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Published: November 21st 2008
Miyajima Island tori
One of the 3 most beautiful sites in JapanThe past couple weeks have flown by here in Japan and we have seen a lot of the country and are loving experiencing true Japanese culture. Our Japanese Rail pass has proven to be worth the money as we have used it everyday and it has saved us a ton of time on getting to places as we are able to take their Shinkansen bullet trains which travel at speeds of 285km/hour!
We heard of this city that is nicknamed Ninja Town and being in their country of origin and the liking the thought of visiting a place where the actions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Nurtles were founded we figured it was only appropriate to visit this town and the museum. In Japanese history a ninja is a warior trained in the martial arts and specializing in stealth, weapontry, assinations and camoflouage. I think it sounded cooler than it really was, but it was still really interesting to see a traditional ninja house with all of the secret traps (ie spinning around in a secret wall passage, hitting floor boards to reveal weapons, ladders camoflouged as shelves, quick exits through trap doors, etc) and to walk through the museum
showing what they used to wear, how they concealed their weapons in their uniforms, and different tactics used to keep them hidden and unheard in their pursuits.
That night Steph had planned for us to meet some of her friends at a favourite restaurant/bar of theirs called The Lock Up. It was a crazy experience as this place resembles prison cells and you have your own cell to eat in with a big table in the centre with cinderblocks for walls and wrought iron bars for the doors. At one point it became pitch drak with only black lights on and people wearing scary costumes ran in and out of each of the cells followed by cops and it fuieven a take down right outside our door! It was also here that I discoverd that the popular Japanese drink of Sake - whether hot or cold - is in my opinion gross, and is an acquired taste that I have not been in Japan long enough to develop. To best describe the taste I can only relate it to a sweet vineagr vodka drink. Following dinner we decided to complete the Japan experience with a little karaoke - and
by a little I of course mean that we sang until 6am! With Asian style karaoke you rent out a room with the size depending on the number of people in your group, and you get a couple of microphones and even maracas and tamborines, then you sing to your hearts desire all night long! There are karaoke places everywhere and some people even go on their own during their lunch breaks at work.
We took a day trip out to the city of Nara which is similar to Kyoto in that it has a lot of original shrines and temples including 8 Unesco World Heritage sites. However Nara has an extra element to the city which also makes it a popular tourist spot - deers. Deers roam around the city, around the temples, through the parks....everywhere! They mostly stay around Nara Park where you are able to purchase deer biscuits to feed the 1200 deer, however you'll see random deer scattered throughout most of the city. Deer are sacred animals to the Japanese as in Pre-Buddhist times they were considered messengers of the gods and are now National Treasures and their presence make this city quite the experience.
When you present one of the deer with a buscuit they will bow their head and if you don't give them the cookie they will bow down further thinking that their first bow wasn't good enough for the treat! However, as the deer are so used to people feeding them some have become more pushy and will head butt you if they think you are hiding food from them. We walked through the city visiting a few temples including Todaiji Temple, Nara's main attraction. This Temple is the largest wooden building in the world and is actually only two thirds of the original structure that had to be rebuilt in 1709. This temple houses the Great Buddah of Nara, the largest Bronze Buddha ever cast. Standing at over 16m consists of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg or gold!
Our second weekend in Japan we took the Shinkansen train down to Hiroshima, the city famous for the Atomic bomb attack on August 6th 1945. It was really amazing to learn the history and the experiences of the Japanese affected by this tragic event. We went to Peace Park which houses the A-Bomb dome and were very fortunate to meet
a gentleman who gave us a free tour of the area. He himself is one of the youngest survivors from the day, he was 4 months old in the womb, and he told us very personal stories from his families experiences as well as details from the day. He has been a free guide in the area for 2 years and he goes to the A-Dome every day as he said he feels that it is his civic duty as a survivor to educate all of the visitors on the tragedies of nuculear warfare. He has since given tours and information to over 23,000 people!
At 8:15am on August 6th 1945 the Americans dropped the first Atomic bomb ever used on the city of Hiroshima, chosen becuase of their location to cause the most destruction, and also becuase of the large amount of water around them so if the bomb failed to detonate the Americans could hopefully recover the bomb for future use. At the time of the explosion the temperatures in the area were between 3000 and 4000 degrees Celcius and 80,000 people died immediatly with another 120,000 in the weeks and months following from the effects of the
radiation and severe burns. Almost 2km of land was completely flattened with fires destroying buildings up to 14km away. The majority of the people who lost their lives were civilians including many yojng children who were on their way to school for the day. We toured through the museum reading about the war details from the time and saw many artifacts from the day showing the severity of the impact of the intense heat and radiation. It was really eye opening to see the effects of nuclear warfare, and the museum and the Peace Park were created to show the rest of the world that nuclear weapons should never be used again. There are currently 5 known countries to be in posession of nuclear weapons with the United States holding the majority.
We spent the night in Hiroshima in a traditional Japanese ryokan (hotel) complete with tatami floors and only a futon (think beach chair cushion) to sleep on. The room also had cable TV which was exciting as we got to watch Japanese game shows! The next day we took a train and ferry over to Miyajima Island which is known for its huge 'floating' tori gate in
the middle of the sea, considered one of Japan's 3 best views. It was a beautiful day and the autumn colours on the Japanese maple trees were out in full force, which also meant that every other Japanese tourist was out enjoying the views as well. Miyajima Island also has deers roaming around freely and even pose for pictures in front of tour groups! We took a cable car up Mount Misen and hiked up to the top platform area for a 360 degree view of the area then decided to hike all the way down. An hour later and our legs shaking from the constant contractions we treated ourselves to bbq'd squid on a stick and maple cookies!
After the day at Miyajima we took the Shinkansen further south to the city of Fukuoka as they were hosting the famous Japanese sumo wrestling tournament. Sumo wrestling has 4 grand tournaments each year and we were fortunate enough to be here during the final tournament of this year. We woke up early to get our tickets and then spent some time walking around Canal City which is a 6 story mall in the city and accidently exploring the city
when we got on a wrong bus! We lucked out and the sumo tournament wasn't as busy as expected so we ended up sitting relatively close to the ring as opposed to our purchased nose bleed tickets. Sumo is really a cool process with the actual fighting part taking only a few seconds. They go through a ritual where they stamp their feet on the ground and throw some salt to ward off any evils from the ring, get set to fight and then walk off only to repeat this process a few more times before they actually fight. It is an intimidation factor to be set and then walk away, similar to stepping out of the batters box in baseball. There were some HUGE sumo wrestlers that we saw fight however there aren't any weight classes meaning a 400lb sumo can fight a 200lb sumo. You fight someone in your own ranking which is earned by how many fights you win in the year. The Yokozuna is the top sumo and he achieved that status by winning 2 grand tournaments in a row and being a runner up in another. This isn't an easy feat to accomplish and there
Todaiji Temple
Largest wooden structure in the world have only ever been 68 of them!
That's all for now!
MandL
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Janice
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Love the picture of you and the deer linds! i would be freaking out if i saw a deer crossing the street. great blog!