"Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry." - George Ade
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Japan trip
Day 12 - 17th June - Miyajima, Hiroshima (Part 4)
One of the myths that Singaporean men hold dear is that Japanese girls are all gorgeous. The reason why they believe this is that they watch too much Japanese AV (Adult Videos). I will note that although the variance of Japanese girls is very high (higher than in the Baltics), the mean is still higher than in Singapore. Despite innate preferences though, the mean in the Baltics was higher, especially in Estonia.
Looking at normal Japanese women and walking into a DVD store, you'd think you were in 2 different countries, and I'm not just referring to looks; my theory is that if you're a well-endowed, decent-looking Jap girl, you will do AV or gravure at some point in your life.
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Monkeys passing out from the heat
A vending machine sold a can of what was labelled "pine cider" but had a picture of a pineapple on it. GAH.
I didn't feel up to a 1 hour trek downhill, so I took the ropeway back down (I had been overambitious and didn't buy a return ticket - which was slightly cheaper than two one-ways).
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Mountainside
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Deer on slope. Notice desertification taking place.
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Weird box in my car. It's a Y100 "guide machine" for some "annual event". Great, they've a way to get your money even inside a cable car.
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"Be careful of a raccoon dog!
Please do not give food.
Please do not approach carelessly."
Weird sign at cable car terminal at hill base (which was a while away from the town)
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Deer eating cardboard in front of a motorcycle (yes, they were tearing and chewing). No wonder they used them for pelts (on sale in the shop!)
Very near where the shuttle bus from the cable car station dropped us off, there was a restaurant. Tired and hungry, I decided to lunch there. On reflection, that wasn't the best thing to do, but oh well. The large jug of cold barley tea they gave me made up for it (it's always hot in Singapore but they always give green tea. Bah).
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They had an English menu but it wasn't very helpful: "Kaki nabe udon (oyster)" and "nabeyaki udon (udon in claypot)" were the same price. I asked the waiter the difference and he said "tamago" so I assumed there was more variety, so I went for it.
The English menu translated "donburi" as "overrice". At first I saw "overprice".
There was a large group of French-speaking tourists. Hah.
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My udon. The oysters were huge (but not very fresh - I'd had fried oysters earlier and they were okay, but these were a bit mushy, but that might have been due to the soup).
Oysters are supposed to be a Hiroshima speciality. I'd asked the receptionist at the hostel and she said it was a winter special, but I could have them at Miyajima (maybe they make an exception for tourists).
When I walked to the shore, I saw the floating torii again:
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Only it wasn't floating anymore, at 2:30pm (about the time of low tide). This is why I came early.
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Up close
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She sells oysters by the sea shore
I saw some women in tudungs. I hope they didn't eat teriyaki.
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Assorted sweets
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Another smoking and train courtesy campaign poster. I like "It's painful to get caught between the closing doors. Even more so are the eyes of those looking at you."
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Wanted/missing signs. I like the auntie who flashed the V-sign.
When I got back to Hiroshima I still had some time, so I went to Hiroshima Castle.
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Getting there was annoying, since there were only 2 ways across the moat.
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Entrance
Unfortunately photography was banned, and I didn't have the energy to play games with the staff. There were only 3 things worth taking phjotos of anyway (I transcribed their names).
They gave out fans to use in the castle, since it was damn hot. Although they had rebuilt it concrete with modern technology (like electric lights), they hadn't installed air-conditioning (and the interior didn't approximate the original either, so it was a lose-lose situation). Gah.
They were quite clever, using rivers as a natural defence. When enemies neared the castle, built on higher ground than the surroundings, they would destroy the banks and flood the enemy's camp.
The Samurai had special helmets ot wear when fighting fires ("火事兜"). Wth.
They had this giant 146cm butt plug labelled "網代金箔押唐人笠形馬標" (
a MS Paint sketch of my transcription reveals that the first character of the phrase had a different left-hand side but getting it out in kanji is even harder than in traditional Chinese, so). This is one of the few times Babelfish ("Wickerwork gold foil pushing China human sedge hat shape horse mark") does better than Google ("笠形mat gilt馬標people押唐")
They had cute polearms to catch criminals by their sleeves/clothes:
"袖搦" (likewise, I transcribed
the first character differently)
"刺股"
"突棒"
No wonder working men in Japan wear business suits nowadays.
Oddly, they had 2 displays, photography of which was permitted.
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I think this is a Samurai's house
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Merchant house
The castle's masters changed "unavoidable hard work into a form of entertainment": they needed to trample and harden the river banks, so they had a "ryoya odori" (Two night dance) and a "sunamochi kasei" ("sand-carrying help", literally).
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View from the top. Bleah.
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"Welcome to the Topfloor! Here is a memorial stamp!"
Reward for climbing to the top. I'm amused it's part of the "100 Famous Japanese Castles" category - I didn't think there were even 100 castles left in Japan. Maybe they counted ruined ones.
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My reward
Information panel on medicine: "After the mid-Edo period there was a marked trend towards emphasising practical evidence in medicine". One wonders what was emphasised before that. The use of mercury?
The thing about Japanese swords was that whenever the part of the blade that the hilt covers is exposed and I looked at them, I saw words: probably a maker's mark.
I then left the Castle.
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8 Immortals Seven Gods of Luck ("Shichifukujin") promoting a restaurant (?)
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"Let's 388" Pachinko parlor
I happened to walk past a very discreetly-marked sex shop (I recognised it due to a poster outside I'd
seen in Osaka, as well as a heart with an arrow through it and the word "love"). I walked past an old woman watering the plants outside into the shop. Inside, I found no one so while waiting for the attendant I looked around trying to find the Tenga Cup for a certain unnamed someone, but failed (like sex shops in Singapore, this only sold stuff from cheapskate ripoof brands). Then, the old woman who'd been watering the plants outside came in: she was the shop attendant/owner. GAH. (In any case, she didn't stock it, even after I pronounced it in a Japanese way and wrote it down)
I saw 2 Filipinas talking to a middle-aged man outside a hotel ("明月和室"). He gave them money and then got into a cab. Hurr hurr. (This was interesting because you almost never see Japanese prostitutes outside their places of work) Also, down the road was "lutong pinoy" (Filipino food).
Walking on, I found another "DVD" shop with Y100 porn. They had non-adult material ("一般作"), but only 2 cabinets of it. Interestingly, in their bestiality collection the dog's member was not mosaiced. Must be very popular.
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Masturbation sleeve dispenser
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More shit: perfume, aphrodisiacs, masturbation sleeves etc
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"Thank you for your visit. we hope you will come again soon."
Yes. I'm sure I'll, err, come again.