So, from here on out, it's part New Year's resolution, part desire on my part to get back to this and post things on a somewhat regular basis (say, about weekly). So, here's to a Happy New Year and many more posts to follow! :D
So, I guess I'll start from what has recently happened, namely this past Winter Break. For break I travelled to 広島 (Hiroshima).
In reality, though, I went to stay with the Hara's in Kure, which is a city about half an hour from the titular capital of the prefecture, in a town called Hiro (広, same character as beginning "Hiroshima"). There, I got to meet the Hara family and relatives, and discovered many things along the way, such as a really nifty 古本屋 (used book, clothing, music, etc. store) and this:
The world's largest Swiss Roll!!! :D
Well, I really don't know if it actually is or not - though it probably isn't - but I couldn't resist buying it as a souvenir.
Anyway, while there, I did many interesting things, of which I'll just give a brief overview and go into more detail later. But, enough talking, let's let the pictures do some talking of their own...
The previous city hall of Hiroshima before the atomic bomb was dropped on the city August 6th, 1945. All that is left in memory is the structure of the building, which was nearly below the epicentre of the blast yet was one of few structures to survive so close to the centre. Now, it stands in memorial to the event as a World Heritage Landmark.
お好み焼き！！！ Okonomiyaki, a grilled vegetable pancake of sorts that is made to order. It's really good, and Hiroshima is famous for it's style of preparing it (layered ingredients instead of, say, mixed ingredients).
初日, The first sunrise of the New Year, A.D. 2009. Only problem: it was cloudy. But, nonetheless, I stood outside in the cold for over an hour waiting to actually see the sun, and in the process I got this really beautiful picture of sun rays shining through the clouds. Definitely worth staying up all night and bearing the cold, both for the picture and to actually see the sun later.
After staying up all night and getting a hour or two of sleep here and there, I was dressed in a kimono （着物, lit. "worn thing") and whisked off to 宮島 (Miyajima, the famous red gate most people would probably recognized if they saw it; see it here on Wikipedia). Needless to say, experiencing this little bit of Japanese culture, as it's tradition to wear a kimono for a special occasion (such as the New Year here), was really great, as it's not ever day you get to wear a kimono (as they are expensive, time-consuming to put on and the like). I even got to wear the cool socks with the big toe separate from the rest and the sandals to go with, which was really cool as well!!
... Though, if you look closely, you'll notice that the sleeves on the kimono are a bit short on me, and though you can't see it, the shoes are quite small as well. I probably looked like quite the sight as a foreigner wearing traditional Japanese clothing that didn't quite match my body shape... :P
At the Yamato Museum in Kure, which was once a big producer of warships for Japan and now has a large commercial shipyard. This battleship was the pride of the Japanese Navy during World War II, as it was the largest battleship in the world at the time and a top secret project, so much so that even to this day not all the details are known about the ship.
