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!

The Art of Racing in Hakone

Posting by Noah Goldbaum:

The day after we got to our new hotel we went on a walk down the street and we found a gift shop/arcade, so we went inside. Downstairs was the giftshop. Upstairs was the arcade. In the arcade there was a track where you could race remote-controlled cars. There were two Porsche Cayenne's and six Formula One racing cars. Robert said that the track opened at 10:00am. He really wanted to race them. I wasn't so crazy about it at first, but when I saw Robert do it I wanted to try it. So I did. We both chose Formula One cars.

When I tried it, it was hard at first to control the car, because it was new to me. I got used to it after 5 or 10 minutes (each turn was 15 minutes long). The third day we tried it Robert and I were so good we both set a new record: one lap with no crashing into the walls or each other. The next lap I was only a foot away from setting another record: two laps without crashing! I can't believe I crashed one foot away from making a new record!

After our time was up the guy working there gave us another try (with no charge!) with the Porsches. They stunk! They kept turning around if we wanted them to go straight! But it was still fun. Right when we started playing with the Porsches a bunch of teenagers from Canada came to race the cars. Robert and I wanted to race the teenagers, because we thought we could crush them! Some of them didn't even know how to back up!


We had a great day at the arcade today! It was our favorite thing to do in Japan.

Getting to Hakone

Posting by Noah Goldbaum:

After our last day outside of Tokyo, we had a long trip to our new hotel. First we took a bus to the Tokyo Train Station (Tokyo Eki). It took about 45 minutes to get there. We had to drive through Tokyo and we saw lots of glass buildings and we even saw vines growing up the side of a building (in and out of these vents). At 10:30am we got to the station at last!

We had an hour and a half until we had to catch the bullet train (the shinkansen). We took our luggage all the way around the train station looking for a place to eat but all the restaurants didn't open until 11:00am. It took us a long time to find a restaurant. I was feeling a little grumpy and sad. I didn't like having to lug my luggage around because my backpack kept falling off the suitcase. I ate a little bit of noodles (ramen).

After we ate, we went to the shinkansen. Robert and I thought there were going to be computers on the train because we saw a poster that had computers on a train. Unfortunately there weren't any computers. Before we got on the train Mom took a picture of me pointing to the sign posting our train and time of departure. Finally we got on the train. The shinkansen was going very fast, but it didn't seem like it. There wasn't anything very interesting outside, just lots of buildings that didn't look so different from the U.S. Did you ever ride a shinkansen?

We got to Odawara Station (near Hakone) and then we had to catch another bus to Hakone. We were an hour early, so Mom and Ruby went to get some ice cream. While Mom and Ruby were gone, Robert and I played with our BeyBlades on the sidewalk. It was very hot out, so we went under a tree. Later Mom and Ruby came back with the ice cream. After we ate, we went on the bus early, so we took some pictures. The bus driver let Robert sit way up front and I sat right behind him. Obaachan told us that we would be driving up a steep and scary mountain on narrow winding roads, and that it would be very scary riding up front.

On the bus ride, I saw a girl wearing a kimono, a big old Japanese castle, two small waterfalls, and lots and lots of bamboo. When we were riding up the mountain, there was a big valley of trees. There was this part of the road that was very very twisty. There was a GPS screen at the front of the bus and we could see the shape of the road was like a curvy zig-zag. I also saw a cyclist riding up the mountain! Imagine riding several miles straight up a mountain on a bike! That would be pretty hard! We also saw a very fast and very big green, black and brownish beige colored pirate ship on a lake. I hope we go on that ship; it might be exciting!

Finally we got there after what seemed like 10 minutes, but it was really an hour.

An Evening With Japanese Friends

During our nap, we heard a knock on the door. All of us were surprised who it was at the door. It was our Japanese friends, Yuki, Kazu, Mai-chan, and their mom and grandmother. We were in our pajamas so we had to get dressed and go to our obaachan's (grandmother's) room to see them.

They bought us a cool toy called Beyblade. It's all the rage in Japan. It is like a top that you hook it on a hook that spins around when you pull the plastic cord. It makes the Beyblade spin like a top. We had dinner with them. Affter dinner they had to go home, so we said good-bye. It took about 20 minutes to say good-bye because we had so much fun with them and we knew that we wouldn't see them for two weeks. After they left we went into the gift shop and bought three Pokemon balls with Pokemon in them. Robert got Enti, Ruby got Chicarita, and I don't know the name of the Pokemon that I got.