Our Trip to Japan: Hiroshima, Miyajima Island, Fukuoka

Last weekend Jennifer and I ventured off to Japan for 3 days. We took a high speed ferry from our city of Busan to Fukuoka (a major port city in Japan). The boat ride only took 3 hours! Upon arriving, we walked around the park then hopped on a 4 hour bus to Hiroshima. What an amazing city! It's quite different than Busan as it is filled with beautiful parks, it's impeccably clean, and people don't stare or laugh at foreigners since they are so used to seeing them. There was also a lack of bright neon signs that Busan seems to be infested with. To walk around in Hiroshima, knowing it's history, was quite astonishing. The A-bomb dome (seen above) is the remains of the only structure still standing after the U.S. bombed the city on August 6, 1945. It is now a memorial and reminder to all those who visit...of the tragedy that destroyed most of the city. The Peace Memorial Museum was overwhelming with photos, burned clothes of children who died, and their stories. The museum did fail to mention other races of people affected by the bomb, such as the estimated 20,000 Koreans who were killed in Hiroshima. It was hard to believe that something so horrible was once a reality...that this city was completely destroyed and rebuilt to the glorious city I had experienced.

We took a 10 min ferry on Saturday to Miyajima island after a 25 min. train ride from the

city. Below is a view from the ferry of the island as we approached it.

The island is lush with forests and covered in mountains. There is also a beautiful Shinto shrine (Itsukushima Shrine), pagodas, temples, and national park. Below is a picture of us in front of Tori gate (part of the shrine) which is on land and approachable during low tide.
Another interesting fact about the island is that it is home to many wild deer and monkeys. As we stepped out of the ferry terminal, I was awestruck by the countless deer roaming around the plaza so fearlessly. I had always thought of deer as timid creatures that were instinctively afraid of man. "they're so cute" I said. My eyes were immediately drawn to the woman selling deer food at the edge of the plaza. I bought a bundle of biscuits from her...eager to try hand feeding a deer for the first time.
so to make a long story short....I was attacked by a hungry mob of deer! In reality they didn't really hurt me...except for a few bites on my leg and butt. Click the picture below to see the video.
After an exciting encounter with the islands wildlife, we hiked up Mt Misen (the highest peak on the island at about 1750 meters) which is considered to be a holy mountain. The views from the top were astounding of the surrounding islands. This island was amazing and I highly recommend visiting it. The only disappointment we had was not finding any monkeys. Below is a photo of the five-story pagoda on the island with some remaining cherry blossoms in front. We were lucky to come here in spring while they were in bloom.

Back in Hiroshima we toured the shopping areas in which the shops were too expensive to even breathe in. We went to Hiroshima Castle (pic below) which is surrounded by a moat and frolicked around a traditional Japanese garden that we had all to ourselves since it was raining.To see pictures of the garden and the rest of our trip click here: Japan Photos

The Horrible Hoody
This is one of Jennifer's students who showed up for class wearing this hooded sweatshirt. That's right...if you look closely it says "Don't Break F#%*ing Nuts". I've noticed a lot of hilarious English written on T-shirts here, but none as vulgar as this one. We asked the kid if he knew what it said and he innocently replied "no". I wonder if is mother bought him this sweatshirt. I'm sure most people had no idea what was written on it.

Pohang and Bogyeongsa Temple Adventures
Aurelia and I decided to get out of Busan for the weekend so we hopped on a bus to Ulsan (about 30 min north of here). We met the foreign community at a party at the Benchwarmers bar and realized at midnight that we had no place to sleep for the night. We wanted to stay in a jinjel-bong (Korean saunas and steam rooms) which is a common place for people to stay a night and only costs around 7 dollars. We ended up spending the night in a DVD bong with comfortable couches, a big screen TV, and the 2 movies we rented. It was 8 dollars each and we had lovely couches to sleep on with pillows and everything. Apparently they don't care if you use their facilities as a makeshift motel because they joyfully greeted us farewell as we departed the next morning for Pohang (45 min north of Ulsan) In Pohang we took a cab to Bogyeongsa Temple where the hikes to 12 waterfalls were awaiting us. There is a small tourist village before reaching the temple where Ajumas spend hours rolling out dough and cutting it into thin, flat noodles. We then explored the temple for a bit and made our way to the hiking trail. The trail was crowded with Korean hikers....all decked out in their latest northface hiking gear, walking sticks, and daypacks. They looked prepared for the Himalayas but I've learned this is typical for Koreans. The hike was beautiful as it took us through gorges, waterfalls and valleys with high limestone pinnacles reaching out of the forest. One of the waterfalls (as seen above) had caves behind it. We made it to the 6th waterfall and headed back to the tourist village for some tea and Pumpkin Pajeang (pumpkin pancake). I highly recommend this hike to anyone living here in Korea.
-Heather