in japan travel is pretty expensive, except for three times a year when japan rail offers a ticket called the seishun juhachi kippu. with it you get 5 full non-consecutive days of travel with the only stipulation being that you can only use the slowest trains. we first used it back in august, then again in december, and when we found out that it was being offered again last month we decided to buy two because of all the traveling to osaka we would be doing to get our russian and chinese visas. when that was all finished we found ourselves with some extra stamps and started to think about where in japan we still wanted to see before our time here came to an end.

justin really wanted to go to hiroshima, and felt that as someone who was thinking about working in government and particularly in diplomacy it was important to see what happens when diplomacy fails. it took us about 4 hours to get there by train, and we started off our visit by going to nearby miyajima to see the famous floating torii.

miyajima is also famous for its roving deer. they were some of the most aggresive, mangy things i’ve ever seen in my life. for $1 you could buy some deer crackers which brought them a-runnin’ en masse. when they felt like you were holding out on you they would start chewing your back pockets, bag, and then the head butting would start. jerks.

but the minute your hands were free and you want to pet the deer they lost complete interest in you and would run away. literally the minute i touched this deer he bolted. double jerks!

after the fun in miyajima we headed to downtown hiroshima to the a-bomb sites and museum.

it was a pretty solemn place and a thought-provoking experience. in preparation for our future life as husband/wife c.i.a. field agents justin has been making me read all of tom clancy’s jack ryan books, which means that my interest in the cold war is currently through the roof. on the train ride home we had an interesting discussion about how the bomb changed the world and led to the cold war and all the after effects of that. it was pretty interesting.

well, justin’s choice was all war, death, and seriousness. men. i, being a girl, decided i wanted to go someplace pretty. and so a couple weeks ago we were to himeji castle, supposedly the most beautiful castle in japan.

the cherry blossoms have finally come out here in japan so were also able to take advantage of a little cherry blossom viewing while we were there. at the tourist office they said that only 30% of the trees had bloomed by that day, but man, it was still pretty overwhelmingly beautiful. i think that i would like japan alot better if there were cherry blossoms year round. but that’s just me.

all in all it was a pretty busy month and now it’s time to buckle down and pack before my wonderful friend amanda gets to japan on the 27th because on the 15th we’re out of here.
p.s. and also justin grew a moustache.