March 3 - Unreadable museums

March 3, 2019 

Happy Sunday! 

A little shop by our apartment.  We know it's misspelled, but it still makes us smile. 

Hiroshima is filled with peace cranes.  These - made by the museum staff when they're not busy - are smaller than a pinky nail. 

French pastries seem a big incongruous, but since Japan doesn't really do breakfast 

(most people seem to eat the leftovers from yesterday), we do the best with the time - and food - that we have. 

Funny story: 

As everyone else went into the shop, I waited outside with the bags.  A little tiny old lady stopped to watch them walk in.  She then smiled at me, looked at them, and - eyes getting more and more agog - in an exaggerated stage motion, followed from the imaginary feet to the imaginary top of Jonathan's head.  

We enjoyed a merry laugh.

We first went to Hiroshima Castle.  

In classic Japanese style - if it breaks, rebuild it.  The castle has been rebuilt... a lot.  

We don't really know how often.  Or by whom.  Several of the rebuilds were during .... some Shogunate or another.... 

Wow, are we suddenly feeling like self-absorbed Americans.  What do you mean we can't read everything????

The videos did have English translations via headphones.  Of course, each video only had 2 headphones and turn-taking apparently isn't our strong suit today. 

  

 The sign - in English - said "Caution.  Low Hanging Branches"

They weren't kidding.

Despite the appearances of the photo, Jonathan is not yet taller than Steven. 

Crossing all language boundaries:  Costumes!  

They also had kimonos and yukatas.  I wish we had done those, too, but I think we were still all a bit overdone from yesterday. 

Next, Gokuku Shrine, right next to the castle.  We were intrigued to see how much of the trappings resembled a Catholic church.  

An amusing video to give you some explanation of proper shrine/temple behavior.  Again, very similar to Catholic ritual and behavior.  This led to a discussion of C.S. Lewis' observations that humans need things to help us see God.  God Himself doesn't particularly care about the trappings, but, since our brains can't contain God, we seek out physical stuff to help us understand Him. 

They were doing a dedication of a baby in one of the side chapels.   And afterwards the priest did a blessing of a car!  He walked around the car, shaking a pom-pom around, over, under, and through.  It was raining so he had someone walking alongside holding an umbrella - for all the world looking like an acolyte holding a canopy during a Eucharistic procession!  

We all giggled (respectfully). 

So we pray for those families, the baby (and his recalcitrant toddler brother who did NOT want to be in photos!), and the priest.  May their search for Him lead them to Him.  

The guard kept telling us that there were many, many eggs lighted up.  It was for a festival.  

We have no idea why.  But the grounds were, indeed covered in giant eggs.

Next, Mass at Assumption of Mary Cathedral - also known as World Peace Memorial Cathedral.  Many of the items in the church have been donated from various countries.  It was particularly interesting seeing the obvious cultural differences in the various donated pieces.  

Sadly, it was under construction so we couldn't see much of it. 

We went to Mass in the lower chapel.

The communion song was "One Bread, One Body."

In the back of the church, they had printed a series of letters from the Bishops and Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in response to government of Japan refusing to sign the UN Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty.  

Hopefully this is the readable version.  It's powerful. 

After Mass, it was a walk to the train station

          

And more cherry blossoms 

          

And another Shinkansen (bullet train) 

Wearing a mask makes us feel like locals. 

Now heading to Kyoto. 

Trying to find our way to our apartment, we ended up lost. 

As one blog put it, 

Article I: Each city with a population over one million shall name ten streets, each smaller city shall name five. Under no circumstances shall any streets beyond those five or ten be given a name.

Article II: No street shall ever continue in a straight line for longer than fifty meters.

As we wandered around, we ran into a lovely Canadian named Monica who helped us to find... not our house.   

Because - as we discovered at our skeevy Manila hotel - a lot of people have 2 locations with the same name that they rent. 

So we were looking for a different Shiba Inn Kujo. 
 

Monica did tell us that we were in the "sketchy" part of town.  Meaning that she was flashed once, two years ago.  

Ah, sketchy, sketchy Japan.