Thursday, May 19, 2005

the big Yamato

Yamato scale model 133_3310_pan
Yamato scale model,
originally uploaded by vfowler.
My friend Yukio, from Kobe, drove with his wife, Keiko, to Hiroshima for the weekend to visit their son and myself. What an honour!

After my Japanese language lessons finished for the week, I met up with Yukio and was introduced to the family before we headed for a very impressive Japanese restaurant.

The feast was exquisite and much more than just another chop-stick practice session for me. Real sashimi, 刺身, is exactly what was served up, so fresh that the head of this fish was still jittering with nerves - now that is what I call FRESH fish! Calamari and other delights all heartily stuffed their way into our tummies. おいしい Yum!

Yukio taking in some air on the ferry rideIndeed it was a grand dinner on Saturday night, followed by a Sunday drive to Kure, and a ferry ride to Etajima. Leaving the docks of Kure I saw the biggest cranes I've ever seen in my life, like mechanical arms of the BFG reaching out over the harbour waters.

Yamato movie posterA comic guided tour of the Etajima's Imperial Japanese Navy Candidate School followed our peaceful lunch on the beach.

2-man subIn the afternoon we stopped in at the Yamato museum, detailing the history and artifacts of the incredible shipping and naval activities. The huge 1/10 scale model of the Yamato battleship is amazing and to think that it was 10 times bigger means it was absolutely gigantic. Big enough to make more than one Yamato movie.

Arigato gozaimas to Yukio, Keiko and Hideaki. You really made it an excellent weekend for me.

1 comment:

sookie said...

still wiggling? that's crazy. i just came back from kobe, it was very nice. was lucky to have dinner at the tokyo fish market - it was incredible. still think it's odd that toronto has more sushi joints than tokyo though.
best, sookie