Hiroshima: Day3

We ran out of the main tourist attractions so we decided to go look around at some that I'd never been to before. 

This place was kind of confusing to get to, but we decided to go to this museum since the complex included the library of manga, and I wasn't about to pass that up.  This museum was full of very interesting pieces. It was a weekday so there weren't many people there, which made it nice since most required a double take. at least. if not a triple. There was an artist who set up a "key" of sorts with people in various positions where each position represented one word and then incorporated them into his paintings/sketches. This was particularly interesting to me since we've talked about first language acquisition in some classes that I team-teach and many of the phrases that the artist used in his work were very similar to a certain stage of child learning their first language. Where all of the main building blocks of a sentence are there, but none of the fillers are. There was an interactive one with a bunch of books that were propped up and stacked on top of each other as well. I jumped in and participated, as did the slightly past middle aged women who were going through the exhibits slightly before us. There was one performance piece where a man had a block of wood that was attached to a mirror in his mouth so that he wasn't able to talk to you. I think the point was that he would communicate with you using his eyes through the reflection in the mirror, but I don't understand why sign language wouldn't have been sufficient. I later saw him upstairs when I was looking through the gift shop and was amazed at his ability to go up and down stairs in that state. Also that he wasn't slobbering all over it. 

 There was also a man who had children draw something and then recreate it using fabric from clothes that he got from thrift stores. This is one example of his work. It's a painting by Taro Okamoto, a replica of which can be found in Shibuya station in Tokyo. I was a little weary about it at first, but there was a sign that asked you to take your shoes off before getting on it so I went ahead and sat on it and looked under the carefully velcroed pillows. Very interesting. and comfortable.

Lunch: Bakudan Ramen

We went to this place that asks you how spicy you want your ramen on a scale from 1-100. I went with 5 since that was supposed to be a little spicier than "if you like a little spice." I was a little worried about it until I ended up putting even more spice into the broth.

After going back to get our luggage from the hotel, get snacks for the bus, etc. we went to a cafe near the bus stop (the cafe had the best vanilla bean cream puffs EVER), boarded the bus, and found ourselves on the way back to Tokyo. Until the bus got a flat.