I awake in my bed in Japan, wondering how I arrived here. After staying awake for the 30 hours, I sleep only 6 - excitement and new places always makes me sleep light. It is raining outside and traffic is brisk, yet not close packed. It is only 7 AM Japan time.
My bed here is a mattress, covered by a futon. There are white linen sheets to cover it all. My pillow is a sack full of beans that molds itself to my head. It is amazing. I had my doubts about the pillow, yet it is extremely comfortable, yielding under steady pressure and retaining body heat.
Our apartment is fully furnished, yet in an odd way. Plenty of silverware and bowls, cooking instruments, a huge refrigerator/freezer combo, nice stove, microwave, tea maker and rice maker, yet only two cups. Mugs at that. Strange.
Breakfast was some kind of rolls and a mug of whole milk. Tasty! Fish for breakfast? You bet.
Went to Hiroshima Institute of Technology today by bus. The campus is multilayered and complex. We had an opening ceremony. Some lucky kids met with their host family. Mine could not make today's get together. Met our teacher for both culture and language after a short tour through the confusing campus and lunch. I'm slowly learning more Japanese. I know twice as much as I did when I arrived. Time to do some extra studying at the apartment while I'm there.
Arrived back at our apartments, cleaned up and went to the supermarket. I was struck by both how expensive food items are and how much the Japanese rely on preprocessed ingredients. Definitely NOT a healthy way to eat. We also visited a post office and koban (police box).
The police here are extremely helpful - smart and well versed in most problems travellers face, they are a quick way to get to know an area better. I wonder what the US would be like if our police were like that.
After returning to our apartment, Grace and LuLu came over and LuLu made curry (we all helped). We had a few beers and some plum wine as well. It was delicious. I didn't know that curry came in blocks in boxes. After leaving the dishes for tomorrow, the girls left for their apartment and sleep - Andrew slept as well. After cleaning up a little bit, I went upstairs, got Ben and Mike and set off for a long walk.
We wanted to see if we could get up the top of one of the nearby mountains. After setting off, we climbed up and up - always going forward and uphill. After climbing for about 1 hour or so, we arrived at the top area of the mountain. There was a shrine there, with some people staying there. We looked in their graveyard(?) and then passed through their property, heading further up.
We passed through a graduate school, then up further, through their sports fields. Finally, we arrived at a place where the mountain rose at about a 60 degree angle, covered with a bamboo forest. We decided to challenge that later. We then descended slightly and started working through the neighbourhoods that ring the mountains. These are huge houses, especially for Japan. What would be a good sized house for a family of 4 in the States is absolutely enormous here. Some of the houses are 4 stories tall, with their garage cut into the lower area of the mountain than the house is placed. There was even an American style log cabin house near the top of one of the peaks. We also found a river and another path up through the woods in the darkness. We'll save that one for later.
There is some extremely beautiful scenery at night, looking out over Hiroshima. The lights are up, reflecting off the clouds that wreath the other peaks. I did not have my camera, but I swear I'll have some pictures of it soon.
Then we returned to the apartments, did some pushups in the middle of the street (don't ask), and then went to bed.