A Not-So-White Christmas

December 25th, Day 3.

Well, we awoke the next morning to a beautiful breakfast of salad and all kinds of croissants and coffee, provided by Maria's aunt. What a wonderful Christmas morning! Yuriko presented me with a delectible Lush massage bar, since I'd been whinging about my muscles hurting the whole way it was pretty funny she had chosen that as a present. Over breakfast Maria's aunt informed us that she would NOT take us to the next service area up the road, but that the whole family was taking a roadtrip to Hiroshima. And this is how we hitched all the way from Okayama to Hiroshima with one ride.

Since we now didn't have to worry about time, after breakfast we goofed around and then took the dogs, Choko and Pyoko, respectively, for a ramble (or an amble, or a peramble).

We titled this photo "jealousy." If you look closely you can see why.

Next thing we know, after we get back, a sudden rainshower is upon us, and we are all rounded up to hit the road. We through our load into the back, and scramble into the car, on our way to our furthest destination, Hiroshima! Maria's aunt insists that we stop at a service area not too far down the road, after finding out that I had never tried kibidango (a kind of sweet famous in Okayama), and buys both me and Yuriko cute boxes full of it. We stopped for lunch a bit further down the road, and Yuriko and I bought her aunt a special kind of cheesecake (ah the gift juggling rituals).

Kibidango, anyone?

Cold though it was, I was suddenly overcome with a hankering for some soft cream.

A hankering which Yuriko apparently shared.

Followed up by some hot takoyaki...mmm icecream and hot octopus.And then...Hiroshima arrival! What a beautiful city! It was love at first sight- although just for me, Yuriko still swears by Kyoto.

Since Hiroshima is built on a delta, the ground is to sandy and loose for a subway system, so the lovely city is full of old street cars! Some of them are new, some are over 50 years old!

We first went to the station, and upon finding a huge and reasonably priced import store, went a bit silly buying snacks and coffee and tea (hey, it was Christmas day, we were buying ourselves Christmas presents!), and then headed off to find our hostel. When we found them, they were tremendously generous and because the dorm rooms were full, offered to give us a private 2 person room for 2 nights for the same price, AND they fed us dinner for free! The hostel's name is J-Hoppers, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who goes to Hiroshima, and apparently they have another one in Kyoto as well. So we reveled in the joy that was having our own space and some peace of mind for the first time in a few days, and then set off to the pub where we were supposed to be meeting Paul and Paul, and playing that night. We ended up being quite early, as they didn't need us for a few more hours, but we drank and relaxed a bit, and ate (again) REAL fish and chips. We sang a few songs by the Be Good Tanyas, and though we were a bit disappointed with our performance, overall it was a enjoyable, entertaining Christmas.

Then, as we were walking back to our hostel, through Peace park and over the river, laughing and leaping over shrubs and tearing across streets in the still, biting cold late night, the snow started to fall. Only for a few minutes, only tiny, light flakes, but it fell onto our heads and our noses and our numb fingers, and we danced our way home with the magic.

Hitching Honshu

Weeeell this is a long overdue update to our glorious adventure through southern Japan. We are now in Kyoto, on the backward curve of our journey, heading back north in the vague direction of Tokyo (although I have no real desire to wind up back there). So far we have had 14 rides, hitched the whole way, spent christmas playing music in a pub, not been in any way attacked or uncomfortable (except for one mildly unsettling toothless trucker), and now have a good friend who is a 40 year old trucker with a strong Hiroshima accent (which I can't understand), loves pachinko, and who now contacts us every day with updates on good places to pick up trucks. He is a lovely man, and we gave him a cake. We've couchsurfed, stayed with the auntie of a friend, a hostel, and are now spending the night in a manga kisa with unlimited yummy drinks that will probably keep me up running to the bathroom all night. Matcha ole! We've had various other entertaining experiences, mostly to do with bathing, which include having to cram two of us in a tiny shower, going to sento (public bath) and getting accosted by a women who we believe was in a cult, and going to an onsen/sento and getting into a bath with electric currents running through it (yikes!) and a bright purple one that smelled like blueberries.
Also, Hiroshima is amazing! We went out to Miyajima and discovered Kuukai's temple, went hiking and got nibbled on by deer, ate dango and took photos of the big tori gate at sunset. What an unbelievable place. Also, there is a lovely bar there called Mac which plays the best music, and we made friends with one of the bartenders, she came to our gig at the Irish pub as well.
We are now spending the night in a manga cafe, reading comics and watching movies and working out our plan to get to Gifu tomorrow, then back to Tokyo the next day! I will update with the whole story of all of our crazy rides when we get the pictures uploaded, because it's much more entertaining that way!

The Newest Journey of a Scarf Brigader, with cohort!

Well, it's time for the next adventure of the eastern world, starring a scarf brigader and her fellow kimono crusader! Tomorrow we will begin a journey south, our goal being to hitchhike from Tokyo all the way to Hiroshima by Christmas day to play a show. The first leg of the trip will be tomorrow, the 23rd, and will consist of trying to get our asses out of this huge crazy city and all the way to Kyoto. Today went to get the finishing touches on our journey gear, a bottle of whiskey and a small bottle of Baileys, to keep us warm while we go! We're taking instruments along, so this promises to be a musical journey (hopefully we won't get thrown out of any cars due to our singing).
Will post updates and photos along the way!