The regular place I go to was closed so I tried the car wash machine at the gas station. I was totally against putting my car through these machines, it’s hand wash or nothing. BUT it took less than 2 minutes and my car was incredibly clean. Even the spokes on the wheels. Amaaazing!! The gas station guy assured me that the brushes, made out of fine cloth, would not scratch the paint. The machine moves on tracks once over the car to clean it and on the way back it blow dries it. I went with the ¥1,365 mizuarai. At the coin car wash it would cost only ¥600 and take more than an hour of my time. Later on when I have money, I’m going to get the car glass-coated so I won’t need to use any kind of shampoo when washing. The glass-coating costs up to ¥70,000 though!!

In other news, tomorrow I’m flying to Hiroshima. A trip that I had planned in December but put off at the last minute. I’m going to be there for the weekend as well. Here’s my itinerary in a nutshell in case you have suggestions on blogworthy places for me to visit: Friday, take tour of the Mazda Museum and Assembly line, the main reason to go to Hiroshima, can’t wait to see those roasters getting built! woohoo!! After that head to Kure city to visit the Battleship Yamato Museum. In the evening, Hiroshimafu okonomiyaki at the Okonomiyaki-mura. Saturday, renting a car (a Mazda obviously) and visiting Miyajima, Kintaikyo and Irori-sanzoku which is just about the coolest restaurant I’ve ever been to in Japan (I visited it the last time I was in Hiroshima in 1993). On Sunday, I’m going to Onomichi because I heard it was a beautiful little town but mainly because I want to get a good picture of this. It’s even listed as one of the things to see on the walking tour (item 140) on the Onomichi city website. Too cooool..

I’m not planning to go to the A-Bomb Museum/Peace Park. I spent a whole day there the last time and frankly it was kinda depressing…