You might not see him as regularly

Peek-a-boo!, originally uploaded by gardahsam.

Huh? What's this all about? Don't worry, he'll be fine - the camera is the one that is in trouble. I dropped it today and it is done. Not far from the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan, it took it's last photos. It was a trooper, especially as of late. I took nearly 1000 photos with it in December and even more this month (I have been going photos bonkers on this trip - like you hadn't noticed!), so I guess maybe it was time.

I bought the camera, a Casio Exilim EX-S770, in late 2007 from the "opened" table at the AAFES PX on Yongsan Garrison, Seoul, South Korea. It has been ran ragged since then, going with me on all manner of trips, taking innumerable photos of John (it really liked him!)...Barb said that maybe it was fate and I can buy a new one at the same place I got it (we'll be in Seoul pretty soon). Perhaps, but it is unlikely I will be able to get as good a deal on it - I think it was 40% or something crazy like that (like I said, it had been returned or something; the package had already been opened). From that point of view, it would be a hard argument to say that I didn't get my money's worth.

So that's why there are relatively few new photos and video today. I would have taken a lot more in Hiroshima, but I was just getting started when "the incident" occurred.

Quite frankly, I don't know if I can wait to buy another camera. I am so used to having it by my side, I find myself reaching for it every time I see something I think would make a good photo! We'll see...

Since I can't really tell the day's story in pictures as I have been doing up until now, I will try to use words to describe it. We started off in Kyoto and caught a Shinkansen train from there this morning, heading south and west across Honshu, the largest of the Japanese islands. We took a total of four trains today - the first was a really short ride only as far as Shin-Osaka station. Once there, we got onto a different Shinkansen (this one called the Hikari Rail Star - check out the cool picture of this thing on Flikr - looks like some kind of spacecraft or something!) and it took us the rest of the way to our intermediate destination, Hiroshima.

We had only about 2 hours there to look around, so I decided we needed to make the most of our time and take a taxi where we wanted to go, which was the Peace Memorial Park - basically "ground zero" of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima in 1945. This was our first cab ride since coming to Japan and likely to be our last, because it was expensive (about 1300 yen, at about 90 yen per dollar) and slow (20 minutes - no faster than public transportation, as we found out on the way back). Nonetheless, we arrived at the A-Bomb Dome and started looking around.

I took a few photos and began to move about the area, casing a good photo and not paying the requisite attention as I traversed a step up onto a curb. Somehow during this process, I lost my grip on my camera and it fell to the earth, extended-lens facing down. Noooooooooooo! I cried. But it was too late. I knew once I picked it up that it was not in a good way - the lens stack was lop-sided and the display screen was blank. I fiddled with the lenses for a moment to see if I could get them back into trim so they would retract, and I was able to do so, but not without applying a fair amount of leverage to them. This application of force by me in an attempt to rectify the mis-aligned lenses may have contributed to the camera's current state, which is, of course, non-functioning. However, had I not attempted to do what I could to fix the lenses, they would still be, at this time, fully extended, and thus the camera would be a) broken and 2. extremely unwieldy to carry. At least with the lenses back on track and able to retract, it can still be conveniently carried in a pocket! But now it's nothing more than dead weight. :-(

With the demise of my trusty camera setting the scene, you can guess how the Hiroshima visit then played out. It had been raining most of the morning while we were on the train, but thankfully the rain had stopped in Hiroshima as we got started moving about the area. There was another irritant, though - the Small One was carrying on about some slight, real or imagined (there are a lot of these when you are 3 years old). He was complaining about how he wanted some candy, but we maintained that we would be having lunch soon so he couldn't have any candy.

Not to bore you with this business too much (a frequently encountered scenario when traveling with a young child), we soon began looking for a place to eat lunch. There was one Italian-themed restaurant just by the side of the Matuyasu River, but the prices were certainly inflated due to its proximity to the Peace Park and A-Bomb Dome. About then, John spied a playground a couple of blocks farther down the riverbank and across the street that he wanted to check out. At this point, anything would have been OK to stop his incessant prattling, so we went to check it out. Unfortunately (but not entirely unexpectedly, since it had been raining all morning), the playground was little more than a mud bog underfoot and all the equipment was similarly soaked, so we didn't let John play. This, as you might imagine, only served to enhance his sense of dissonance, so the "waterworks" began anew - not rain, tears.

It was about now that we decided to head down a sidestreet to find lunch - maybe some food could resuscitate this short visit. We saw a little curry place and decided to try it. It was a good choice. If you ever visit the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima and are beset by pangs of hunger, head on over to "Ox" Curry and Cafe Restaurant. Even Barb, who normally doesn't care much for curry, liked it.

A good meal in our tummies, we were all feeling much more mellow. Too bad our time to visit Hiroshima was up. We had to get back to the station to catch train 3 of 4 for the day! This time we decided to figure out the public transportation to get us back there - we were not interested in being "raped" by another cab driver. Turns out the trolleys in Hiroshima will take you anywhere in town for 150 yen. Great deal and got us back to the station in the same amount of time as the taxi took. If I ever see that taxi driver again....Grrrr!

We had one more ride on the Hikari Rail Star, and the scenery from the train really started to get interesting once we left Hiroshima. (And with me suddenly camera-less, wouldn't you know it!) It was a grey and rainy day all-around, but as we headed west from Hiroshima, the generally flat terrain that was most of Honshu that we had seen to this point suddenly became mountainous and very green. Add in the mist and clouds and there were some very striking views of Japanese villages among the hills with the various forests and trees. This was the scene pretty much all the way to our next trans-loading point, Hakata (sometimes called Fukuoka). This was the end of the Honshu Shinkansen line and we had to get on a regular train the for the remainder of the journey.

We still had about 2 hours of travel to our final destination for the day, Nagasaki, on Shikoku. To this point, we had traveled with reserved seats on all the trains, but we were unable to get reserved seats for this fourth and final leg of the trip. Soon we would see just how important that would be.

All the trains up until now, ever since we left Tokyo almost a week ago, were not close to being full (this goes for the Japan Rail trains we rode from Tokyo to Kyoto, in and around Kyoto, and then from Kyoto to Hiroshima and on to Hakata). This one, though, from Hakata to Nagasaki, was absolutely packed. Standing room only, "cattle car," it was not looking like a good scene to be standing, holding a 3-year old, with large luggage, for a couple hours on a swaying train. Oh yeah, don't forget that Barb is excess of 7 months pregnant - not a good scene. The train was so full that the doors could barely close as we pulled out from Hakata Station.

Luckily, before long, Barb spotted a seat that only had luggage on it and she was able to convince the people nearby to move their stuff so John could sit down and look out the window (he is a lot more fun to be around when distracted by looking at scenery). We came to the first stop and a few people shouldered their way off the train - but unfortunately at least as many new passengers barreled into the train to take up any freed space. Soon we were underway again, and now the folks sitting by John invited Barb to sit with John. Thank goodness! Only about 20 minutes into the ride, we were able to get both of them sat in the packed car! A little while later, a small space opened up near the front of the car and a nice woman let me put one of our large pieces of baggage near her feet, clearing a great deal of the car's obstructed walk-way. A stop or two later, two gentlemen sitting on the other side of the car got up to get off and offered both seats to me and the baggage I carried. Yes! I quickly moved myself and the bags into the area opened up and there was even enough room after I got done moving stuff around that another person who had been standing was able to sit down in the seat next to me. This was how a potentially really bad 2-hour train ride turned into one that was not nearly as bad - people were being nice. Thanks, people!

It was dark by the time we got in to Nagasaki and we haven't yet had any opportunity to see any of the city (save our hotel). IF I am able to come up with a camera in the near-term, you can expect to see some new photos again here soon. If not, then you might see more words like these (maybe not quite as many, though - it takes a long time to write all this stuff!).

Until next time,

GJS