Miyajima misadventure

well, here are some pictures from Hiroshima.

The last day in Hiroshima was a blast! We were so tired from walking, standing, walking standing that we decided only to go to the castle and Miyajima, a small island in the Inland Sea.

Gavin and me in front of Hiroshima Castle. (There's a good pic for you Benj! More's coming, buddy!)

On the ferry to Miyajima, we met a Finnish scientist working on superconductors. Very eccentric man. But when we go to the island the tide was out and the tourists and the deer made it difficult to get a good picture of the MASSIVE torii gates in the water. See, the whole island is a Shinto sacred place, so there's a gate in the water marking it. Anyways, we decided to "climb" the mountain.

...and by 'climb', I really mean take the cable car all the way up.

There were supposed to be monkeys all over the island but we only met two.
We met these girls at the top. There actually climbed the mountain. They live in Hiroshima and we convinced them to take the cable car with us. So at the bottom, we ate dinner together. Hiroshima okonomiyaki! Very tasty stuff. By the time we stepped back out, it was a beautiful night and all the lanterns all over the island had come on. Now this was the perfect photo opportunity: most of the tourists had left, the tide had come in, and the lights were on.

When we get to the shore and snap a few pictures. The Finnish guy starts going a bit crazy. We didn't drink that much at the restaurant, but he seemed either mad or drunk. He's joking with one of the girls: "Ok. Let's go swimming!"
and she retorts: "Ok, but you go first"...so he starts taking off his clothes, piece by piece until he's totally naked. Yes, NAKED! standing on the large stone steps. The girls are screaming "It was a Japanese joke! Japanese joke!" But he wades in, his ass above the waterline, mooning the Japanese cameras on the shore. Instantly there're flashes going off on the shore, and you can hear people say "Bakka Gaijin!".


The girls on the shore kept saying "interesting, but CRAAAZY!"

He swam all the way out to the gates and then a tourist boat came by and snapped more pictures of him. Crazy............