shopping. There is a pretty decent downtown and outdoor open air shopping arcade in Kumamoto, so we headed down there. I scored most of the YUI items I was looking for at the local Tower Records and a smaller music store on the 8th floor of one of the department stores.

Best musical talent to come out of Japan, maybe ever.

The souvenirs were somewhat lacking, however. The gift shop resembled a Japanese Spencer Gifts, and most of the amusing items were not suitable for, well, anyone really. We walked around the shopping arcade for a while, checked out the local Animate! store (anime and goods shop) and finally ended up at a "Swiss" cafe. The only thing Swiss about it was the name (The Swiss Cafe), but the food they served was a slightly upscale version of what you would get at a normal cafe. Sumi had "spaghetti", and I had a minced meat and mushroom curry. Good food, but nothing exciting. Nothing, that is, until the dessert.

Chocolate Banana Parfait

Strawberry Parfait

I don't know where the Japanese learned to make desserts as well as they do, but these cost more than the dinner we just had, and were about five times as good. Fresh fruit, quality ice cream, mousse, shortcake, real whipped cream and cookies all piled artistically together. Awesome. Just awesome. And what do you use to eat this ambrosia?

An oversized spork

Tomorrow will be a light travel day and probably a get-our-work-done day. I still have several programs to finish and Sumi has work as well. It will give her ankle a chance to recover a bit, and give the two volcanoes that we are planning on hiking by or on to stop acting up. Both have Level 3 warnings right now, meaning we won't be getting near them unless something changes.

Sulfer Dioxide, Evaporation and Onsens

As much hiking as I've done over the years, I have never climbed a mountain. Mt. Misen is a mountain, true, but a mountain that has been hiked for about 1200 years by Buddhists who have made many convenient stairs out of rock and wood to make their meditation hikes a little less difficult. Kind of like a Mountain Climbing for Dummies™ for those who aren't really sure they want to climb a real mountain. Believe me, it's real enough and plenty of work, though, and I had no real desire to prove myself on anything bigger or more difficult.

Which is why I found myself this morning on a bus heading towards an active volcano with the intention of climbing it and looking inside.

Notice the people hiking at the bottom. It was a BIG mountain range.

At the bus station, we met up with an Australian, Tom, who was taking 8 months to travel across the northern hemisphere and ended up hiking around together. It was a lot of fun swapping stories of our travels in Japan and his across southeastern Asia. We really need to visit Vietnam and Thailand after hearing about his experiences.

Once we got off the bus at the base of the peaks (there are five peaks in Mt. Aso), we found that they had closed the volcano, Nakadake, due to some silly regulations about sulfer dioxide levels and people suffocating. Of course, these things change, and we were instructed to check back in the afternoon, and perhaps the wind would change and we could go up. With our initial plans on hold, we had to find something else to do. Well, there was this convenient mountain in front of us, see. So, we figured this is the closest we'd ever been to the base of a mountain, so we climbed it. It was not even remotely like a sheer face or anything that you would picture when someone says "mountain climbing". It was instead a long series of muddy, slippery trails that rose at a reasonably steep angle. So, for the next few hours, we climbed Ebishodake.

Tom, Sumi and I atop Ebishodake (1337m)

The scenery was vast and beautiful, and since none of us had good enough cameras, the pictures all ended up looking brown and uninteresting. Being a very clear day, we could see for miles in all directions.

Very brown. Notice the steam rising from the crater.

We also could see the wind direction had shifted since the morning, and was now blowing away from the trail that led up to the crater, meaning they most likely were going to open the trail. So we headed back down the mountain and towards the base of the volcano, where there was a ropeway and the requisite merchandise uriba (selling place), complete with bad food, ice cream and souvenirs. Along the way, we had to cross a toll road on foot (a big no-no) and find the real path that we were supposed to be on (apparently the "trail" we took down wasn't official) and pass an old, abandoned ski lodge. It was most likely abandoned because it doesn't really snow much in this latitude. They had to make all the snow themselves. When there is some of the best skiing in Asia a little ways north in the Japanese Alps, I guess it doesn't pay to make your own slopes.

Once we made it to the base, the ropeway was up and running (a good sign), but a guy in a uniform informed us that it was still "dame" (no good). Well, after a lunch of white bread, potato chips and water (yum!) we threw caution to the wind and made the climb...all 15 minutes of it, up a sidewalk along the toll road we crossed earlier. We chose to walk rather than pay the ¥1000 each for a round trip on the ropeway. It was worth the walk.

Note the very gray coloring of the ground around the steam. This is usually filled with a very blue-green water, and the steam bubbles and rises up from the water, and looks like this:

Apparently all the water had evaporated. This is usually a sign of the area heating up rapidly before some form of volcanic activity. We, of course, knew noting of this until we returned to our hostel and asked the guy at the front desk about it. He thought we were kidding when we said it was gray, and when I showed him the video, he very seriously asked if it was in black and white. It was not. Great. Earthquake, tsunami, now a volcano erupting? Also, all the rumbling you hear in the video is the gas escaping from the ground.

So, after a long day of risking our lives hiking around a volcano that may or may not blow, we headed back for another Udon Soba meal (Tom, not speaking Japanese, was grateful for a meal that wasn't pre-boxed sushi), then a trip to the local onsen (powered by the local volcanic activity) for a wonderful, hot bath and back to the hostel. Tomorrow will most likely be a more leisurely visit to Kumamoto for a castle tour, a bamboo grove and maybe some omiyage (souvenir) shopping before heading further south to more volcanoes (hopefully dormant) and a sub-tropical coastal city.

"... as he looked off into the distance..." <-- feel free to finish that sentence any way you see fit.

Travel Day: Miyajima to Aso City, or, How I Ate My Way Across Japan

Not much to report today. Lots of train riding to get from Hiroshima area all the way to central Kyuushu (the southernmost part of mainland Japan). Our destination this time was Aso City, which lies at the base of a number of active volcanoes. We arrived in the afternoon, got to our next hostel, which really looks like a Nordic ski lodge that got delivered here by mistake. Hardwood floors, a wood-burning stove and clean, new fixtures. It amazes me that every hostel we stay in when we're in Japan is nicer than what you would get for twice the price in the US (or Japan, for that matter).

Perfect place to write a Java program...

After 5 hours on four different trains with no food available but the terrible stuff they foist on unsuspecting passengers on the Shinkansen Food Cart, we were ready for a good meal. After a fairly chilly walk down one of the main roads, we arrived at a place that had only two words on their sign: "Udon Soba". Inside we were greeted with the smell of smoke (non-smoking areas only exist in major cities in Japan), the sound of a baseball game on a little TV and the cook, a little Japanese lady, pointing for us to take any available seat, which was most of them (It was 3 on a Saturday). We then spent some time deciphering the menu, which was pretty simple because, as the name implied, they had various kinds of Udon (thick buckwheat noodles, usually served in a broth) and Soba (thin buckwheat noodles, usually served in a broth) and nothing else. This is usually a good sign. In Japan (and the US, for that matter), the more menu items a place has, generally the worse the food quality is. I had an absolutely wonderful Karee Udon (Curry Udon), which is regular Udon in a basic broth with Japanese curry and tiny amounts of beef and onions on top.

Spicy, Salty Goodness

Sumi had the Saizan Soba Teishoku (Soba with Wild Vegetables set). I was too involved in my heavenly MSG injection to sample hers, but she liked it.

Seisan Soba, rice, sesame vegetables, pickled daikon and tofu with ginger and onions.

Afterwards, we saw Ice Cream written on the map. Not needing any further prompting, we walked another 100 meters to a stand that specialized in Black Sesame Ice Cream.

The universal sign for ice cream, the over-sized cone. Every shop in Japan that sells ice cream has one

Usually, that's all it takes to get me to try a new dish, but I was sidetracked when I got inside and saw Japanese crepes on the menu. Japanese crepes are like sweet pancakes wrapped around a sundae. They are popular in Harajuku (in Tokyo), and I had been looking forward to having some before we decided to avoid the Tokyo area. Sumi was mesmerized by the Almond and Chocolate Special and I lost to the Banana and Chocolate Crepe.

The only time this trip I didn't have to tell her to smile for a picture...

Satisfied, we made our way back to the hostel, where I finally caught up on all the posts I had been writing, but not posting (had some trouble uploading to Blogger the last few days), finished the first of my homework assignments, planned our route for tomorrow (climbing a 1500m tall active volcano that is currently steaming, with snow covering the peak, unless we get a Sulfer Dioxide gas warning, in which case we'll be doing....not that), and stocked up at the local konbini with provisions for the climb. We'll see which way the wind blows tomorrow, and go from there.

Miyajima: Mountains, Monkeys and Tiny, Little Buddhist Monk Statues

After our quick 6 minute (timed) showers, we were up and out at the crack of....9AM to tackle the mountain. But first, courtesy of a local panya and konbini, I bring you the breakfast of champions!

Nothing says healthy living like Japanese sweet breads and 7-11 apple juice!

With more sugar and carbs than one should have in a week in our systems, we were off! The torii was still there.

The plum blossoms were starting to bloom

It was overcast and about 40 F. Perfect weather for a climb! We chose the western (and most difficult) climb, not out of any machismo, but because we hadn't see that part yet, having taken the ropeway up and gone down the center path on our last trip here. It was a challenging route, very steep, with a 30% grade, though many "stairs" made it easier to handle.

After about a two hour climb, we deciding to see the Okunoin (Buddhist graveyard), which was on a separate path. That path turned out to bring us about halfway BACK DOWN the mountain we had just hiked up, and to an Okunoin that could only be called "Under Construction". They had been slowly restoring the area to some semblance of old-school Japanese Buddhist-like ambiance. But it currently looked like the back lot of a power company, except with ancient Buddhist stone markers

Notice the variety of sophistication of the carvings. Some of these have been here for over 1200 years.

Worth the trip, I think, despite having to climb back up the mountain again. Once we got back to where we left off, we continued up Misen-san to a cluster of temples that were founded by the famous Kukai, the guy who basically brought Zen Buddhism to Japan. There is a shrine here with The Eternal Flame, a fire that was supposedly lit by Kukai when he first got here and was doing his meditation thing on top of the mountain, and his disciples and their descendants have kept it burning ever since. That's the story, anyway, and makes for a good tale to tell tourists.

I wonder if it would be sacrilegious to toast marshmallows here?

A short climb later, we had reached the top of Mt. Misen! There is an observatory with a great view of the surrounding area, and, since this is Japan, a vending machine and a small ramen stand. We had a snack of tiny ¥200 Cokes (about 8 oz each) and a large Meiji chocolate bar, which is the Hershey's of Japan. A young deer was very curious (perhaps covetous would be a better word) about our chocolate, and came over to see if we were suckers enough to share. We weren't, and he left after licking my hand and trying to sneak a bite from behind us.

GQ eat your heart out

Our trip back down went, predictably, faster. We saw many smaller shrines on the way up and down. Most of them had some small offerings, some had red or white cloth covering the Buddhas as an offering to protect children and elderly and in memory of those who had died. One rather confused worshipper offered Christmas cheer....to Buddhist statues in Japan.

Old Saint Nikaprabhupahda?

We did not encounter any monkeys this time around, to Sumi's relief. It was apparently a little too cold for them to be wandering around. At the end of the path down, we did encounter the Japanese Liliyput. Daishoin, a temple containing several unique works of art, including sutras engraved on spindles of a railing that lead up to the main temple

Exactly 100 steps lead up to the temple

and unique representations of the original 500 disciples of Kukai. Each of the statues is different, capturing the personality of each individual disciple. Their names are carved on their backs, and it's quite an experience to walk among all of them.

At the end of our long day, we took the ferry back to the mainland and stopped at the nearest restaurant to our hostel, which happened to be a great little Italian place (yup, Italian), run by a couple of Japanese guys. The food was very authentic Italian style, and very tasty. We split a Margharita Pizza (real, made with fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzerella cheese) and each had an awesome dessert. Sumi had Ichigo (strawberry) Tiramasu and I had Banana Creme Brule. We left the cameras at the hostel for charging, so no pictures this time, but if you are ever in the Miyajima area, check out Polipo, just by the Miyajimaguchi Ferry station.