Happy Birthday

While yesterday may have celebrated the chrysanthemum, today held a far greater significance in the Young household, as this is the day we honour the birth of Mrs Y. In recent years, we have fallen into a pattern of organising a late summer holiday to coincide with the start of the new school term. Invariably, this has meant being away for Jackie's birthday. I have only once thought that a holiday with me in exotic climes would make an excellent birthday present. It is not a mistake I will make again.

This morning we visited Hiroshima castle. In keeping with the other temples and castles we have visited, this too is a reconstruction, although this one is much more recent. The epicentre of the A-bomb was not far from the castle and only the foundation stones remained after the blast. The main castle keep and the Ninomaru (a defensive structure within the inner moat) have been reconstructed, but the majority of the castle area has been lost. The main keep was restored in the late 1950s, a replica of the original structure but built of concrete and clad with wood to mimic the original appearance. The keep was closed to the public earlier this year as there are growing concerns that the aging concrete may not do well in an earthquake. Some of the wooden buildings in Kyoto have stood for over 600 years, a testament to traditional building techniques.

I do like Hiroshima. There is a vibrancy here of a modern city that makes Kyoto seem stiff and formal by comparison. Rules are usually still rules, but sometimes can be just guidelines. The pavements are buzzing with cyclists weaving between groups of pedestrians at a speed that makes you nervous about changing direction. I almost became a statistic just stepping out from the hotel on the way to dinner tonight. And the only cycle helmet I have seen all week was for sale in a department store. The early afternoon was taken up by a trip into Hiroshima Station area to secure a present for the birthday girl and to check out the logistics for tomorrow's trip to Itsukushima. I agree that on the face of it, my birthday planning seems a little tardy, but my suggestion that a present would be all the more special if it was bought in Japan was well received (better than I thought it would be). We made sure we were all done shopping and back in the hotel in time for happy hour.

The bar area is much busier than yesterday and the free bar is proving to be a popular amenity. During our visit to Nara, I mused that other than schoolchildren on a day trip and transportation announcements, people tended to be quiet in public. Tonight however, I was reminded that there is a third group to add to the list, namely middle aged Japanese males in a free bar. There are six such gentlemen sitting behind me and they are getting louder (and presumably more drunk) by the minute, although to be fair to the rest of the group, it is mainly just the one guy. It is, however both understandable and forgivable. Enzymes play many important functions in our bodies, one example being alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down alcohols and thus renders them ineffective. Genetic differences mean that 40% of the Japanese population have a low or totally absent activity of this important enzyme. I am just grateful that the laws of random selection only gave us a 12.5% expression of this genetic anomaly in the group behind us.

One peculiarity about restaurant dining in Japan is that food arrives when it's ready. Order a starter and a main course and they may arrive together or the main may arrive before the starter. Tonight we each ordered a main dish and also shared a side portion of potato wedges (a well known Japanese delicacy). The potato wedges were long gone by the time the other dishes started to arrive (one at a time) and both Jackie and I had finished our meal long before Ben's arrived. This is not bad service, it is just the way it is done.Read more