Akashi and Awajishima with the Nakashimas

This weekend we had the pleasure of spending some time with one of my coworkers at Himeji High School and her husband. Audrey and I took the special rapid train a couple of stops down the line to a city called Akashi. There Izumi and her husband Toshi where anxiously awaiting our arrival. From the train station we went straight to the base of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge which happens to be the longest suspension bridge in the WORLD. Its center span measures 1,991 meters which is 710 meters longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Needless to say it was breathtaking! We were able to take an elevator up to an observation deck to take some pictures and get a small sense of the overwhelming size of this bridge. After we took a couple photos and walked around for a bit we decided to get back into the car and drive across the bridge to Awajishima, which is the island that this bridge connects too. Once on the Island we stopped for lunch. The restaurant that we ate at was unlike anything we had ever experienced. There was no counter or workers to take your order, instead there was a massive vending machine with pictures of what you cold eat. I stared in awe as 10 or 15 people funneled up to the machine, put there money in, pressed a button and collected the ticket it spit out and their change. Simple enough right... So I followed suite... checked what Audrey and I wanted, and double checked because one false button push and who knows what we would be eating for lunch that day. Thankfully we both wanted curry and rice so I pushed the button and with a little help from Izumi I was able to order two, and viola, out popped the change and two tickets. We then proceeded to take the tickets up to a counter where we waited for about 3 minutes and out came our food. Not exactly Burger King, but a brilliant concept none the less. After lunch and an ice cream cone we headed into the country side to visit a place that was supposed to have miles of beautiful flowers planted in wonderful patterns. The key word in that sentence is "supposed". When we got there we quickly realized that there were no flowers to be seen... it was the wrong time of the year. We decided not to let that minor detail stop us, so we walked around for a bit, enjoying the country side and good company. Well that was also short lived because it started to rain. So it was off to plan B. There is a museum on the other side of the Island that serves as a memorial to the The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. The epicenter of this earthquake was was located on the northern end of the island. As we entered the museum we were quickly humbled by the magnitude of this disaster. There were TVs showing news footage from that day. We saw homes and businesses on fire, freeways collapsed, buildings in a heap of rubbish and people running around screaming as they searched for friends and family. It was hard to wrap our minds around some of the statistics. 7.4 on the Japanese Richter scale, approximately 6,434 people dead, 10 trillion yen in damages, 200,000 buildings collapsed, 1km of the express way collapsed, and 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe were destroyed. It is actually in the Guinness World Book of Records as "the costliest natural disaster to befall any one country." Wow, talk about surreal... my heart was in my throat the whole time we were in the museum. As we continued through we saw parts of the earth that had lifted and separated. There is a still a house that was preserved. The fault line actually ran within 5 feet of the home. The kitchen has been preserved and looked the same as it did after the earthquake that day. There were broken plates and cups everywhere, the chairs had fallen over, appliances had fallen off the counter... it was intense. There was a wall out side of the house that had been cracked and parts had lifted and separated. It really painted a clear picture as to how powerful this earthquake really was. All in all it was a great, yet very thought provoking experience. I have a new appreciation for Kobe and the Japanese people as they have learned so much from this horrible tragedy. Even though they experienced this tough time they have now better equipped themselves for future disasters and rebuilt Kobe so that it is now bigger and better than ever. To think that almost 14 years ago the city was in shambles and now it is once again a flourishing epicenter of Japanese life. So after spending an hour or so at the museum we were pretty emotionally drained, so we decided to head back to the main land and get ready for dinner. When we arrived at the Nakashimas apartment we were mesmerized by the view from their 9th floor balcony. We were not even 200 yards from the sea and we had a perfect view of the bridge. Izumi and Toshi needed to run to the store really quick so they recommend that we take a walk on the beach before dinner. So Audrey and I, being the beach lovers that we are, jumped at that proposition. It was a bit cold but we didn't mind. We walked around for about 45 minutes and when it started getting dark we headed back up to the apartment. There we were greeted by a huge platter of sushi (see picture below). There were at least 50 pieces of sushi and only 4 of us to eat it. Now if there is one food that Audrey and I were not sold on before coming to Japan it was sushi. Neither of us were really big seafood fans... especially seafood that had not been cooked. Over these past couple of months our affinity for sushi has grown exponentially. So when I saw this platter of fresh deliciousness sitting in front of me all I could think was "JACKPOT"! We had no idea what kind of fish we were eating most of the time but it was mecha oishii (very delicious). It was so fresh I swear I saw one of the shrimp still moving as it lay there on its bed of rice. After we had stuffed ourselves with sushi we had some cake, munched on some chocolate and called it a night. The Nakashimas rode the train back to Akashi with us and showed us which train to get on to get home and off we went. It was a wonderful day, with wonderful people. We feel so blessed to have these opportunities to enjoy Japan with such wonderful friends. We hope this finds you doing well in your neck of the woods. We miss you and love you.

The view from the observation deck on the bridge
There were supposed to be flowers around here somewhere
It was so quiet and peaceful
A wall that was cracked and broken in the earthquake
You can see how the earth moved and shifted that day
The longest suspension bridge in the world!
Lovers in Japan
Dinner!
New friends