There's a storm brewing

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Miyajima Island is a very popular tourist destination.  The Tori gate is the third most photographed site in Japan.  The Tori is an entrance to a temple, and it is huge.  With in being low tide, we were able to explore it at close range.  More interesting was the boys trying out the bean paste cookies.  A delicacy in Japan, our memory of the taste was accurate when we purchased a couple for the boys.  The mechanized assembly line to make the cookies is far better than the taste.  The workers enjoyed the boys facial expressions on their taste test.  Then it was time for shaved ice.  The first batch was alright, but then as we left we had another try at a different vendor.  This one was a hit.  The deer on the island are very friendly.
We were going to go to a Carp baseball game, but the Carp are very popular and no tickets were to be had.  The train ride back from Miyajima was packed with Carp fans heading for the game.  After dinner, we went for one last walk around the Peace Park and watched the flying carp in the river.  Checking email at night had us receive a warning from the Canadian Government.  I had registered our trip with Foreign Affairs so that if there were any travel alerts, we would hopefully receive them.  There is!  Typhoon MORU is the largest storm system on Earth for 2017, and it is heading toward Southern and Western Japan.  We might feel the effects of it as we are in Western Japan.  Not overly worried as the Japanese set up several thousand chairs outside yesterday for their August 6 remembrance ceremony, the day the Typhoon is to hit.