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It's Golden Week in Japan, which means most of the country is enjoying a much deservd break from school and work, myself included. Golden Week is a series of national holidays strung togther. Japan is quite legendary for its national holidays, a few days ago was 'Greenery Day', yesterday was Constituition Day and tomorrow is Children's Day. In anticipation of Children's Day many households are flying large paper streamers of carp fish, which are meant to symbolize strength and prosperity for male children.So far nobody's been able to tell me how, or if, female children are celebrated on Children's Day.
Golden Week did provide me with my first opportunity to travel around Japan for an extended period of time. My adventures began last Saturday when I decided, perhaps foolishly, that the first day of Golden Week would provide the ideal opportunity to taken in my first Japanese professional baseball game. The Japanese flock to baseball like Canadians love hockey and the Hanshin Tigers are the Japanese version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Somehow I thought that going 4 hours early before a game and only needing one ticket migh t be sufficient to get me a seat for the Tigers game
Koyasan
My room in the temple against the Tokyo Swallows, how wrong I was.
I was feeling pretty confident until I stepped off the train at the stadium and was promptly met by a wall of people, clearly I wasn't the only one who thought that showing up to the game early was a good idea . There was a sea of Hanshin Tigers fans as far as I could see, everyone from young to old decked out in the teams's yellow and black colours. Noticing that the ticket windows were closed I approached a young security guard who in his most polite way told me ' Sorry, NO TICKET' before crossing his arms to make a giant X for extra effect. He was kind enough to take me to a ticket window and again using the giant X technique he was a fan of informed me that the next available game I could get a ticket for would be June 23rd . I told you they love baseball in Japan. So with my ticket for June in hand I left the ballpark.
Since my plans for the ballgame had fizzled I decided to make my way to Universal Studios Japan. Since I have
Koyasan
Dinner time! never been to a major theme park, and I don't think Wonderland counts, I wanted to check what all the hype was about. Many of my students rave about Universial Studios Japan. It really was something to see, and quite magical for sure. The fabricated main street was full of souvenir shops and packed with Japanese shoppers picking up a much need JAWS t-shirt or Jurassic Park mug. Marilyn Munroe and Cookie Monster posed for pictures with families and sushi and udon was replaced by pizza and popcorn. But like any good theme park Universal Studios is all Japsabout the rides, and these rides didn't disappoint, they were quite the step up from the Perth Fair rides that's for sure. Although for a brief time I thought I might not get on any rides because when I entered the park an automated sign informed visitors of the current wait times for rides, 90 minutes for Back to the Future to 2 hours for E.T. As I got in line and accepted that I was probably going to be there for a while on of the kind, and always smiling Japanese staff came up to me 'Single ?" she asked. Not
really sure what was happening, a feeling I am pretty accustomed to after 3 months here, I just kinda smiled and nodded. She took me by the arm and quickly wisked me to the front of the line, passed some ticked off looking families, before I knew it I was on the ride. I chalked this up to the genuine Japanese courtesy that I have been enjoying throughout my time here. After this scenerio repeated itself at every ride I went to I learned that its the parks policy to bump singles to the front to fill rides. Finally, being single has some sort of tangible reward.
Sunday I set out to visit Koyasan. Koyasan is a mountainside village that is known throughout Japan as the headquarters of Estoeric Buddhism. The train ride, a three hour trip from Kobe plus cable car ride up the mountsain was beautiful, and a pleasant reminder that there are trees in Japan, somthing one can forget after becoming use to the cement urban sprawl of cities like Kobe and Osaka. There are over 110 Buddhist tempples in Koyasan impressive given that only 7000 people live there. Many of the temples in Koyasan offer shukubo
(temple accomodation). I was fortune to stay in a lovely temple run by a bunch of friendly young monks and there three-legged dog, who kept everyone entertained. My room in the temple was basic but comfortable and looked out onto a nice garden. While at the temple I was able participate in a zazen (sitting zen meditation) session with one of the monks and a few other guests. While we onlt meditated for one hour, I was slightly distracted by the fact that my feet kept falling asleep, I was also slightly supicious that the monk had fallen asleep , I think I heard snoring...
After a meal of shojin-ryori (vegetarian food - no meat, fish, onions or garlic) 2 monks arrived at my door with a futon matress and sheets and promptly set about making my bed. Goodnight , they announced as they took my dinner dishes and left. Goodnight, at 7pm? Oh, the life of a Buddhist monk! Bright and early the next morning I learned why monks go to bed so early because they have to get up for oinori at the crack of dawn. As the sun rose over Koyasan myself and the half dozen
or so other temple guests gathered in the temple hall where we watched, captivated as two monks chanted, uninterrupted for the next 60 minutes. Incredible! My time with the monks in Koyasan was definately one of the highlights of my time in Japan thus far. On Monday I took in some of the wellknown shrines and temples in Koyasan. The Okuno-in is a famous cemetary in Koyasan, and while I don't normally enjoy jaunts through cementaries this one is lined with hundred yr old tall cyprus trees and contains thousands of tombs, including many samurai which meant that it too was a must see before the scenic trip back down the mountain.
Wednesday morning I was up early again. This time to board the shinkansen, or bullet train, to Hiromshima. The Shinkansen Super Express travels at speeds up to 300 km/hr and was guarenteed to get me from Kobe to Hiroshima in a little over an hour. Quite impressive given that it would take about 5 hours to do the same trip by car. Once in Hiroshima I made my way to the A Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park.The A Bomb Dome serves as a perminant reminder
of the profound tragedy and distruction caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th 1945. I don't think I can adequately articulate for you my experience of seeing the A Bomb Dome and visiting the museum and memorial park. For me it was an education in nuclear weaponry and a part of history I knew shamefully little about before my visit to Hiroshima. Sadly, a gigantic condominium complex is currently being build in the shadows of the A-Bomb Dome.
Later in the day I boarded a street car and a ferry to make my way to Miyajima Island to see Itsukushima-jinja, which is commonly referred to as the floating torii, which is immortalized in postcards and travel ads for Japan and is commonly believed to be one of the best views in Japan, and it didn't disappoint. The view from the island looking ou towards the torii and the mainland was absolutely breathtaking!
I´ve had a great Golden Week, I got to see a lot of wonderful sights and met some interesting folks along the way, and meditated with monks, who can ask for more!
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connie
non-member comment
travel during Golden Week
Hi Melissa, We are happy you are having fun as you experience all the sights of Japan! Take care. Love....MOM and DAD