Tip-toe ... through the garden....

There seems to be a plethora of festivals here in Japan. This so far has been a very good thing. I've enjoyed it greatly. The latest in this ongoing slew of festivals is the food festival! That's right... food! No need to sugar-coat it with reasons of being thankful, or celebrating independence, or any of that muck here. No no, indeed just celebrate the food directly, because Japan knows what it's all about.

Making the way to the city with a pack of waiguoren (Yee Sin, Xintian, Gui, Austin, Jenny, and Sexy) we found ourselves surrounded by a plethora of food, as well as performances. I quickly made my way to the Korean booth and found some kimchi that was vegetarian, as well as Korean style pancakes I could have. Delicious! Nutrious! Not to mention accompanied by the sound of traditional taiko drums.

The food festival had booths from all over, including exotic locations like Japan, India, Japan, Baskin Robins, Japan, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

After we discovered there is only so much we can eat before risking explosion, we decided to wander up into Hiroshima Castle, which is where the festival was being held. It made things convenient. The castle was great, but I admit I was mostly paying attention to a story at the time. I love stories, and since it was a new one I hadn't heard before, I was paying more attention to it. I'll need to go back to the castle museum at some point and give it a proper walk through.

Hiroshima also happens to contain amazing gardens to meander through. I highly recommend them, and if you're a student the admission is free. I also highly recommend being a student.

In the gardens I was a bit freaked out by the proliferation of large flying insects that would dart in and out of the path we were walking in. They were everywhere. For insects they were pretty large, almost the size of my thumb. It took me a while to realize there were very small for birds. I tried my best to take a picture with the following result. It's the little thing hiding out in the middle of the picture there.

Who'd have guessed.

~Jeff