Jap Blog 17th of July 1996

At some stage in proceedings about here, Mrs Oho gave us five slices of rockmelon to eat. Rockmelon only costs about $A2 back home so I tucked into it without a second thought. I was just about to have my third piece when Wayne informed me that the rockmelon cost about 12000 yen, or $A140. In peak season they could cost about $A200. Can you imagine how difficult it was to finish that last piece of rockmelon?

Yesterday we were allowed a bit of a sleep in. We got dressed up and attended a Rotary meeting. Had to stand up and bow when I was introduced. The whole meeting was conducted in Japanese. Luckily the guys I was sitting next to, Okano and the president of Kirin Beer Company, have been to Australia and spoke English. They said that it wasn’t disrespectful to eat your lunch when the Rotary Club president was giving his speech. I spoke so much to Okano that I was last to finish my meal, which was of Western variety. Had my photo taken with Wayne and the Hiroshima-Aki Rotary Club President. When we left, the girl from the service desk extended her hand and so I shook it. She only wanted to take my name tag. We changed clothes in the toilet and took a train to the station near Miyajima. The guy at the ferry terminal said “Bonza mate” when he was told that I was from Australia.

On the island of Miyajima there are stacks of souvenir shops and I bought a headband inscribed with “kamikaze”. People laughed at me all day. I’m used to that. Many photos taken of Otorii Gate and again and temples on the island. Itsukushima Shrine. The deer are friendly too. We climbed almost to the top of Mt Misen. Nearly killed me. Japan is so humid in summer and we were carrying our daypacks. Stone steps have been placed all the way to the summit. Pic of Tahoto Pagoda. It took only 20 minutes to come down and the cable car (let’s face it, why climb when you can take the cable car?) only just beat us. We walked to the bottom with a Norwegian girl whose name escapes me. I ducked off to get a photo of the five-storey pagoda. Nothing special happened on the way back to Hiroshima.

Arrived back at the Oho’s house just before 8pm. Had tea which consisted of fish, sea slug, rice etc. They took us to their friends’ place who had organised a ride in a truck to Kyoto for us. The driver was called Hirotaka and he was a great bloke. Didn’t speak English though. It was great trying to communicate with him. He picked us up at 11pm and we stayed up until 1am talking. Wayne went to sleep earlier as he was really tired. There were tunnels and towns everywhere along the tollway. Speed limit on the expressway was only 80 km/h. The plan was for us to be dropped off at the nearest toll gate but Hirotaka took us all the way to the main railway station. I gave him a stuffed kangaroo and after that he didn’t want to accept Wayne’s gift. He really went to a lot of trouble for us.

We arrived in Kyoto at 3am. There were a whole heap of skateboarders at the station and they told us that it was 5-10 kms to Wayne’s friend’s house. The expressway had been full of trucks and the toll from Hiroshima to Kyoto was 4580 yen.

We had to stay awake until 6:40 and wait for a bus. I fell asleep a couple of times on the bus. We had a small breakfast and then went to bed until 5pm. Met our host, Toshiyuki Iwaoka, Ryuji, Poppo, Akihiro, Nakamura-san and we went out for tea. Had squid, sashimi, show mein, steak, daiken salad, tempura, sausages, kebabs – yakitori. They even served us a fish on a skewer that had be cut up but you could see the fish still breathing. Taking flesh from an animal that is barely alive on a skewer with chopsticks is not the most pleasant experience. Can’t complain about the freshness of the food though. Tea cost about 17000 yen ($A200) for seven people and Iwaoka wouldn’t accept payment from anybody else. Gion Festival was going on outside.

Then we hit the clubs/bars. I was forced to talk to a girl, Hisako, by everyone after she waved at me. Nakamura-san acted as my translator. Such a nice guy. She asked me out for a date. Another bar and then home. Later, I saw Hisako in the street and I was urged to go and say goodnight to her. She didn’t understand and thought that I wanted to go back to her house with an exclamation of “My parents!”

- posted by Hammy @ 8:41 am