THE HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL PARK/MUSEUM: Hiroshima, Japan. October 24th, 2013, 6:53pm. Well, I think you all have a fairly good idea of what I'm about to write about. Today was filled with devastating thoughts and images... Before I explain all about my day, I just wanted to mention: At a vending machine yesterday, I noticed there was a hot chocolate on display. How is that possible? It's a vending machine. Beside it, was tea, coffee, anything that was a hot drink...

THE FLOATING TORII: Miyajima, Japan. October 23rd, 2013, 7:34pm. Here's a little history about the place that we visited today: The O-Torii Gate- "The O-Torii Gate of Itsukushima Shrine is designated as a National Important Cultural Property. It's about 16.6 meters in height and weighs about 60 tons. Its roof, thatched with Japanese cypress bark, is 24.5 meters in length. The main pillars, which are 9.9 meters in circumference, are made of natural camphor tre...

DAY TRIP TO NAOSHIMA: Naoshima, Japan. October 22nd, 2013, 9:47pm. Hey everyone! Sorry for the late blog post. I was really tired and didn't get to finishing it in time. It was a really boring day for me, though. I didn't want to wake up early again, because it seems like every time we do, something goes wrong. I mean think about it, yesterday we went to Naoshima after getting up early, and it was closed! And at the Tsukiji Fish Market, we woke up at 2:00am a...

FINDING OUR ROOTS: Kiyone, Japan. October 21st, 2013, 8:06pm. Hi again! Last blog for the night- After our adventure at the castle, we went North to a small village/town called Kiyone. This is apparently where the "Eguchis" came from! Eguchi is my Mom's Mom's family maiden name. Her grandfather apparently owned all the land in Kiyone. Somewhere down the line, the wealth that they had was lost. No one knows how or why, so Real and I ventured off into the non-En...

THE HIMEJI CASTLE: Himeji, Japan. October 21st, 2013, 3:34pm. Hello all! Today was yet another failure that we turned into a great day! We had planned on waking up at 5:00am to get to Naoshima for the day. We surprisingly succeeded in doing that much, but once we got to Uno Port, (the port you need to take to get to the Naoshima Island) there was a sign that said, "All facilities at Naoshima will be closed today, Monday the 21st." Real was sooooo upset! We dec...