Hitchhike to Fukuoka

We woke up bright and early to try our luck at hitchhiking.

Last night in preparation I had asked our lovely receptionist Kana to make us a sign in Japanese which said Fukuoka and we are from Canada.  But she was too distracted talking to me and made a mistake.  So the sign actually reads "We are from Ganada"

We made our way to the pit stop onto the highway and assumed the positions.  Adam had a huge Canadian flag so we took that out as well.  We got a lot of people looking but no one actually stopped.  It seems the reception of young people and girls are the best for our group. The rest usually avoided eye contact or just drove on. 

But we persisted and waited about 1 hour.  Unfortunately in the end we couldn't get anyone to pick us up.  I think it's the combination of 3 guys and small cars in Japan that contributed to our lack of success. 

But it was a good experience and I am sure we will try again before the end of this trip. 

Peace from the train to Fukuoka. 

Miyajima Island revisited

We took the ferry again today to visit the island just across the water. 

After a couple hours of intense mountain climbing we finally made it to the top of Miyajima mountain and was treated to a great view of the city and surrounding area. 

The mountain is 2.5km high and it took us the whole afternoon to climb it.  We were definitely tired by the time we got up.  Mount Fuji in August will be a challenge based on today's experience. 

We had also planned to go check out the beach on the other side of the island but couldn't make it to the ferry.  Instead we just took the ferry back and are planning to have a chilled night here at the hostel - they are serving Taokoyaki today! 700¥ gets you all you can eat fried octopus balls!!!

Adam with the native inhabitants

Peace from Miyajiguchi.

Hiroshima downtown

Our first full day of exploring Hiroshima officially started yesterday. 

We took the first tram into the city with a new friend Matt from the hostel.  We checked out the sight of the A bomb dome which is the epicenter of the atomic bomb drop building.  The volunteer guide was the daughter of one of the survivors of the atomic bomb.  She explained to us in great detail of the tragedy that happened in this city. . It is hard to imagine in this beautiful city the death and carnage that occurred more than half a decade ago. 

After the guide we went into the museum and checked out the rest of the displays. It was very gruesome and somber for most of the museum.  especially the personal story sections.  The picture painted from that day really struck a cord with a lot of the attendees and you can hear sniffles sobs ringing down the hallways. 

We also checked out the famous food of Hiroshima - Okinomiyaki.  They fry up batter with noodles, lettus and various other ingredients.  Okinomiyaki is also a famous food for Osaka but the styles of the two cities are different so I am sure we will be eating more of this dish before we leave Japan. 

Around dusk we wandered into Hiroshima castle.  After that Roman' childhood friend Kay met up with us and we grabbed sushi together.

Hiroshima castle

Hiroshima castle

Okinomiyaki

Atomic Bomb building where the bomb was dropped 

Taiko drumming

Peace from Hiroshima.

Last days in Takamasu

Today is the last day we will stay in Takamasu. 

After waking up and cleaning up Adams house we prepared to head out to take the local train to Fukuoka.

We already reserved our hostel which is an Airbnb apartment.  It worked out to be about $55 per person for 3 nights. 

The train tickets we got is called the Seishun 18 pass.  It works similar to an Eurorail pass except it is a lot cheaper and there is no age or nationality restriction.  Basically for about $130 you get 5 days of unlimited travel from midnight to midnight.  You can split the ticket between many people.  So you can use one ticket between 5 people for a one day of unlimited travel.  The restriction of this ticket is you can only use local trains.  But we have so many days here it is not a big deal. 

So finally we decided to change our itenary because the train to Fukuoka would have taken us 2 days because we left in the afternoon and the trains stop running at midnight.  Frantically we debated our options on the bus to the train station.  Finally we decided to go to Hiroshima today and changed the date of the Airbnb reservation to 3 nights later.  I gotta say it worked out really well. 

We pulled into our hostel around 6pm and found some great news.  The pass we used allowed us to get on a ferry to the island across from the hostel for free. So we jumped on that and ferried ourselves over. 

The island is called Miyajima Island and we didn't know anything about it before we disembarked.  When we disembarked we were awed by the wild deer that were just walking around in the urbanized human areas!  they literally came right up to us and allowed us to pet them and feed them crackers off our hand. 

My friend Roman had some sweet bread and this one deer chased him for 5 minutes trying to get it.  Adam and I were too busy laughing our asses off to offer any real assistance haha. 

We then explored the rest of the island,  breaking into a water shrine and chilling by the big water gate were the highlights.  We took the ferry back after. 

The deer took a piece off of my map!

Peace from Hiroshima. 

Yashima and house party

the damage, green = 1000yen, yellow=1500, red=2000, bamboo=3000

there is some story about a guy shooting an arrow and killing a bunch of people so there is always references to this around town. Here its on a manhole cover.

Today Roman and I climbed the tallest mountain in the area - mount Yashima and we had a house party at Adams place at night. 

Mount Yashima was quite far off so we took the bikes and braced ourselves for the 30 minute ride.  That doesn't sound like a long time but honestly with the heat and humidity it felt like we were being roasted alive.  Any small chance at shade brought welcomed relief. With our sunburn we had to be extra careful. 

The first day I got to Japan I saw many people wearing full length tops and pants which seemed like a great idea right as we were biking. 

Once we arrived at Yashima the climb was actually much nicer than the bike ride even though the incline was quite steep.  That is because the mountain is lined with thick tree canopy that provided a shadowy oasis.

We met lots of elderly Japanese people who trekked the mountain as if they were walking in a park.  We had 3 or 4 of them actually pass us without missing a breath while we were huffing and puffing. 

We got to the top of the mountain and had a great view of the surrounding area.  What you notice right away is that there is a lot of construction of buildings horizontally as opposed to vertically like sky scrapers.  I guess that is to prevent damage of earth quakes. 

Coming back down was relatively easy.  We had lunch at a rotating sushi restaurant.  Basically all the food was on a conveyor belt and you took the ones you want.  We devoured our lunch and tried a lot of new sushi that I have never encountered in Canada before.  The best one was the giant eel sushi which had a really buttery texture and just melts in your mouth! 

Night time Adam had his house party and we had a great time playing silly drinking games and socializing with Japanese and foreigners in the area. 

It is currently 4am here now everyone kind of crashed for the night but I am totally awake cause I took a quick nap 

Peace from Aji Cho.

Chillin with my buddas. They all had wool caps on for some reason. Maybe they get cold in the winter lols.

Naoshima cycling and beaches

After the party from last night and my jet lag I didn't think I would have been able to wake up today.  But in fact we woke up really early and had a fill itenary. 

My friend Roman had already been here in Takamatsu for a couple of days.  Roman suggested we go to Naoshima which is an island 1 hour away from Takamasu.

We rented electric bikes and went around the whole Island.  It was so awesome!  This was my first time on an electrical bike and it really helped with the huge hills. 

Meticulously manicured gardens,  amazing beach and awesome nature scenery greeted us as we biked.  We actually pulled into the best beach on the island according to Roman.  It had isolated platforms for diving Sun tanning and just general relaxation inside the middle.  We actually hanged out on the beach for almost half a day and as a result both Roman and I had Sun Burns on our bodies.  The first casualties of the sweltering Japanese weather. 

Honestly the most shocking thing about Japan is how much humidity and sunshine there is!  Combined with low cloud covers,  you can really Sun burn easily here. 

Peace from Naoshima.

Udon, Takamatsu is the Udon capital of Japan apparently

Japan trip start -oh!

Today I started my month long journey in Japan.  This was a trip I been planning for a while now with my friends Roman and Adam. 

The plan is to meet up with Adam in Takamatsu and chill at his house for a couple of days before heading out and exploring Japan together.

I had a couple of stressing points before leaving.  The flight I booked for Tokyo to takamatsu leaves at 6:10 but my flight into Tokyo is scheduled to arrive at 4:50. So that only leaves 1 hour of transit time.  Furthermore I would have to go through customs again and also go to another terminal via bus once I arrived. 

Luckily my flight arrived 30 minutes early and I breezes through customs. I am happy to report I am in the air now bound for Takamatsu!

Once I arrived I met up with Adam and his friend Thomas.  We got drinks at the local foreigner bar and caught up.  Some Japanese girls joined us and I lost a lot of drinking games that night.  

We had to leave after about an hour because Adam's house is pretty far away and we had to catch the last train back.  

Once we arrived Roman who was home at this time had already started pre drinking since the Internet was out.  We got hammered on 4 different types of sake.  It was the most amount of alcohol I have ever drank in my life.  But when you haven't seen your best friend in a year your liver is just going to have to suck it up!  

Peace from Takamatsu. 

This is how you Japan

Adam's house

Pikachu signs everywhere, dont know what they actually mean

Sashimi from grocery store for $5 each wow!

Back to Toronto and Outdoors Archery

So I have been back to Toronto now for almost two weeks. It's passed by so fast. I been meeting up with a lot of friends and maybe that's the reason. Yesterday I actually went to an outdoor archery range with my middle school friend Kan and my friend from Quebec Vlad.

I have done archery before in the past one times.  But when you are offered the chance to shoot outside in a forest a la Hunger Games then you don't say NO!

The best part of archery is the satisfying feeling of hitting your target. The worst feeling is when you have to dig around the forest trying to find your missing arrow. Since we were just starting out we did that a lot. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack!

Kan gave us the low down on all things archery from the equipment to the stances, to the history of the sport. By the end I was able to shoot pretty consistently on the target from about 10 meters away.

My friend Kan

awkward epically walking into the forest shot haha

going to retrieve our arrows

Peace from Toronto.