i'm loving it!

every day has been really wonderful, in many little ways and some big ways.

the first 2+ days, we were in tokyo. got to meet up with seng and joy, friends from Singapore, and enjoyed catch up time over steaming bowls of ramen, followed by strawberry cake and cafe mocha! it's great to hear the 'real' side of missionary life - kind of balances off my over-enthusiasm about all things Japan, in a good way.

also enjoyed time with ohno and haramichi, friends i have known in tokyo since 2001 on my first trip there! they brought us to this really cool ethnic restaurant called The Elephant, just above a 4 storey GAP boutique! haha... but i didn't go to GAP loh - no sale. for dinner, we ordered tom yum soup, curry naan, vietnamese spring rolls and shrimp & avocado salad. mmmmmmmm =)

most of the time in tokyo we were on our own though. we explored shibuya, shijuku, harajuku and ginza! it was kinda surreal being alone for the first time - i've always been with ohno and/or haramichi on previous trips. but mel and i managed not to get lost, thanks mostly to his good sense of direction!

on to hiroshima~

we arrived here yesterday evening. flew over with doug, john and yobun - mel's counterparts from the US and tokyo respestively. it's the first time i've met his colleagues (aside from the GE annual D&D), so i felt quite shy at first, not knowing how to make conversation. somemore they're about 2-3 decades older than me. yobun could be my dad! =b hee.

but it's been a good learning experience i guess. now and then i get lost in their 'work talk' cos there are lots of acronyms and codes i don't know (and can't rally be bothered to =b)

but ANYWAY. so meetings started proper for them today - 9-5 - and will carry on for another 2 days or so.

today i went EXPLORING. i walked from 9am to 4pm! quite an achievement!!! i'm really quite proud of myself. i didn't get lost, and i managed to find 3 places that i wanted to go to from the hotel map.

first stop was the atomic bomb memorial site. i went through the 3-storey museum with an audio guide. it was really devastating. there were some showcases where i really felt very very sad for all that the innocent villagers had to go through. i also learnt a LOT of history in an hour, since i never ventured past sec 2 history in school. took lots of pictures too, because photography is allowed, without flash.

next, i walked round the park, which is pretty big. took pics and various monuments, especially at the children's monument, built in memory of Sadako-chan - a 12 year old girl who died from leukemia, part of the the after-effects of the radiation. (there were lots of these cases, called hikabashi) at her memorial statue are thousands and thousands of colourful paper cranes, made by school children, a symbol of hope.

oh! i met a guy in the park. it was kind of cool, cos we helped each other take pictures, and ended up talking for a while, before saying goodbye. why it's cool? he's a student from sendai, another part of Japan, and it's his holidays, so he's been biking for days (and will continue to) on his own road trip! so i think it's pretty cool that i met him in hiroshima on MY own exploration trip.

second stop was hiroshima castle. it was a really long walk to get there, but it was worth it! before i came here, i had been told by most people that the cherry blossoms would only be out in april. but guess what?? in the garden of the castle were CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!! not one, but FIVE trees!!! it was so amazing to see them there. i almost jumped for joy (but of course i didn't, really) but there wasn't mel to share my joy with yet, so i contented myself with taking pictures. i'll upload them when i get home.

i didn't go INTO the castle, cos i read on the website that it's mostly armour and swords, of which i have no interest. instead i explored the garden and took pictures of the moat, the flowers, and a shrine that was in the grounds.

third stop was hondori street - which is like a bugis village. lots of small little shops line an avenue, and i had a wonderful three hours exploring every little nook that took my fancy! (but i had a budget... so i thought very hard about every purchase - which means everything i bought i REALLY love!)

here's my top three buys for today: a blue empire-waist top 500yen, a star shaped cake pan 100 yen, and a children's book from the memorial museum souvenir shop, on a little girl who loved to play the piano (the girl and the piano both survived the bomb blast, but were both in bad shape. however years later, the piano was restored and still plays beautiful music today. and there's an enclosed CD with a piano piece played on that piano. so moving... if only i could read ALL the japanese, but i've only been able to pick up bits and pieces from each page in my limited japanese) 1600yen

finally made my way back to the hotel, and met mel and the guys for dinner. we went to a korean bbq place. i've never had a charcoal bbq in a restaurant, so it was a novel experience!

tomorrow i'm planning to walk even further, cos I want to go to hijiyama park, where there's a few museums, and also supposed to have lots of cherry blossoms!!! after that, it's on to shukkien gardens, where it's a traditional japanese landscape, with little ponds and herb gardens to see!

and then will TRY to find fukuya department store, where the parking attendant i met today told me i could find uniqlo and tokyu hands, which i want to see.

hee... the good thing about all this walking is that i don't feel the least bit guilty about eating my fair share at dinner with the guys! haha!