Hiroshima

Hiroshima was made infamous by the horrifying attack on August 6th, 1945. While I’m not going to debate the validity of the US’s actions (though I’d like to imagine that most of you can figure out what I feel on the situation) I was profoundly touched by what I saw today visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum.

The first thing that we saw getting off of the platform was the Atomic Bomb Dome, the remnants of the closest building to ground-zero. The plutonium bomb “Little Boy” was detonated 580 meters above Hiroshima, about 150 m away from ground zero, making this a remarkable piece of architecture. You can still see the cracked and broken bits of concrete.

It really was quite fascinating a little bit overwhelming at first, knowing that you were standing on ground on which thousands of people were burned to death.

There were several smaller monuments, like this one honouring the children killed in the bombing, characterised by the Goddess of Peace and thousands of hand-made paper cranes.

The paper cranes hold a special significance because of the efforts of young victim Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was less than 1 mile from ground zero on August 6th and only two years old. She grew up as a healthy young adult and at age 11 she was diagnosed with leukaemia caused by exposure to the a-bomb’s radiation. Japanese legend tells of a wish being granted to one who folds 1000 paper cranes, and while in the hospital, Sadako began a project of folding the cranes. Unfortunately, she only finished 644 before she died. The tradition continues to this day, as seen in the many cranes around the park.

Next was the museum proper. We all know the story pretty well, so I think I’m just going to show the pictures along with a little dialogue and let you get the feeling for yourself.

The most uncanny thing in the museum were these two watches, burnt and stopped at 8:15 – the time of the bombing.

Many of the victims were school children. This is the uniform for a young boy.

The impact, heat and light of the atomic blast was so hot that the space around this man was “bleached”.

The remnants of a child’s trike.

The heat from the blast was so intense that it melted this metal roof.

30 minutes or so after the bombing, a light rain began to fall, carrying with it radiation and soot – a mixture called “black rain”. Here it has stained the side of a white-walled building.

Survivors often drew and retold their stories of the bombing:

Drawn by Kazuo Matsumuro – 0.8 km from the epicentre.

The text reads “Where shall I cremate my dead child? White maggots were moving on the burned face of the child hanging from her back. Probably she intended to place his bones in the helmet she had picked up. She would have had to walk some distance to find any wood to use as fuel.”

Drawn by Seigo Nishioka – age 13 at the time of the bombing.

The text reads “Teacher, I’m hot! Mother, it hurts! I’m hot! Help! It’s hot! Girl students burned over their entire bodies had clustered together for support. All they wore were the elastic bands of their underwear, burnt skin hanging in shreds.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Hikari, Hikari Desu

Today, I went to a small city about 15 minutes east of Tokuyama called Hikari. I’ve been told that they have a great beach and so decided to make the best of the sunny morning weather we’ve been having.

It was a beautiful day. I forgot how much I love the ocean and walking along the beach. A handful of fishermen were sitting on their dingy fixing ropes, though the super-secret pictures that I tried to take of them didn’t turn up. It was also a neat walk through a little pine-lined park where the deep green of the pines met the blue sky in a breathtaking combination.

Next, I went to a much larger, cosmopolitan city called Hofu – the same city that I had my orientation and training in.

There is a rather famous shrine in Hofu called the Tenmangu Shrine. Dedicated to Sugawara Michizane, the “God of Learning” there were scores of school-children and high school students making prayers and offerings for good scores on their exams. Apparently, Tenamngu is considered to be one of the top three Tenjin type shrines in Japan – the others in Fukuoka and Kyoto.

Quite often, small shops will be set up near the shrine torii, selling various religious objects and souvenirs, as well as these neat little wind-charms.

Prayers are written on the back of these wooden boards called ema and then tied to various holy spots around the shrine.

絵馬 - Ema

That's all for now

私は稲荷を愛する

Today I was told that my work day would be cut short…by about 7 hours. So, I made the best of it by biking around town and visiting a well-known Inari shrine in Kudamatsu – the city in which I work. Inari is the Shinto deity of rice, fertility, the harvest, agriculture and foxes. The easiest way to spot these shrines is by the brightly coloured vermilion torii and the foxes flanking the shrine proper or lying just behind the torii. Kudamatsu’s Inari shrine is famous because of a yearly festival held in November in which Inari is honoured with dances, costumes (with fox masks, of course) and offerings. I just missed it this year.

Agriculture is a huge deal for tiny Kudamatsu, as seen in the rice paddies set literally in someone’s back yard – along with train tracks.

Rural Japan is my favorite

The day was ended a little short because of rain, but it was neat to see a little bit more of my little Kudamatsu!

New Year’s Holiday

Christmas is not recognised as a national holiday in Japan (as the majority of Japanese are Buddhist and Shinto – and I’m not complaining by any stretch) and so most of the population gets a vacation/holiday over New Years – often the 31st of December through the 6 of January. This year, due to some lucky days off, I had December 26th to January 4th off. Because this was the last time I would get such a huge chunk of time off in one stretch, a friend and I decided to plan a whirl-wind trip through Honshu, the main island of Japan.

The first three days of the trip were spent in Tokyo, followed by a long train ride to Takayama, Nagoya then onto Nara, Ise, Himeji, Okayama, Takamatsu and finally, Tokuyama.

As you can imagine – it was a hell of a trip!

We stayed in Ueno (to the north-east of the Imperial Palace) for the three nights we spent in Tokyo. The first day it was raining like all hell, so we decided to take a short walk through the parks surrounding Ueno’s prime attraction – museums.

Rainy day statuary

After we had had enough of the rain, we decided to check out the National Museum which boasts some amazing Japanese art work, as well as relics from many Asian countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq – two countries you rarely get to talk about in the US. My friend and I both agreed it was refreshing.

After a hot bowl of udon, we decided to call it a cold and rainy day and headed back to the hotel, though we were quick to notice an interesting street near our hotel.

The next day we made our way to Akihabara – the electronic capital of Tokyo where we saw all sorts of cheap and oh-so-tasty electronic gadgets.

Ohohohohhooo sugoi!

That night the rain had eased up, so we went back to Akihabara and wandered around. I bought the world’s best strawberries and spent way too much money on arcade claw games.  We did not, however, go to shopping and play bowling.

Next was the Imperial Palace, surrounding gardens, and municipal areas.

Our next destination was the bay-area of Tokyo; Odaiba. It was here where we saw the majority of the “techno-shiny” gadgets and buildings that Tokyo is so well-known for.

Oh. Shiny, expensive toy.

We also spent some time in Ryogoku – the Sumo hub of Tokyo. However, the gym was closed when we got there, so we had to content ourselves with taking pictures through the fence and covertly snapping some shots at wrestlers on their bikes.

Here’s where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I’m pretty sure from Tokyo we spent a gruelling, sleepless 10 hour train ride to Nagoya. I know we spent a day wandering around somewhere in Tokyo, because I knocked over an entire table of Bento (pre-packed lunches) in a store…but I can’t for the life of me remember where that was.

So, here are some photos from Tokyo that don’t really have any real home because I forgot where I was supposed to put them.

Visualize whirled peas.

No matter…on to Takayama!

Sleepy little snowy Takayama. While Colorado was getting hit with nasty amounts of snow, Takayama was getting gently packed under the fluffiest, most scenic snow I’ve ever seen. In fact, the meandering train ride through the Japanese Alps was rife with wonder. In order to make sure you get the point, I’m going to drag in some Spongebob to clarify:

“It’s a vast swirling wonderland of sparkling white pleasure. Let it fill your senses with cascading pillows of comfort and excitement like you’ve never felt before.” -Patrick Star Spongebob Squarepants

The prime attraction of Takayama was a quaint little old-school village complete with original houses, farming equipment and even swans in the lake.

We spent that night in Nagoya and moved on to Nara and Ise the next day.

Before Tokyo and even before Kyoto, Nara was Japan’s capital and though we got in a little late, it was easy to see why the earliest inhabitants of Japan would choose such a location.

Next was Ise, which houses the holiest shrine in Japan – and we just so happened to be there on the holiest day of the year. Not to mention, the ancient cedar forests were stunning. I could see myself being a hermit up there.

Next was a short layover in Himeji which has (what some consider) Japan’s most beautiful surviving feudal castle. At night, it’s showered with flood-lights which looks amazing! But makes it nearly impossible to take picture, so you’ll have to trust me when I say it was cool.

That night we went on through Okayama and into Takamatsu where I stayed the night and headed out that afternoon to my own neck of the woods.

It was a wonderful trip! I feel like I saw a lot of Japan, even if it was for only a day.

So, with that I say goodbye and leave you with some pics of cities in between our travels.