After last weekend’s bicycle hassles, I went to talk to our landlord who has decided we’re all pals again and everything’s fine. This may have something to do with me agreeing to pay him an extra ï¿¥9,000 to cover the ‘cost of water for our visitors’. Hmm. Anyway, glad to have that sorted. This week began with another Rock Commune live thingum. In at 9am on Sunday to get things set up, played with Rune on Monday, several soundchecks later I played with Hanshin Tigers, Kujira (short and noisy clip here) & Hito Genome on Tuesday. Cormac, heroically, came to them all. Afterwards on Tuesday, Naoki had people stand up to individually give them a dressing-down for tardiness. I was glad I’d been punctual for once. Then it was the usual boozey do (at which Gaku and I got presented with chocolate cake for forthcoming birthdays) that ended with shouting and standing about for hours at Kitano Tenmangu temple. Sad to think this was the last Ritsumeikan gig I’d be involved in…

Two days later it was my birthday. “The big 34-0″ as Cormac kept telling me. Loads of ace presents including sake cups, a totoro, a USB gimp, cash and a flickr account. Cormac bought me a fancy crepe too, but only managed to hang on to his own for about 5 minutes. Then Ã?ris called over with CDs and took us for a lovely Indian, part of which is below, before we went off to the riverside to light fireworks. Yay!

Our plan for birthday/wedding anniversary-related holliers wasn’t finalised until just before going for food, then the next morning we were on a bus bound for Hiroshima. Booked a hotel from a roadside stop on the way, checked in and made for the Peace Museum. Hiroshima is a lively, modern city with wide streets and a big Peace Park dedicated to the memory of those killed in the atomic bombing of the city in 1945. The remains of a Czech-designed Industrial Promotion Hall is now known as the A-Bomb Dome, one of the few buildings left remaining in the city centre after the bombing. Nearby is the Peace Museum and various other museums and tributes. The Peace Museum tells the story leading up to the bombing and beyond in the first part, then, heartbreakingly, provides individual effects and stories from a few of the victims. It’s unbelievably harrowing stuff and when we emerged we were shaken and pale… only to be nabbed (as often happens) by two English students who wanted a survey answered. Poor timing, but they did cheer us up a little. Then we found somewhere to eat and a wee bar in the trendy city centre area. Hiroshima is much more modern than Kyoto (for obvious reasons) and is full of stylish-looking young folk and a whole lot more children than we are used to. Once we’d got over the shock of the Peace Museum a little, it made a nice change. We were definitely glad we went to the museum, though.

The next morning we set off early by tram and ferry to Miyajima, an island off the coast with a famous floating torii gate in the water and loads of deer. First up was a trip to the torii and it’s accompanying temple (where we stumbled upon a wedding), then a walk around before the journey up Mount Misen by ropeway. Once at the end of the ropeway, it was a 45 minute uphill trek to the mountain’s summit. It was tough going in the heat, but it’s a beautiful place, with enormous rocks, temples dotted on the way up, a primeval forest and a concrete block at the top from which an old man sells beer and peanuts. Giita suspected some elfen behaviour, and sure enough, the booklet told us that some goblins lived in the rocks. In one of the temples was a flame that, we were assured, has been kept burning since 806 AD.

By the time we’d made it back to the ropeway (now surrounded by wee monkeys) we were knackered. We fell asleep on the tram back into town before booking ourselves into a new hotel and going for a dip in the big public baths. Then struggled out to get some Mexican food at a place called Otis (NB: Kris Poulin) before passing out early. Today was spent wandering around exploring Hiroshima a little more. It’s a lovely city and we really enjoyed visiting. We’re both exhausted, but reckon it was really worthwhile. The Peace Museum and Miyajima were both amazing places in very different ways, not to mention thought-provoking and inspiring.

So it’s back to school for the week, then we celebrate our wedding anniversary by watching fat men squabble. Yaay! Nagoya Sumo Basho next weekend! Oh, and if you’re in Ireland, Cormac, Giita and I may appear briefly on David O’Doherty’s Modest Adventures on RTE2 on Tuesday…

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 am and was written when Joss was feeling jumblings, happy, sleepy, music.