The Wandering Potato

Since visiting Hiroshima, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. When I was in elementary school, our class read a book called "Sadako and the 1,000 paper cranes." A story of a 2 year old girl who survived the dropping of the atom bomb, to be diagnosed with Leukaemia at age 11. Her goal was to fold 1,000 paper cranes so she could be granted one wish, to live. Sadako passed away a year later.  I read this book, her story,  2 more times on my own and never forget her. It was the first real introduction to Japanese culture that I remember. I knew that visiting the peace park, and ground zero would be moving. I wasn't expecting it to move me in the way that it did. I found a statue raised for the memory of Sadako. Her arms stretched out with a paper crane, that instantly brought me to tears. Behind her was glass boxed filled with multi coloured rainbow cranes that have been sent to her from all over the world. I learned so much more than I could have ever imagine...

Like I've mentioned before, we have really tried on this trip to take it easy and not squeeze every last place in. We have visited the main island Honshu, Shikoku, and now Kyushu. Kyushu we decided to go to because it warms up first, and seems to have plenty of off the beaten track spots. Or maybe its off the beaten path in low season time. Either way, often we never saw another obvious tourists and that is always a little cool. We decided that our last two weeks were going to be in cities. So we immersed ourselves in nature. With one day checking out Mount Aso, and active volcano that was actually letting out a dangerous amount of sulphur at the time we visited. So unfortunately,  we couldn't hike it. Since 2009, the town  has just re-opened for the first time in February of this year, so we were thankful for what we got! I have been blown away by the diversity of Japan. From the cities, to geographical landscapes, to how often they are hit with earthquakes and other natural...