day 95 hiroshima day 2 miyajima

this was the day

if u ever go to hiroshima and you can only go one place, go to MIYAJIMA.
that's some island near hiroshima, kind of like a sentosa place, but of course, nicer one.

i woke up with no plans for the day.
but since i had the whole day free, i thought that day would make the most sense for the furthest journey.
so i took an electric car from my place all the way to the last stop.
hmm, ok, nice journey, i got to see what hiroshima was like.

this is what i see when i arrive

and it turns out i need to take a ferry across to the island of miyajima, so after some deliberation, i think "ah ok la, just try and see."

best decision of the trip.

so off i go on boat

famous island thing:floating tori gate

when i arrive at the island, i find that the umbrella that i've been carrying has been very troublesome and i predicted that it would not rain so i took the risk and i left my umbrella at the umbrella borrowing place at the entrance. i guessed if it did not rain, nobody would bother to notice the different umbrella.

spot the odd one out

well, prediction right, it didn't rain and nobody touched it. haha.

so there are a few things on the island.
there is a nice shopping arcade, full of touristy stuff and food. the food really looked good.
and there is a mountain to hike. or cable car up.
and there are a couple of shrines and folk museums.
and also there is an aquarium-oceanarium-water-zoo thing
plus also got a beach recreation area to camp or bbq or play.

i didn't have time to go everywhere but i think 2 or 3 days staying there can be quite fun with the right company and at the right pace.
here are some of the sights

world's biggest rice scoop

like nara, deers are free ranging.
guess what this guy is doing.

shopping arcade. it got really crowded later

and here is the famous floating temple

supposedly the rice scoop originated from this island...so there were many rice scoop souvenirs.
like there were rice scoops all made from different woods. quite cool.

and the world heritage thing here is the "floating" temple. but i was cheapo so i just take picture from outside cos i dun wan to pay to go in.

oh and in hiroshima there are two famous foods; one is okonomiyaki and the other is oyster.
so for lunch, i decided to have oyster okonomiyaki. very nice.

shiok. 

now one of the highlights of this trip was climbing the mountain.

it was a really nice trail and the weather was great. i did perspire, but it was all in all an enjoyable hike.

here's a map of the place

and some cautionary warning

"appropriate footwear"?

check.

some people clearly don't read signs.
there were some people that i saw at the top that were walking up in pumps, or dressed like they going orchard road lidat.
but for me, i figured, if my slippers were good enough for the kids in chiangmai, then they are definitely good enough for me in japan. hurhurhur....

the hike started out easy. gradient was gentle at first and the forest not so thick so not so warm.
but higher up it got quite steep and sometimes the foliage was dense....like i transported back to brunei...(no la no fight with brunei)

....outfield?

 the river downstream was nice and picturesque

well, my slippers were really good. they survived the entire trip. except for one bit when i slipped....
and then this happened

GE KIANG

so i spent some time fixing my slippers but after that back to normal...(however next day it really broke.)

taking in the view(actually posing)

view from the top

first peak

the view from the top was great! and after i hit one peak i took another path and that was when i hit another peak before going down. if you look closely at the picture of the first peak, you might be able to see somebody standing on the topmost boulder (these two guys were taking lotsa pictures apparently and i could see the flash from where i was)

so after about maybe 3 plus hours on the mountain, i eventually got back down to the base.
i was really happy to step on a paved path after all that walking on trail. it was actually quite tiring on the knees.
and by that time, the place had become a ghost town. there was nobody left. just me and the deers.
dear deers.

"hello...?"

clearly, it was time to leave. on the way back to the ferry point though, i just happened to be in time to catch the tori gate at low tide. and the scene was....sublime.

remember this guy?

evening time. nice eh?

i could walk all the way out to sea and take pics. so i snapped away haha.

and that was the end of this expedition. 

caught the ferry, took the train(not the electric car cos train faster) and had a wonderful mac dinner. 

then sleep.

heavenly

day 93-96 hiroshima

last weekend i went to hiroshima, simply because i figured this was a great chance to visit the place that got a-bombed.
i reserved a hostel room a few days before and a few days later i booked a bus there and back.

THE BUS CRAMP LIKE WHAT.
when i arrived i could not feel my backside.
worst. bus. ride. ever.
but it was cheap and beggars cant be choosers.
i left on a friday night and came back on tuesday morning.

the entire bus journey was about 13 hours so i arrived on saturday morning.
went to check in at the hostel then i went to explore.
i would like to say that i had a great adventure. but....
the first day was lame. :(

when i arrived i went to one of those visitor centres to get brochures to figure out what to do there( cos i really had no clue when i decided to go)

so one of those brochures says theres a "historical trail" with shrines and stuff. and can go to the top of a hill and all.
so i set out to find this trail. and i found one of the shrines on the map without much difficulty.
but after that....things not so smooth.

i basically just wanted to go from this shrine to the top of a hill and then come down to another shrine and that was supposed to conclude the exploration.
however...i got lost. kind of. and that ruined everything.
it's not like i wandered and got lost.
it's that i kept searching for the way up the stupid hill and i basically walked in circles for hours.
EVENTUALLY i found the temple that led up to the hill and well....

the trail was "meh"
and the hill was "meh"
and the weather was hot like dog
and.....i lost my watch.
WAH  pek chek.

of course i did not realise that i had lost my watch until it was too late.
after the tiring walk up, down and around the hill, eventually i headed back to the train station which was in between my hostel and the hill...and that was when i realised that my watch was gone.
in my mind i was trying to figure out what to do, but at the same time i was desperately looking for a drink cos i was really thirsty.

in the end i decided to go and search for my watch. so i retraced my entire journey.
which means that i went back to the shrine and up the hill AGAIN.
haiz. mission fail.
came home tired. sun-tanned, watchless and with enough experience of that hill to last me a few lifetimes.

i was a bit sian because of that so i decided to take a shower and chill in the hostel for the rest of the night. for dinner i wanted to eat comfort food, which basically means junk food.
so i had lotteria for dinner. it wasn't alot but it was nice.

and that was it for day one of hiroshima.
thankfully the next day was much better.

day 73 fuji q

yesterday i went to fuji Q highland, a famous theme park in japan with some other exchange students.
it is called fuji Q because one of the main activities is queuing for rides.
i spent at least 4 hours queuing.
and my total time on the rides i think less than 6 minutes.

we woke up at 5 am and reached hachioji station by 6.45.
zombie mode seriously. i hate waking up so early.
but at least this one wake up to go and play i ok. wake up early to go skool is a real struggle.

train to fuji q

then after that we take train to the place.
fuji q opens at 9 and we reached at 8.45 lidat.
we bought the allday free pass.
when u get the pass u have to take a picture of your face and it gets printed on the card so the staff can verify allday pass people.

first sight of the place! that's the eejanaika

once we enter we straight away chiong for the most fierce ride.

the fiercest ride. nobody sit cos nobody dare.

fuji Q is home to a number of famous rollercoasters.
and most of them are record holders or ex record holders of some sort.

there is the Fujiyama, the ex longest and tallest rollercoaster in the world.
there is the Dodonpa, the ex fastest rollercoaster in the world. but still holds the record for highest acceleration.
then got the Takabisha, the current steepest free fall in the world.
and got the Eejanaika, the pseudo "most inversions" in the world, not recognised by the rollercoaster body though according to wiki.

i managed to sit all. and it was quite the experience. i mean the queuing was quite the experience.

and the queuing begins(for ticket)

and more queuing(for eejanaika)

and more queuing(for fujiyama)

first we all sat the eejanaika together. this one your feet dangle and the chair spins independently on x and y axis while riding through the loops.
really intense. crazy ride i dunno where i am spinning. what a way to start the day there.
cos we went once the place opened we only queue for about 40 min for this one.

this chair TURNS 

then we went to the haunted house cos ppl say very good.
IT WAS LAME.
haiz wasted my time. walk through a dark place and ppl try and scare you.
got some shocks cos ppl pop out of no where.
but not creepy, i think my homework more scary.
this one we queue about 30 min.

the not-so-haunted house

then after that, i go eat lunch.
mos burger!
and the mos burger at fuji Q got special burger only available there.
so of course as a suaku singaporean i eat that.
not bad. mos burger never disappoints.

fujiyama burger. nice!

after that i go and sit the fujiyama.
this one is really a very long ride. it goes on and on and on and on.
and it is really very high. 79metre the highest point. i vey scared when on the way up.
and then after that is just loop after loop.

entrance to fujiyama: king of coasters

fujiyama in evening light. that is the 79 metre point

while i sitting fujiyama my friend sit another ride.
and he felt like puking after that ride. so we decided to chill abit.
so we sit a mild ride....ferris wheel. haha.
and after that we went to walk walk around a bit before testing a mini roller coaster.

view of mt fuji from ferris wheel

MAD MOUSE. only for the bravest of brave.
very intense ride.
not for the faint hearted.

MADMOUSE. note the distance from the ground.

well he felt ok after the ride but he dun wan to sit other rides anymore.
so with that, i was left alone to sit the rest of the rides.
i went to queue for the dodonpa.
wah this one i think i queue for 2 hour.
and to think this is prolly the fastest ride.
this thing reaches a speed of 172km/h in 1.8 sec apparently.
so that's supposedly comparable to rocket take off acceleration . although rocket take off feeling is for much longer.

dodonpa

super fast, observe the motion blur...

after this ride, the place going to close soon so i faster rush to the last one, the takabisha.
and this one also queue for about 1 hour 30 min lidat.
this one when starting they suddenly zoom you around a pitch black place.
totally cannot see where going.
and then suddenly pop out. and after some loops u go to the highlight,
you are brought up directly 90 degrees to the highest point, and then slowly lowered til you are uoside down and dangling abit before the cart is released to fall freely down the slope.

takabishaaaaa

"the 121 degree hang"

after that, is time to go home liao.
we sit the train back and on the train when i close my eyes i feel like i'm on a roller coaster (cos of the rails feeling)
and i keep expecting a sudden drop or turn.
but it never came....

and so that was the end of the fuji Q day.

day 63 saitama!

last week i went to saitama to watch a soccer match between urawa reds and vegalta sendai.
it was a nice trip out of tokyo.
but sadly not that far out.
i didn't even know that i had left tokyo.


first we took train to the middle of nowhere


and then we walk in a general direction from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowherelse


along the way somebody could not hold his water....certified true singaporean


and also along the way we saw a kindergarten. WITH REAL OWL. SITTING OUTSIDE.


a view of the stadium from a distance...we are reaching...


how to know you are near is you see random uncles dressed in red


FINALLY REACHED.


a cool panorama shot that i took hahaha

 
and inside the stadium it looks like this

and the fans are crazyyyyyyy

but sadly the game was not as good as i had hoped.
i wanted urawa(home team, red) to dominate and destroy vegalta.
but they did not. so i won't buy their jersey. (just kidding, it still looks good and i will likely get it anyway)

after that was a long trip back to dorm. but was a nice experience.
the stadium was used for the 2002 world cup really very impressive place.
i might try to catch an arsenal game where they play urawa while on their asia tour. (if still got tickets)
i will buy the jersey of the winning team. if draw i buy malaysia national jersey.