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Published: April 5th 2009
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Fukuoka Station
Waiting for my Shinkansen, I snapped a few pics in and around the station. Over Spring Break (which is equivalent to Summer Break in America for uni students) I traveled to Hiroshima and nearby Miyajima on my own, and then to Tokyo with a dorm mate of mine. I'd suggest going to the former, and staying away from the latter.
Hiroshima was a cool town. Not too big, at about 1.3 million or something, and not too small. Downtown was readily accessible by foot, and all the major touristy things (the castle, the atomic bomb museum, art galleries, etc.) weren't horribly far away. I got around the city by foot over a few days just fine. Met a lot of cool people, both in the hostel I stayed in and out at restaurants and bars, of both Japanese and foreign nationalities. Needless to say, as an American I felt it was pretty necessary to go to the atomic bomb museum and Peace Park. It turned out to be a pretty intense experience. All the information you would ever want about Hiroshima as a city before WWII, about the development of atomic weapons, and of the tragedy that struck the city in 1945 is available at the museum. After getting all this information, you go
Paper Cranes
There's a story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki who got leukemia after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Going with an old wives tale, she thought that if she was able to fold 1000 paper cranes, she would be granted a wish and would get better. She folded 644, and then died. Now students from around Japan and the world send in 1000 paper cranes in bundles as a symbol of hope for world peace. There were dozens of these bundles of 1000 paper cranes around Peace Park. into another building where there is no music (as compared to the first building), no outside noises, no one talks, no one breathes louder than absolutely necessary. In this second building are dozens and dozens of artifacts from right after the bomb exploded - school uniforms worn by children doing deconstruction work, twisted and melted tricycles, bubbled and cracked roof tiles. More than one person had a handkerchief to his or her eyes while I was in that part of the museum, and I'll be honest, there were several times I had to walk away from an artifact or face bursting out in tears. I had never really thought about how horrible it would have been to die from a nuclear blast, had you not been obliterated right away. Think about it for a second: everything around you, everything you've ever known and loved, has all been blasted down to rubble and fire. Chances are your clothes are shredded from the blast and burnt in places from the intense flash of light from the explosion. Your skin is burned in various degrees - some light burns on the side of your body, whereas your face is black and charred. There's
nothing left in your head but the thought, "I have to find my family." And so you search for however long you can - an hour, a day - until you die from internal bleeding and massive trauma to pretty much your entire body.
And this happened to children, boys and girls who were still in elementary, middle and high school, just starting to figure out what life was. Snuffed out in utter agony.
Anyway, that was, as I said, an intense experience. The next day I went to Miyajima, which is a holy island about a half-an-hour away by train then ferry from Hiroshima station. It's a pretty famous place - one of the top three beautiful places in Japan, rated by the Japanese government. It's so holy that no one is allowed to be born or die on the island (else it would be tainted by the uncleanliness that comes with those two events). A monk named Kobo Daishi climbed Mt. Misen on Miyajima in 806 AD and from the top of the island created the Shingon sect of Buddhism, which is to this day one of the most influential sects in Japan. (He later proceeded
Floating Torii
This is what Miyajima is famous for, really. This big ass floating torii gate. to do an 88 Shrine Pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku, which thousands of people from around the world do every year. I was going to do it, but because of money issues, wasn't able to....next time, I suppose.) The town on the island has a quaint feel to it, though mostly all of the businesses are either small, family-owned restaurants or trinket shops staffed by old women. Deer roam freely in the streets, and I watched a few young bucks have a little scuffle on the beach. At the biggest shrine on the island, Itsukushima Shrine, I was lucky enough to see a wedding (or at least the bride, groom and families having their pictures taken in their traditional wedding attire) and got a few pictures of that. Afterward I climbed Mt. Misen on a path that was mostly concrete stairs, which was disappointing, but I was relieved when I got a chance to chill at the top and look around me at the 360 degree view of the surrounding area. While I was climbing up, though, I had yet another intense experience (Hiroshima just struck a chord in my heart, I guess). I was watching the ground because
Wedding
I'd hate to wear that weird hat she's got on. But I have worn what the groom is wearing - called a hakama. I had decided I didn't want to look up at the scenery until I got the the top of the mountain so as not to spoil the grandeur of it; but once I got to the opposite side of the mountain from where the town is, I decided to take a glance just once and see what was out there. I looked up through a clearing in the trees and was literally stopped in my tracks by what I saw. The gentle blue bay and the cascading mountains behind it that jumped toward my eyes dropped by jaw and wiped all thought out of my head, and I swear I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Helpless for the raw beauty of the whole scene. That's certainly never happened to me before. I recovered quickly enough and continued by hike, but the impression left on my heart by that scene hasn't left me yet.
Tokyo, by contrast, was a disappointment. Yeah, it has a lot of people. Yeah, there are strange things to see (Akihabara, the "nerd district" where you can go to cafes staffed by high school girls dressed in maid costumes, who will call you "master";
Fighting Deer
Epic dual for supremacy on the beach. Harajuku, where all the young kids go to hang out and dress in ridiculous clothes; Shinjuku, with the world's biggest crosswalk; Roppongi, with all of its restaurants, bars and big Nigerian guys hustling you to go to their "bar," which really means they want you to go sleep with illegal immigrant whores). Yeah, I guess it would be alright to live around Tokyo because you would never run out of stuff to do. But in the end, it was just too fucked up of a place to like. I saw far too many disturbing things while in Tokyo to ever want to go there again (child pornography, which I've learned is not illegal to possess in Japan, to name one thing). And it was expensive as hell. Just getting out and back cost me about $500. Bye-bye book money for when I come home...
Oh well. I'm looking for a job now, so at least I'll be able to eat while I'm here.
All the new exchange students have arrived, and they all seem pretty chilled. The Koreans are especially fun, as Koreans are notorious drinkers and partiers, and rightfully so. Certainly not as "strong" as they say
Mini-Buddhas
There were over 500 of these little guys at the Daisho-in Temple which is nestled in the hills behind the town. The rest of the temple was pretty impressive as well. There was a sweet bell that I rang. Dunno if that was sacrilege or not, but if I die by some weird accident, go blame that bell. in Japan when it comes to alcohol as I have become, but they will keep drinking until they're puking and passed out. Brave, brave souls, if not reckless. The only problem I foresee coming up this semester is that of the 27 people living here, there are 20 girls. What kind of madness is going to happen when even just a fifth of those girls are on their periods? What kind of destruction will happen if, by some freak of nature, all of them are on their periods at the same time? What kind of drama is going to unfold as they slowly stop being nice to each other and start acting like strange cats stuck in the same room? Not too excited for that. Also, I guess I just came up with another problem. First of all, obviously you assess how attractive everyone is in the dorm, weigh your options, wonder what it would be like to date someone you live with, flirt a bit, etc. But the thing is, all of the Korean girls are single, and Korean girls are also notorious for living Western guys. Even after just a week of them being here, I've learned that
360
A partial view from atop the observation tower on Mt. Misen. It was a gorgeous day. I have been honored with the title "Coolest Guy In The Dorm," which has already proven to be somewhat awkward since I have a girlfriend. It's especially awkward when three girls are all hitting on you at the same time. Never had to deal with that before...
Anyway, the new semester starts on Wednesday, with my Japanese placement test tomorrow at 9:45 AM. Tomorrow will be the first time I've woken up before 1 PM in about a month. Ugh.
Peace and love.
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