Tokyo – went to watch some rugby, NZ vs Namibia; visited Honda’s terrifying robot; wandered around a small number of Tokyo’s more esoteric neighbourhoods; bought my first gachopon; and had a beer at the top of Asahi’s HQ building.
Overnight sleeper train from Tokyo…
Hiroshima – wandered past the old castle, and the “Atomic Dome”… the building left in ruins to demonstrate the horrors of the A-bomb; and then the museum. I couldn’t really stomach looking at/reading about every single piece in there – it was soul-destroying. I did as much as I could handle, and left. They’ve done a LOT of work in building the museum and dozens of monuments/etc… to just highlight how horrible a nuclear bomb is. Sometimes subtly, sometimes… not so much. Just… hard work.
So… as a counter to the general depression brought on by visiting Hiroshima… onwards to Kokura, and the Toto Museum. Nothing better to offset learning all about the horrors of nuclear warfare than… toilets. The best toilets ever developed by man, no less. And it really was quite cool. The building itself is a modern marvel of every feature they could think of to make it “ecologically friendly”, and the museum itself… informative, and amusing. The toilet-motorcycle, came as a surprise. The history of how Toto decided that toilets should have “bum-showers” in them, and the research… cool. Well done Toto – well done… the Washlet should be in the reckoning for any discussion about mankind’s greatest invention, right up there with the wheel.
Eventually, after a very long day – we got to Beppu, to check into the first hotel with proper Japanese style sleeping… ie: tatami mat flooring, and some bedding to put down on it. And the hotel had an onsen… great stuff.
And rugby – went to watch Wales-Fiji at Oita stadium, where once again it was very strange to see the queue for merchandise being extremely long… I suspect it was taking at least 30 minutes to get from tail to head; while beers… near instant service.
After the rugby, I mingled with locals and fans in Beppu, well into the early hours; chatting with locals who were super proud of some All Blacks having had drinks at the same place recently.
Following day was spent ticking off a few of the obvious tourist things to do in the area, cable-car is one that I remember; and eventually – trying to find a restaurant serving the deadly fugu/puffer-fish. One woman seemed shocked we were actively trying to find it… but in any case, we failed. For now.
Heading back north – stopped off in Himeji, and visited the rather impressive Himeji Castle. Really quite impressive.
And back to Osaka – where Japan vs Scotland was watched in a tiny local bar/BBQ-joint… and much cheering was done. Also met up with young Cazz, and visited the top of the “Sky Building”, travelling up the world’s most scenic (and terrifying) escalator to get there. Had another evening of drinks at a little standing bar discovered last time in Osaka… chatting with locals until well after last buses were gone.
