My friend Ajit recently showed me around his town of Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture, home to ancient tombs as well as "fog character" Kiriko-chan (yes, even fog can be anthropomorphized into cuteness). Kiriko-chan lives in the Miyoshi unkai, or sea of fog, which can be seen at sunrise in the autumn from atop Mount Takatani.

Miyoshi is a picturesque town, the junction of three rivers (thus the fog), and has done a commendable job of attracting tourists. There's an intriguing doll museum that also includes Japanese monsters and a replica of Higabon's foot. The other attraction is Miyoshi Fudoki Park, an outdoor museum on top of a hill where you can walk among clusters of tombs from the Kofun Period (250-538). The park has an indoor History and Folklore Museum on its grounds as well.

Innocently, we walked into the Hiroshima Prefecture History and Folklore Museum expecting, you know, history and folklore. By the time we walked out, however, we were in awe. At the doors we were greeted with a flurry of activity, as someone must have spied the foreigners driving up the hill from the city of Miyoshi. By the time we arrived, the Champagne had been poured, the red carpet was out and the museum attendant was frantically running around looking for the curator, yelling "They're heeere!"