Fukuoka, Japan

After sobering up in Tokyo, we embarked on our whirlwind tour across southern Japan. We realized upon boarding the Shinkasen (bullet train) that the equivalent of our 9-day itinerary would be hitting Boston, New York, Philly and DC with a night in the Poconos. Needless to say, I similarly have a lot of ground to cover here so let's get started.

The first stop, Kyoto, held great promise for both of us: the Kyoto Costume Institute for Erin and the Nintendo World Headquarters for yours truly. Unfortunately, the KCI had no exhibitions and the Nintendo HQ was heavily fortified. Not ones to be easily turned back, we made it through Nintendo's front gate before being encountered by a stern security guard with a polite piece of paper that read, in English, "I am sorry. You cannot go in this building." At that, we decided to leave before the guard alerted Bowser to our presence or put a shell on his back and started throwing hammers at us.

The remainder of Kyoto involved a bit of historical sightseeing, mostly temples and shrines. Luckily, we were able to find a Hollywood Cinema Costume exhibit in a department store of all places that was actually quite good and interesting - even for me (the Matrix and Fight Club exhibits helped).

From Kyoto we headed to Koya-san in the mountains for some Buddhist-style relaxation. The town of Koya-san is a bit secluded and we had to take a cable-car up a mountain just to reach it. It felt like the start of a roller-coaster without the pay-off. Once in town, we headed to the Buddhist temple where we were staying. Our bed consisted of tatami mats laid down on the floor and we were given yukata robes and slippers to wear around the premises. After being served a traditional vegetarian dinner beside the rock garden and goldfish pond, we retired for a peaceful night of sleep as the rain fell outside. Although Erin fell quickly to sleep, I tossed and turned with images in my head of ninjas crashing through our bamboo and paper walls at any moment.

We awoke early (real early) the next morning to witness a Buddhist ceremony and visit Okuno-in where more than 500,000 Buddhist remains have been put to rest. We then climbed back into the cable-car and headed down the mountain on our way to Osaka.

Our initial intent on spending a night in Osaka was to catch a Hanshin Tigers baseball game but it looked to be a rain-out when we got to town so instead we visited the area of Amerika-Mura which means "America Village". Basically, it's just like the rest of Osaka (and other Japanese cities) except that all the Japanese guys have fantastic Bon Jovi-style haircuts and the Japanese girls have Barbarella hair helmets of such remarkable size that they nearly tip over. Inspired by Japan's homage to America, we returned to our hostel to drink cans of beer and watch Airheads.

From Osaka our "America in Japan" theme continued on to Hiroshima for hot dogs, baseball and, regrettably, the A-Bomb.

As for the good, the Hiroshima Carp baseball team and its fans deserve their own blog, or at least their own post, but I'll try to touch on some highlights. For starters, their mascot is a complete rip-off of the Phillie Phanatic with a total misinterpretation of the original Phanatic's pelvic thrusts. The Carp Phanatic was only a sign of more good things to come. We sat in the bleachers which were packed full an hour before game-time, even though nobody seemed to sit in any other area of the stands. I guess Hiroshima is a blue-collar town. A half-hour before the first pitch, the crowd was already in a frenzy, led by the Carp band (props to the Yokohama Bay Stars who traveled with their own band). There were also Carp cheerleaders who did not hesitate to blow horns or whistles while the Carp players were trying to hit 140km/h fastballs. The whole set-up was very NASCAR-esque with the fans bringing all of their food and beer into the stadium with them. A father in front of us brought his 3 kids to the game, all under age 6, and they watched and cheered the whole time - for 4 hours - even when he went to the men's room and left them in the stands alone. The game was longer than normal because there was a "stretch" every other inning - probably because the entire infield was dirt and needed to be swept frequently. The cheering never died down (Erin and I were exhausted by the 3rd inning) and when Soyagi cranked a grand slam, the locals were more than happy to slam high-fives with a "gaijin" (me). The Carp won the game and the entire crowd respectfully stayed to hear Soyagi interviewed afterwards at home plate. Apparently he's really funny. The crowd then - get this - picked up all of their trash and carried it to the recycling bins outside, very un-NASCAR-esque. Japanese baseball, like most things Japanese, is awesome.

For the bad and ugly, one only has to go back 5 years before the Carp played their first game to when we dropped the A-Bomb (literally, right across the street from where the Carp now play their games). Obviously, there's a context to war but being in Hiroshima seems to erase any context for using atomic weapons. We took an informative, guided tour of the Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome, below where the explosion took place. The overwhelming message here is peace, not Anti-America, which was certainly welcomed. Of course, we felt somewhat obliged to make a donation.

One last bullet train and we're finally in Fukuoka on the west coast and looking forward to more ramen, some beach time and a local soccer match. Assuming there are no typhoons or Godzilla-related interruptions, we're here until Monday when we fly out to Shanghai and will be met by Erin's parents. We don't know what to expect with China's Internet censors and whether we'll be able to keep this blog current while we're there but we'll find a way to get the word out and hopefully you'll hear from us again sooner rather than later.
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