Hiroshima

I am now home in Barrington at the Barrington area library writing my final couple of entries of my trip.

Woke up early as we were catching a train from Kyoto to Hiroshima. We jumped on the famous Shinkansen train, which is also known as the bullet train. This train looks like a bullet and travels at a top speed of 300kmph. A normal train from Kyoto to Hiroshima would take over eight hours, but on the Shinkansen it only takes an hour and a half.

We got on the train and all sorts of crazy stuff started to happen. First off when we started we were jolted pack in our seats in a whiplash like motion. I was thankful I did not bring any coffee on board. The countryside was going by so fast that we could not even see it not that we would have been able to enjoy it anyway pinned against our seats like we were.

I struggled to get up and go to the bathroom, but this was a big mistake. The force of the train traveling so fast caused a great mess. I embarrassingly walked back to my seat trying to hide the stains, but we were moving so fast the stain dried instantly. At one point it got dark, and I thought that we had entered a tunnel, but we had traveled so fast that we outraced the sun and it was now dark.

We finally stopped at a station and were able to relax a bit. Suddenly, Superman entered the car and took a seat right in front of us. We asked superman what he was doing on the Shinkansen. He looked at us kind of sheepishly and said “hey, I am faster than a speeding bullet, but not faster than a speeding bullet train.”

Of course the last three paragraphs were complete fiction, but they were all jokes that Rich, Liz, and I told on the train. We tried to think of as many stupid bullet train jokes as we could in the hour and a half it took to get there, but the train was so fast we could not think of many.

We arrived and checked into our hotel and then went out and walked around Hiroshima. It is really a beautiful city. It is right near the coast and a really pretty river flows through it on its way to the ocean.

The first place we headed to was the peace park. Outside the peace park is the only remnant of the atomic blast. It is called the A bomb dome. This was one of the few structures left standing in the middle of the city if you could call it standing. It was basically just a skeleton of a building with rubble everywhere. Before the bomb it was obviously not called the A bomb dome, but it was some sort of building that served as a prefecture industrial promotion hall. I am not sure what this is, but it held some sort of trade shows. Everyone in the building was instantly killed. As we were to find out later, the people killed instantly were the lucky ones.

After viewing the bombed out building, we then entered the peace park. This park was absolutely beautiful and filled with fountains, statues, and the ever present cherry blossom trees. We saw one statue that was filled with paper cranes, which is a famous children’s memorial dedicated to a young girl who died from leukemia due to exposure to the bomb. Sadako Sasaki vowed to make 1000 paper cranes because she was told by a friend that there is an old story that said if a person folded 1000 paper cranes they would be restored to health. Sadako only folded 644 before passing away. A children’s memorial was established here and school children from around the world send paper cranes to honor the children who died in the blast and also to honor Sadako Sasaki’s will to live.

We then entered the museum, and we each got an audio self tour guide. This guide was like a walkman and there were 56 places in the museum where you would punch in the appropriate number and a voice would tell you more about the corresponding artifact.

The museum was really laid out well and did a great job of describing the event and really hit you with the sadness and the horror of the bombing. The first part covered a short overview of the history of Hiroshima. Then it covered a short overview of the war. Then it explained in detail how Hiroshima came to be chosen as the target. The military planners wanted to bomb a city that had not experienced much conventional bombing in order to adequately observe the bomb’s effect. This ruled out the capital Tokyo because by this time Tokyo had been leveled a number of times.

They had actual documents from military planners discussing the choices of cities. At first there were 16 cities chosen and this was narrowed down to three. Yokohama, Niigata, and Hiroshima were the last three cities in the running. The final nail in the coffin for Hiroshima was clear weather over its horizon on August 6th. The exhibit also explains why the bomb was used on Japan and not Germany. Military planners were fearful that Germany was already working on a bomb. They thought that if they bombed Germany that German scientists could test the aftermath and quickly develop it’s own bomb. They did not think Japan capable of doing this.

The next room was dedicated to the blast itself. As you entered this part of the museum there was a watch in a plastic case with the time of 8:15 frozen on it. This was when the bomb struck 580 meters above ground at the Shima hospital. There was a 360 degree huge panoramic picture of the city after the bomb struck showing complete devastation. There was also a huge model of Hiroshima both before the bomb and after the bomb.

The most emotional part of the exhibit was a whole room dedicated to belongings of people that were victims of the bombing and then told their story. For instance there would be a tattered set of children’s clothing and the exhibit would read that they belonged to a young girl exposed to the bomb. The girl was exposed to the bomb 4km from home, but managed to get back home where her parents did not even recognize her because her face was so bloated and scarred. They could only recognize her from her voice. She passed away on August 7th. What was amazing was that many of these victims after getting burned found their way home. Some traveling miles in order to get there. There were like 20 of these right in a row, and I do not think there was a dry eye in this room after reading all these testimonies.

In many cities the Japanese were destroying houses in order to create fire lanes in case of US bombs. By destroying houses this could stop the spread of fires that erupted after US bombs were dropped. Many of the people doing this task were school children. Over 8,000 children were at work on these fire lanes in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. Less than 2,000 of them survived.

What I liked about the museum is it did not take a stand against the US and say we were awful for doing this. Instead it took a stand against atomic weapons and war in general and opposed any proliferation of atomic weapons. It basically laid out what happened in Hiroshima and said this is awful, this is what happens in war, war should be stopped, which is obviously the right lesson to be learned.

The exhibit then had rooms dedicated to the survivors of the blast, which was just as bad. Other exhibits included the history of atomic weapons and a lesson on atomic and nuclear energy.

It took us four hours to get through this museum. We were completely drained and decided we needed to hit a bar. We finally found one called the Love Pop bar or something strange like that and ordered a few beers. We were the only people in there. The bartender was really friendly. At one point he came over with a little diagram that he drew, which represented questions he wanted to ask us. The first diagram had a picture of a businessman and a tourist and he meant to ask why we were in Japan. The second diagram was a globe he had drawn with all the countries drawn in and a question mark next to it. He wanted to know where we were from. The third diagram was three pictures of the heads of me, Liz, and Rich with the word friend next to our faces with a question mark next to it. He wanted to know how we knew each other. As we left he gave us a mint and walked us to the elevator and smiled and waived as the elevator closed.

We then went for dinner. We went to a place that served this crepe like meal called Okonomiyaki. We sat down and the burner of the stove was right in front of us and the lady cooked it right before our eyes. The dinner consisted of a crepe that was first topped with noodles. She then topped it with bbq sauce, egg and all sorts of other good things. The meal looked like a giant stuffed pancake. We agreed that this meal would be a great late night snack when you are drinking in the same manner as burritos are.

After that we returned back to the hotel early after a long emotional day.

Hanami

I flew into Narita airport outside of Tokyo and tried to figure out how to get to Kyoto. This was kind of difficult because every time I have landed in a country or entered a new country by bus I would always stay a day or two in whatever town I entered in order to acclimate myself to the new country. This was not the case in Tokyo. I only have one week in Japan and wanted to spend as much time as possible in Kyoto. I inquired how much it was for a train and was told 1980 yen, which is close to 200$ for a five hour trip. Holy shit, this would cost about 20$ at the most in any other country I had been to, so this was a rude welcome to Japan.

I ended up getting a train to Tokyo station and I figured I could get a bus from there. I arrived in Tokyo station and then walked around the station for an hour trying to find information on the buses. The tourist information system was closed, so I tried to inquire from policeman and other personel, but it was difficult because I did not see many people who seemed to work there and the ones I did ask did not speak such good English, so I had some trouble finding the bus station.

I finally found the over night bus station. I secured a ticket to Kyoto for 50$. This would have cost me around 5$ in Thailand. I called Liz and told her I would be arriving at 5am. I then ordered a double quarter pounder meal as I was starving. I ordered it in English confident that the clerk would understand. She got a confused look on her face and pointed to a little menu and motioned for me to point to the combo meal that I wanted. My first reaction to the people I have talked to in Japan was that many did not understand English as much as I thought they would. I guess in my ethnocentric way of thinking I figured that Japanese people would understand English better than the other countries I have been to because they are more developed and therefore more worldly and therefore understand better English. This does not seem the case although it is difficult to judge this in only a week.

I was really tired as I had been up since 6am. I had a little bit of water in my water bottle and drank a little bit of it. Then I smoked a cigarette while waiting for the train to depart. I ashed in my water bottle and deposited my butt into the little amount of water remaining. Then I went to look for a trash can. Just before throwing away the bottle I decided I was thirsty and took a swig forgetting that I had just ashed into it just one minute earlier and got a rude surprise.

I got on the bus and we took off. I got some sleep on the bus, but not much. The lady next to me slept the entire time. As soon as we started she bent over and only woke up a few times. I wish I could master this art as I cannot sleep on buses. I guess it may be from too much driving in the USA. My body is accustomed to staying awake while being in a moving vehicle. We arrived in Kyoto station at 4:30. I started talking to an Englishman who gave me half of his sandwich while I was waiting for Liz. Liz came and got me around 6am and we took off to her apartment in a steady drizzling rain. This rain actually started the blossoming of the famed cherry blossoms. It was a relief to see a familiar face after traveling for almost three months solo.

We arrived at her apartment and her boyfriend Rich welcomed me to Japan. They are both teaching English here in Japan and Liz is an ex-roommate of mine and I have met Rich several times in Chicago. They have been great sending emails to me during my trip, so it was great to see them. It was very strange because Rich and Liz are my first people that I have had an opportunity to tell stories from my travels. I would start telling them a story about a certain time, and then they would say “oh yeah, I remember that email.”

Rich had to work the first day, so he left and then after relaxing a bit, Liz and I took a little bike trip. We pedaled along this river and it was absolutely beautiful. I arrived in a good time as the cherry tree blossoms here in Kyoto have just started blooming. These trees lined the whole river and it was spectacular. Kyoto is kind of in a valley surrounded by tree covered mountains. It was really strange cruising along this river and seeing this spectacular scenery. You would forget that you were right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in Japan. Rich and Liz told me that Japan is really good at keeping beautiful natural places right in the heart of some of their biggest modern areas. The bird life along this river was fantastic too. There were many herons, egrets, cranes, and flocks of hawks flying over our heads. I have never seen a flock of hawks, but we saw one group of about 15-20 of them flying in circles above us.

The next day Liz and Rich both had off, so they took me to the botanical gardens of Kyoto. This place was just as beautiful as the river. There was a bunch of red tulips out in front of this huge arboretum and I have never seen such a bright red come from a flower before. We then entered the arboretum and this huge greenhouse had all these different rooms and each room contained a different climate. There was a tropic room with many jungle plants, trees, and flowers and even an arid desert room which had many cacti and plants from the desert southwest.

Japanese are of course famous for taking photographs. This is one stereotype that is well deserved. The park was full of men with tripods slung over their shoulders with several digital cameras hung around their neck and a backpack full of even more camera equipment like extra lenses and other photo accessories. At one point Rich was looking around for a person to take our picture together, but seeing no candidate decided to take a picture of Liz and I under a cherry blossom tree. An older fella saw this and approached Rich and offered to take the picture of all of us together. He looked through Rich’s camera and frowned. He motioned for us to turn to the other side of the trail because the light from the sun was not good where we wanted the picture taken. He was taking it upon himself to direct our photo. You do not argue about the light setting in a photograph with a Japanese man who has four cameras around his neck, so Rich, Liz, and I obediently turned to satisfy the Japanese man. He took the picture and it came out perfectly. We thanked him and he winked at us as if to say you got the right man to take your picture.

That night we rented movies. We rented the two best movies ever involving Japan. The first was Lost in Translation and the second was Karate Kid. Rich brought back a bottle of tsuntori whiskey, which was the whiskey that Bill Murray represented in the Lost in Translation film. What better way to celebrate Japan than by Bill Murray, Miyagee kicking ass, and Japanese whiskey.

The next day Liz had to work, so Rich and I visited some shrines and temples in the area. Kyoto has 1200 shrines and is considered the cultural capitol of Japan. The temples we visited were beautiful. One temple we went to was up near the top of a hill and it was surrounded by the omnipresent cherry trees in full blossom. We also saw the biggest cherry tree in Japan in this one park. My timing for coming here was incredible as Liz said the trees just started blooming. Rich and I saw a few geisha ladies walking around. They looked incredibly beautiful in their kimonos and their faces painted bright white. I was able to take a picture with two of them. Unfortunately, I somehow got the mature ones and not the beautiful ones we saw earlier. One of the geishas I took a picture with looked a little suspiciously like Herman Munster and the other looked like Grandpa.

After returning from the temples, we went back to the apartment and Liz was home. When the cherry blossoms are in bloom there is a festival here called Hanami. The festival basically consists of drinking underneath the cherry blossom trees. Rich and I were a little tired from our day, but Liz rallied us and we went back out to enjoy the Hanami festival. We met a bunch of Liz’s coworkers near the giant cherry tree. It was a mob scene. There were people everywhere. Rich had been told that the Hanami festival is one time you get to see the Japanese let their hair down. This seemed to be the case as their were drunk people everywhere. In fact, a few were being dragged out of the park by their friends.

Being kind of tired at first I was not in the most sociable mood, but the spirit of the festival along with a bottle of saki and a passed around bottle of vodka revived me. Soon I was happy and having a great time. Then a bunch of Japanese came over and tried to talk to us and offered us some beer and a bucket of some food. They did not speak very good English, but they were very friendly. One guy was completely drunk and we could not make any sense from what he was saying. There were a couple of very cute Japanese girls and one kept hiding her head and saying “very sorry” over and over because of her drunk friend. We then passed them the bottle of vodka and soon I was taking pictures of them and them with me. They are very into the peace symbol and I have a couple of pictures of being surrounded by this Japanese group with all of us throwing out the peace symbol. After each picture I took of them they would say “thank you very much.” I thought this was funny that they were thanking me for taking their picture. They were the cutest group of people I think I have ever met. When we were leaving I went and said goodbye and they all wanted to slap me five. They all yelled and said goodbye to me. Rich said man Ted, we have read about how easily you meet people for two and a half months and now we saw you in action.