Miyajima Island, July 17 (near Hiroshima)

When we were in Hiroshima, we went to the island of Miyajima, which has been worshipped since ancient times as a god. The first thing that we saw when we began walking the streets of Miyajima were its docile and beautiful deer. they walk and sit under the trees along the streets and let people pet them. They are quite an attraction!

The next thing that we saw was the magnificent Otorii or Grand Gate standing in the water. This gate stands in the water directly in front of Itsukushima Shrine. The gate was built in 593 and the shrine was built in 1168. In ancient times the island itself was worshipped as a god. It is still worshipped as an island "where the people and gods dwell together." The island is now known as a "world cultural heritage" site and is very beautiful. When the tide comes in the shrine looks like it is floating on water. The vermillion of the gate and shrine are gorgeous against the blue of the water. It is really quite stunning.

We took a boat ride right up to the gate in the water and underneath it too. It's amazing. Columns are huge and appear to be made from single trees. It was incredible to be so close and to see the gate from such an intimate perspective. It you look right through, you see the shrine in the background. My mother said that the shrine is built very symmetrically so and represent heaven, and when you look through the gate it's like you are looking into the gates of heaven.

We also climbed up to a beautiful building called Senjokaku, or the Hall of 1000 mats (it is so large, that it is the size of 1000 tatami mats). It is now a museum to honor the famous film director, Akira Kurosawa. The architecture was gorgeous with its dark wood beams and floors, and beautiful porches. It was very high up, and on such a hot and humid day it was nice to receive the cool breeze from such a place.

There were so many other places to go on the island that we couldn't see them all. We decided to come back the next day. In the mean time the boys bought inspirational headbands and kendo swords and pretended to be samurai under the trees.

Fun in Kokura

While we were in Kokura we saw lots of things around and in the city. The city was filled with covered allies where there were lots and lots of shops: food shops, restaurants, clothing shops, etc. This is a picture of one ally with a Starbucks in it! Mom was happy to find that!



There was also a castle in the middle of Kokura (Kokura Castle). This is a picture of part of the castle and the wall and moat around it. You can also see that there are lots of bicycles parked around the city. So many people ride their bicycles! It seems just as popular as driving your car! It's no wonder why Japanese people are so healthy. Riding around by bicycle all the time and eating very healthy food (fish, lots of vegetables and rice) keeps them healthy.

Because so many people ride their bicycles, they have lots of provisions for bicycle riders. This photo is of the parking area for bicycles that commuters rode to the train station. There are hundreds and hundreds of bicycles locked up.



The restaurants were also fun. They show food in the windows just like we always see in the movies or books. Here are Robert and Noah in front of a restaurant. You could eat at tables like we do in the States or Japanese style (sitting on pillows on the floor). The kids' favorite foods were sushi and noodles; big, hot noodles in soup (udon), or cold noodles with dipping sauce (soba). This particular restaurant gave out miniature bey blades with the kids meals.

Obaachama and Akiko-san

We finally made it to the children's great grandmother's house outside of Kokura. We took the bus there every day for 10 days to see Obaachama and Akiko-san (the children's great aunt).


Obaachama is 99 years old (at least that's what they think!) She's very small, but seems quite healthy (genki).


Each day we did the same things at at their house. We sat with Obaachama for a while, then went to the park, got sweaty hot, then came home, fanned ourselves (see photo), had watermelon, sat with Obaachama again, watched some Japanese TV (sumo wrestling was the kids' favorite-see photo!), went back to the park, got sweaty hot, came back, fanned ourselves some more, ate dinner then went back to our hotel by train, made our futons up, read and then quickly drifted off to Japanese dreamland.

We bought a ball and a butterfly net, as catching butterflies and bugs is very popular among young boys in Japan. Robert loved it so much, that at any time during each afternoon, you could see Robert running around the neighborhood chasing butterflies (see photo)!

We also got to know some of the neighborhood children, like this little girl, Ayako-chan. She loved to play with us and we loved to play with her!

July 6th - Going to See Our Great Grandmother!

TAKING THE SHINKANSEN (BULLET TRAIN): July 6th was the day we left Hakone. We took the Shinkansen (the bullet train) south to the southern island of Japan, Kyushu. The kids' great grandmother (we call her Obaachama) lives in Kita-Kyushu, the northern part of Kyushu. The bullet train took about 3 hours to get there. On the train we bought and ate o-bento's for lunch; they are premade lunches of sushi and vegetables in nice neat boxes.



JAPANESE MONEY (YEN) : While we were waiting for the train, we enjoyed looking at the money of Japan, the yen. Their money is so different and beautiful! Different bills are different colors and in the middle there is a circle which has a water mark of a face. When you hold it up to the light you can see the mark. Here is a 1000 yen bill. It sounds like a lot of money but it is approximately equal to US $10.00.







NEW TAGAWA HOTEL IN KOKURA: Well, we finally made it on the Shinkansen from Odawara Train Station (near Hakone) to Kokura Eki. Kokura is a pretty large city. Lots of banks, departments stores and malls, hotels, and restaurants. We took a taxi to the hotel and were there in 5 minutes. Would you believe that in a large city like Kokura (See photo of Kokura Train Station at night, and photo of Ruby getting off an escalator in Kokura) that there would be such a tranquil, relaxing, beautiful garden (see photo of garden with pagoda and water)! The hotel was a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city!

Some Other Things We Did in Hakone (July 1-5)

In Hakone we also visited an aquarium with lots of exotic fish, turtles and some performing seals that were really cute.

We also took a ride around Lake Ashi on a boat that looked like a pirate ship. We could see the hotel we were staying at from the boat. The hotel looked beautiful! We had to take a bus from the hotel to catch the boat.

At the dock where we boarded the pirate ship there was a pretty red gate. You see them in lots of photos of Japan; it was nice to see one in real life!

Lastly we took a ride on these paddle boats. They are not really special to Japan; we have them in the U.S., but we really wanted to paddle around in them! It was so much fun!

July 5th Last Day in Hakone

Today was our last day in Hakone. We didn't plan much, just stayed around the hotel grounds and enjoyed a relaxing day before we had to travel. We took a walk up the road and saw a very old Japanese Hotel. It was beautiful!





We also had lunch and ate Japanese-style. Most restaurants have tables and chairs now-a-days, so we were excited to be able to sit on the floor!

July 4th In Hakone, Japan

Well, July 4th was not so much a celebration of the US's Independence Day for the Goldbaums in Japan! There were no fireworks or American flags waving about! What we did do was take the cable car up a the Hakone Volcano. It's last eruption was 3000 years ago when it made Lake Ashi, the lake along which our hotel was situated. We saw the volcanic steam arising from the inside of the volcano and soaked later in the hot spring water that is heated by the volcano. It was pretty neat to see! The hot spring water was great too! A little too hot for the kids, though.

Later that day, Noah and I decided to take an exploratory walk along Lake Ashi on a beautiful, secluded and very elevated path that led to a shrine. I think the path would have gone on forever along the Lake, but we only ventured for half an hour as it was late in the afternoon, very damp, and the bugs were starting to come out. Plus we had to get back for dinner. We saw a huge variety of plants that were unique to Japan (at least we'd never seen them in America) and some plants that looked very similar. We collected samples, and when samples were out of reach we took photos. We had an awesome time being naturalists for a day in Japan!