Slow boat to China

If you enjoy romantic tales of adventure on the high seas, this is not the blog for you. If however you enjoying laughing at people who have vomit in their hair, read on.

Our time in Japan has been incredible. For the last eight years I have listened (mostly) to Matt continuously talk about Japan and yet it was still amazing, unexpected and far beyond any ideas I had about the country. We have been fortunate enough to visit nine wonderful countries on our trip, but I think that Japan has been the most unique and enjoyable of them all, Matt’s ramblings were certainly justified, I cannot wait until we return.

But for now China is calling. So on Friday we said our sad ‘See You Laters’ to Japan and boarded the Su Zhou Hao ferry. A two-day cruise from Osaka to Shanghai. I use the term cruise loosely, The ferry’s main job is a container vessel but the top three levels are for passengers. We had no problems with immigration and were shown straight to our room. We were sailing second class, which means a room designed for 4 people with two bunks and a small sitting area. We were lucky that we were sharing with one other guy, he was quiet and tidy so this worked out nicely! We did not spend much time in the room however as there was a nice reading area upstairs were we got chatting to some of the other passengers. It was strange to talk to people who were just on the beginning of their trips but nice to be able to exchange stories and tips.

On board the boat I was able to read (the hunger games trilogy, I really wouldn’t bother) and relax watching the world go by. On board was a Japanese restaurant and we had our last Japanese meal. However, it would not be it’s only appearance on this trip!

At 11 pm the announcement played out wishing everybody a good nights sleep, so off to bed we went. The gentle rocking of the waves meant that I had one of the best nights sleep for a while.

At 7 am I was awoken by the announcement ding dong, welcoming us into the new day and declaring that breakfast is now being served. Great I thought, just brush my teeth and have a wash then breakfast. I made it to the bathroom, laughing to myself at how drunk I felt, funny, I did not join in with the sake and karaoke last night, kind of wishing I did now however I can see why the rum is always gone on a pirate ship.

The whole world was rocking side to side, it felt like being in the walking dead with zombie like creatures, tinged green hobbling along with vomit down their shirts. Bing bong apparently we are encountering some rough tides today. You don’t say! So for the remainder of the day I lay horizontal in my bunk trying unsuccessfully to keep last nights dinner down. I kept telling myself only another 24 hours and we will be on solid ground, although after NZ and Japan, this is no comfort as solid ground has a tendency to shake in this part of the world.

I must say though Matt was the perfect companion on the trip, he was absolutely fine, he reported back that there was only him and a handful of children up and about, the kids were playing Mario cart and running up and down playing hide and seek. Even the normally cheerful staff were feeling the effects. Matt was able to carry on as normal enjoying his cruise and looking after me. Thank you Matt.

Sumo times

On our penultimate day in Japan, we were back in Osaka as this was where we would be catching the ferry to China. As luck would have it there was a Sumo tournament on, this only happens once a year in Osaka. Matt had wanted to go to a competition for ages but I knew very little about it and didn't really know what to expect. 

The tournament started in the morning with the lower ranking wrestlers or ionokuchi and ended with the last bout at 6 pm with the highest ranking competitors. As the higher ranking bouts started the atmosphere in the arena was electric, like nothing I have experienced before. 

The pre match rituals were as important as the actual wrestling. At the start of each match ancient Shinto traditions such as purifying the ring with salt were carried out. If you watched closely enough you could foresee who would win the match before it even started by the body language of the Sumo or rikishi to give the proper name.

The rikishi themselves are fascinating, their lives are dominated by the sport and thus live highly regimented lives. The rikishi live in their own community and follow strict diets and routines. The rickishi are so important they are not even allowed to drive incase they have an accident. When not wearing the rather fetching mawahi (read: man nappy) they also have a strict dress code to adhere to. 

Needless to say we both had a fantastic time, the bouts were mesmerising and fascinating in equal measure. Another bonus was it took our minds off the fact that this was to be our last day in Japan.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Thanks to China's Great Firewall, we were unable to post our blogs from the last few weeks so...lets do a little time warp.

Friday 27th March

One week ago (really, It feels like one month ago) we were back on the Shinkansen and 4 hours later we arrived in Hiroshima. We arrived quite late in the day which meant we were both hungry, luckily for us the local dish in Hiroshima is Okonomiyaki, the giant, thick, savoury pancakes we first tried in Nara. They are fast becoming one of our favourite dishes. We had heard rumours, that we suspected might be urban legend, of a 5-storey building housing 26 okonomiyaki restaurants. But it actually exists, so we enjoyed an evening of pancakes and conversation with the locals. 

It would be nice to say that savoury pancakes were the reason Hiroshima was so well known, but of course we live in an imperfect world and Hiroshima sadly has the label of the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon and now more than 60 years later, the citizens are still dealing with the aftereffects of the A-bomb. I lose track of how many cities we have visited on this trip that have left me dejected as to what our own race has done and continues to do to each other, yet like Nagasaki and Phenom Phen Hiroshima is a tranquil town, just getting on and trying to be better, proving that there is still hope and good in the world.  

In the Peace Memorial Park the A-Bomb dome is a startling reminder of the atrocity that happened here on August 6^th 1945. We made our way over to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum, which was no less saddening or shocking after the Nagasaki museum, if anything it made it worse knowing that this was allowed to happen twice. 

The museum was informative and at the same time fairly objective, reminding us that Japan too was an aggressor in the Second World War. What is impressive about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is how they have become places of hope rather than despair. The city continues to advocate the abolition of all nuclear weapons. When you are here, seeing the effects of nuclear weapons I whole-heartedly believe that the 2020 vision campaign will become a reality, I cant understand why it is not already and like Japan I have faith that the right decisions will be made. 

After the despair of the museum we decided to go and find the good in the world so on our last day in Hiroshima we caught the ferry over to the island of Itsukushima to visit the Itsukushima Shrine. The shrine is often referred to as the floating shrine due to its location off the bay of the island so at high tide it appears to be floating on the water. The island itself is beautiful with the standard prancing deers and small shrines dotted here and there. We spent the day walking through the forest and browsing in the shops (also standard the Hello Kitty shop) and admiring the world's largest spatula!