More Hiroshima...

OK, i'm a little disappointed most of you guys talk more about the 1 picture of food i have in my last few blog entries than you do about the castle or parks or statues! :-P

but you gotta go with what sells, so here's one that should give you guys more of what you're interested in....

On Monday night after Iwakuni I managed to go to 'Book OFF',  which is a chain of used book stores in Japan.  They also sell used CDs, games, DVDs, some do computer hardware, this one even had used clothes i think...

the used CDs really are the best deal in Japan (were new albums can cost anywhere from US$15 - 40, singles are usually around US$10-15). I didn't have much time before closing so I headed straight for the CD singles shelf.  These ones are only 105 yen each (which right now with the good exchange rate ends up being only US$0.85 each!)  And most of these are in near brand new condition (some actually are brand new, still in the plastic). 

This was my haul:

5 Hamasaki Singles (one new in the wrapper and one w/ a DVD), 2 old school Utada singles, an M-FLO single and a 250 yen Namie Amuro album.  Total cost = 1090 yen = US$8.80 (price new would be approximately US$100).... score thats a 91% discount! :-D

You may notice from all my blogs from this trip, I haven't put any pictures up from Hiroshima itself...  thats because I had done the tourist stuff in Hiroshima when I visited last year (including of course, Hiroshima Castle).

So this time the only time i did anything worth taking pictures of is when I went downtown on tuesday:

Hiroshima doesn't have a subway, but like a lot of smaller cities in Japan, they still have street cars. In this case theirs are more modern than a lot of other places. They're like two or three cars together.

Hiroshima has a nice downtown shopping area (also common in many japanese cities).  This is the closest I got to seeing any fashionable people in this town.  There were a few younger people dressed nicer, but I think Fukuoka's still got better looking people (sorry!)

My friend y0k0 took me to get some real Hiroshima style food for dinner. We went to an Okonomiyaki  restaurant and ordered Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki:

it looks a lot different than the Kansai style I'm used to eating. they cook it in layers between these crepe style thin pancake/omelette's things.

The final product:  combo (beef, shrimp, squid) okonomiyaki w/ soba noodles in it.

I was impressed that they don't put a gallon of mayo on top of it like they do w/ the kansai style (also none of those bento shavings I dislike). ;-)

it was good and I managed to finish it, but just barely.

actually I have one more restaurant related picture to share:

oh yes,  America has taken its export of deadly foods to the next level... moving beyond 'Egg McMuffin with Cheese',   now we have 'McGriddles',  which have like 30%-40% more calories! (and yet I wanted to get another one the very next day).

not food related, but a humorous photo I took in Shikoku after visiting Marugame Castle:

I've never seen one of these in Japan before... you can probably guess, its a condom vending machine...  but thats not what makes it interesting.

In all my time here, I've never seen this before in Japan... In the US these types of things are usually in the restrooms of bars and clubs... but in this case (small dinky town),  they have them outside on the sidewalkin front of pharmacies...( won't someone think of the children?!?) - In case its after hours and you need to get your latex on. :-P

Pretty weathered and faded... but you can still make out the 1970s era condom ad pictures!

Last but not least:

In my Yamato Museum Addendum Blog Entry I mentioned how big japanese people are into omiyage ( wikipedia).  This is a picture I took in Hiroshima airport while I was waiting for my plane.  This is just one of like 10 rows of omiyage stuff... all manner of snacks, food, wine, fruit, local handicrafts, etc.

In fact they had more Yamato goods here too:

Its Navy Coffee?!  w/ the silhouette of the Yamato on it....  when i think about good coffee the first thing I think about is WWII Imperial Japanese Navy flavor. :-D

I've got one more (maybe TWO) japan blog in the pipes.  I have been having trouble w/ video editing on my new camera since it uses a different format... so please be patient, I'll probably finish it on the plane.