From Destruction to Peace

Our last stop in Japan was Hiroshima.  

Dave did some number crunching with the train times and we had it perfectly figured out so that we could fit a few hours in at Hiroshima before having to catch the last ferry back to Busan.  

It wasn't a lot of time.  Definitely not enough.  But it was a good amount of time to see and feel the destruction that the bomb caused, and still recognize a sense of peace and zen that has since regrown over the land.  

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was curious (due to the manner in which some information was presented), effective (in showing the crippling effects the bomb had on the people and land) and emotional.  Whatever side you take on dropping the bomb you can't walk through that museum and see the clothes that children were wearing when the bomb exploded - that tore through material and flesh - without some somber, sickening, saddness arising inside you.  In a flash they were lost.  In an instant they had nothing.  Burned and melted because of war.  It's upsetting.

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The area surrounding the museum had a feeling of calm.  The  A-Bomb Dome, Children's Peace Monument, the Flame of Peace and the Memorial Cenotaph was full of locals chatting, having lunch, taking a break from the heat; as if a bomb was never dropped there.   

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It was nice to see, and despite the limited time we had there, I'm thankful I was able to walk through those memories.

 

I Can't Say Amazing Enough

Kyoto was a great first Japanese destination.  It's a fabulous city!  So fabulous, that we spent most of Sunday (9/11) exploring further into its culture and sights.  However, because we spent most of Sunday in Kyoto and had another 2+ hour train ride ahead of us, we were going to have to explore Toyko at speeds similar to the Shinkansen due to our limited time in Japan.  Not too much of a bother!  We had a plan!

Shannon planned out the sights and stops in Kyoto, and I was responsible for Tokyo.  Noooo problem that it's the biggest city in the world.  I can handle that, nooooo sweat. :-l  

I used a few minutes of the train ride to map out a general idea of how to attack the city.  The first order of business had us dropping off our luggage, grabbing a quick shower or whatever we needed to clean up at the hotel - yes, that's right, I said HOTEL! with huge, glorious beds, room service, and a private bathroom equipped with shower and tub.  All the perks!!  It even had the extra charm of requiring us to pass through a secruity check point everytime we wanted to enter the building.  That's what you get when you stay at a fancy military hotel! -  Then it was back out on the streets and rails making our way into Shibuya for some dinner and a walk around Shibuya Crossing.

My plan was to get there, have a look around the intersection, lit up so bright you'd have to squint, watch girls (and boys) walk by dressed-up in all their flair and glamour, and find a sushi-go-round restaurant for dinner.  

The plan was a half-fail.

The intersection was not lit up.  In fact it was so unlit that it was nearly dark.  I'd guess this had to do with all the recent disasters Japan had suffered.  Throughout the country various techniques were being employeed to conserver engery and save money (I'm not sure you would see that in America.  I don't think that the land of capitalism would allow billboards to NYC to go dark so that the country could save.  Not if it meant they'd lose Xmillion/billion in potential ad-driven revenue.  That's something to be appauled Japan), but we were able to have a stroll through the area nonetheless and even got to ask a group of punk, pierced, androgenous girls where we could find a sushi place.  

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They directed us just up the road a bit to a diner that left the imagination questioning, but the stomach so, sooo happy.  I LOVE sushi, but haven't had any in nearly 7 months.  It was absolutely amazing to have it again.  And the real stuff.  So fantastic!!

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After dinner we went for another little walk around the area, but decided to make it an early night since the following morning Shannon and I were planning to get up at 5am to head over to Ryogoku to try and see Sumo wrestlers or (even better) get tickets to see the tournament!

This plan was another half-fail.  

I did get up at 5am, but instead of going anywhere I just called the front desk to ask them what they knew about getting Sumo tickets.  However, they were unhelpful, merely instructed me to call back at 7am, when the tourism agent would be at her desk.  7!!  Two hours later!!  We could miss seeing fat men bumping into each other by waiting another two hours!!!!  But I was tired.  Shannon wasn't even up.  Getting up then meant taking the metro out to Ryogoku to maybe/maybe not get tickets and then being out all day... so... we stayed in bed.  We'd risk it.  Plus sleeping is so incredibly nice to do, why miss some of it for fat me?!  

Luckily we didn't have to miss either.  We were able to sleep in a little more and still manage to secure seats to the Sumo tournament that day.  Which, Japan, I do have to fault you here.  Ticket sales had closed the week before, and nowhere was I finding an alturnative means to purchase some.  I was getting a bit scared.  All I wanted out of Japan was to see fat men wrestle!  And all the research I did led me to believe that the only chance I'd have to see fat men was if I got up with the sun and went peering through windows like the neighborhood peeping Tom!  When in fact!!  You didn't have to be Tom at all.  No need to stress that ticket weren't available online, because all the tickets you could want were still on sale at the ticket office!  Brilliant!  I'll take one!  Charge some yen to my credit card and I was in!  See you at 4 fat men!

Tickets successfully obtained we left Ryogoku and headed to Asakusa to see Senso-ji Temple and Asakusa-Jinja Shrine.  Again, Asia posts no information about what you're seeing or why you should be seeing it.  But the Temple and Shrine were gorgeous.  People were packed in there making offerings, sending out prayers, waving incense over their body and generally just being spiritual.  Shannon and I had a go with the fortune sticks, which was an interest experience.  You were suppose to "politely" shake the box contain the sticks while praying for your wish (my wish - to find direction in life), a stick with a number would fall out and you would use that stick to locate the drawer containing your fortune.  So I did as instructed, shook politely while wishing for direction and stick #74 fell out.

No. 74 BAD FORTUNE

You should know that there may be some bad people like a snake or tiger (coincidentally a tiger is my favorite animal, IDK what that means for Shinto prophecies and me lining up, but...) that hurt you.  The chinese letter, two tails for one bull means to loose everything.  When the people get pleasure, there happened to be some interference by others, which is obstacle for peace union of the people.  The upper and the lower do not meet so well, means a family being out of joint.

*Your request will not be granted.  *The sick patient is hopeless.  *The lost article will not be found.  *The person you wait for will not come.  *Building a new house and removal are both bad.  *Marriage of any kind, to start a trip and new employment are all bad.

Alright!  Awesome.  Good news.  Great stuff.  WTFFFFFF?!?!!!

I tried it again.  The second time two sticks fell out.  What's this!?  Another bad fortune and a good fortune.  FML.  I choose to keep my original bad fortune though, and tied the other two to the stand for the monks to collect later.  Things can only get better from bad, right?  There's no below bad, at least not with these fortune papers!  So here's to some bad stuff coming, and then the good!  Thanks Senso-ji!

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From there we metroed over to Otemachi to have a walk past the Imperial Palace.  I say walk past because it was closed.  We got to snap some photos outside, have a little lunch and then carried on to the Meiji Shrine.  Unfortunately, we didn't know what we were seeing at Meiji, so we didn't actually get to see the the majority of it.  We saw the torii gates, 40 ft high made from 1,700-yr-old Taiwanese cypress trees, but we didn't reach the Shrine.  I'm going to blame this on half lack of signs and half lack of knowledge.  Rats!

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But it was ok, because it was SUMO time!!  Back on the metro and we were handing our tickets over and finding our seats to enjoy fat men wrestling!!  It was awesome!!  AND!!! for once!!! we were giving LOADS of information!!  Scorecards, etiquette guides, background information.  We had it all!!  We were finally seeing something that we could understand - for the most part.  It was cool to see, I don't really get the appeal of sumo as a sport, but definitely still cool!  For a few hours, in 4 minute intervals, we watched these huge men squat, touch the ground, stand up, smack their bellies, throw salt, squat, touch, stand up...  Then FIGHT!  Highlight of my trip!

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With just a few hours left in Tokyo, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Dave and head over to Roppongi for dinner and then move on to Shinkuju for drinks and people watching.  We never made it to Shinkuju though.  Dinner was a night ender.

We had done really well on this trip and had only eaten Japanese, so for our last meal for went for Japanese again!  Shannon had mentioned that she'd like to go to a nice restaurant and have a "dining experience".  So I had a look through my guidebook and found Inakaya - "The style here is robatayaki, a dining experience that segues into pure theater" (Fodor's).  The price markers indicated that it'd be a little pricey, but it was our last meal and exactly what we were looking for.  

And it was incredible!  Everything I ate was beyond delicious!  Asparagus - amazing.  Acorns - amazing.  Shrimp the size of fish - amazing.  Ugly red fish with bug eyes - amazing.  By far, by leaps and bounds and worlds and oceans, the best meal I've EVER had!!  And to top things off, at the end of the meal they handed us a photo album containing pictures of all sorts of celebrities who had eaten there: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Keri Russell, Ejiah Wood, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, AND!!! SARAH JESSICA PARKER!! Amazing!!!  Such an amazing restaurant.  

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Then they handed us the bill.  Not amazing.  It was like they took back the meal and my stomach.  55,400 yen.  That's $720.00!  Seven HUNDRED and twenty dollars!  For a meal!!!  For. A. Meal?!  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!

Forget drinks.  That ended the night!  I couldn't even speak for a few minutes!  $720!!!  Never in my life!!  To recover from the shock we had a little walk towards Tokyo Tower and then stopped at an Irish pub for have a drink.  $720!!!!!  That's just so nuts!!  We didn't go to Shinkuju, instead we went to Family Mart, got a few cheap drinks and headed back to the hotel to unwind and wrap up the trip.

It was such a great trip!!  I had to do some wiki reading and guidebook referencing to learn about what I saw, but it was great trip.  Good to get away (again).

Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

I don't tend to put a lot of stock in the belief that "our dreams are telling us something".  I say blah to that.  Most of my dreams I can't even remember!   So how important can they be if your memory erases them?  

I never took a psych class though, so it's possible I'm missing the point all together; but after the dream I had in Kyoto (9/10) I think even Freud would have a hard time intrepreting the odd scene of events that took place in my mind.

Luckily for you, the dream was memorible.  Completely crazy, totally strange, but it stayed with me when I woke up, so I'm going to share it with you!  It was brought on by travel and that's what I'm sharing here, so enjoy(?) :)

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I was sitting in an auditorium with someone - they weren't really a person, no one I was able to recognize, more a body form than anything else.  Our location would constantly switch.  First, we'd be up in the balcony all alone, standing looking down on the main floor.  Then we'd be down on the main floor, were judges sit during theater audtions, in the mix of all the seats with a group of people.  It wasn't that we moved, it was more that we were two sets of people. Based on where we were sitting we'd have different roles - above: observers, below: participants (I don't need Freud to tell me the symbolism there).  

On the main floor things were quite friendly between all of the group memebers.  Everyone was chatting, getting along, but then something disturbed us, stopped our pace.  We turned and saw Us (us here is me with Mr. Body when we're the balcony verison) standing with a young, red-headed girl.

Either she says or We say to the group that they "need to make her believe...".

Group: Believe in what?

We: Belive in farm animals.

Group: Believe in farm animals?! 

Right? I know who doesn't believe in farm animals?!  But this was a dream fueled by a pre-mixed canned beverage, two beers and a long day traveling with what most doctors would agree was an unhealthy absence of water in conditions (high heat and humidity with lots of walking) that required hydration, but received little.

And then, as things happen in dreams, farm animals started to descend from the balcony.  First in smoke form, then solidifying into realistic-cartoon formations.

But as you and I know, everyone believes in farm animals.  Actually, I'm not even sure how it would work NOT to believe in them.  Maybe you don't (wouldn't?) think they were "farm" animals, but that they fall under some other classification... perhaps the milk cow is a pet, or perhaps you don't live on a farm, but you happen to have a cow so therefore, technically, it isn't actually a farm animal... ?!  I'm not sure how it would work.  It happened in my dream so it doesn't need any explaination, it's a moo point.  (Friends reference)

As I said, everyone believes in farm animals and as a result the claim made by Us had to change and so did the scene.

The little, red-headed girl pulls off a wig and yells that she's actually the cousin of one of the people in the group, and that they must "make us believe that they (pointing to two people sitting apart from the group) are in love".

The group is shocked!  Them?!  In love?!  Noooo....

But then they kiss! and everyone believes they are in love!

Change scenes again and the group turns into the gang from 'The Magic School Bus'.

And that, with no additional fabrications, is the dream I had my first night in Japan.

The Land of Geisha

After five months of nothing but working (with only two long weekends) it was finally summer time!!  A trip to China for 2 weeks, one week of half days, then back to school for 3 quick work weeks and it was time for another holiday!!  Second term is amazing.  Absolutely amazing!  

Gifts AND a five day weekend for Chuseok right at the being of term!?!  Chu-really don't-seok!  Absolutely, freaking fantastically, amazing!

I hear Japan calling my name!!  

Actually, Japan called my name months ago. Nearly three months ago, while I was out to dinner for Shannon's birthday, our friend Dave mentioned he was going to Tokyo for Chuseok and we said we were coming.  Next thing I know my ferry ticket was booked and I was really going to Japan.  

I should admit, that I did not have strong desires to go to there.  I don't know why.  I just never put Japan on my list.  -- I think I blame 'The Cove'.  They kill dolphins!  Why would I go there!  But lots of places do bad things (or rather a small group of individuals do bad things, not the entire nation) so I shouldn't have let that cloud my judgement; I could have missed out on seeing a truly wonderful country -- but back to the point...  

I had another Asian vacation to get ready for.  After my love-hate trip to China, I didn't know if I was ready for it.   But I did the essential prep work: ordered the book (Fodor's, a first for me.  I have issues with them though - huge issues!! but that's another post), read the sites, checked the blogs... I was all over it.  But I still wasn't excited.  August was a weird month.  First term had ended, people were leaving, things were feeling unsettled, dislocated.  I felt dislocated.  And here I was, about to take another trip, to a place I really wasn't that interested in.  Ok.  Just let me pack my bag.  

What really helped switch my mind was when my rail pass arrive.  The thing cost a TON-a-won, but it meant I was taking the train! (Sheldon voice)

Skip forward to Saturday (9/10) and we were on the 7:30am ferry leaving Busan heading for Fukuoka, Japan.  

Thank goodness I live 5mins from the ferry port.  I didn't have a big night out on Friday, but we had to check in by 6:30.  Which meant I had to wake up at 6.  A.M.  That's just not a nice time to be waking up on a weekend.  Going home... it's a good time!  Not getting up.  But I did it.  I met Shannon and Dave ready to start our Japanese whirlwind tour.  

 

Despite some rocky weather, we arrived in Fukuoka with no troubles.  We grabbed our bags and caught the first taxi to the train station with our rail vouchers in hand looking for the right place to cash them in.  A sad smile, a warm question and you jump the line - getting your rail pass 10mins faster than you would have if you had waited in line.  Being a foreigner is great!!  Add to it how extremely nice the Japanese are... golden!

The JR (Japan Rail) Pass is a truly amazing thing.  To get through lines and tills all we had to do was flash our pass and gates were opened for us!!  Celebrity style!!  It was so cool!  Cool until the train attendent kicked us off the train for being on the wrong one.  Definitely not celebrity-like.  Apparently with the JR pass there are only two trains you can't ride, and of course we picked one of the two that were no-go's.  No bother, we got to ride it for the majority of the trip to Kyoto, and were only 30 minutes outside the city when we switched trains.  Pop off.  Pop on.  BAM Kyoto by 3pm.

With little time, and lots to see, we dropped our luggage at the hostel and headed out in search of Kiyomizu-dera Temple.  We got a bit lost, but after asking a police officer (?) we were back on the right path and making our way through the Higashiyama streets, browsing the goods being sold by street vendors and cooling down with a sweet ice.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple was very beautiful.  Its cover a vast area of land, but the most breath-taking views are seen from the main hall's huge veranda that extends out over the valley making you feel as if you are suspended out over nothingness.  A further walk through the grounds revealed a lot of cool things - things I don't know what they were, but they were temple-y and cool to look at as you strolled.

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Finally, it was time to eat!  We went back to the hostel to pick up two of Shannon's friends who were in the area, Marilena and Thure (it's German, we weren't sure how to say it, even he said it was hard for Germans to pronounce, so we just called him Thor) and headed out for the night.  Marilena is half Japanese, half German - we used the Japanese side to help find the real food - an omelette full of some type of meat, onions, other stuff, covered with a sauce that was suppose to be spicy but fell somewhere short.  It was good though.  

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After dinner we tried to find a bar to have a few drinks, but all we found were hookers, and that wasn't what we were after, so instead we walked up and down Geisha street for a few turns.  We saw one!! I real Geisha!!  She was dressed beautifully! and moved so gracefully.  So gracefully, that the little minks was too quick for our cameras to get a shot of her!  The best shot I got was dark, fuzzy and you can only see a bit of her as she quickly ducked into the waiting car.  After a bit more Geisha-stalking we gave up, dropped by a Family Mart for drinks and headed back to the hostel to have a few sips to unwind.  Two or three rounds on the rooftop and we ready for a bar.  A Brazilian, guy who was staying at our hostel, told us he knew just the place.

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On the way to the bar my attention was caught by a bridge we were walking over.

Me: It'd be cool to jump off the bridge into the river.

Dave: And kill yourself.

Me: You wouldn't die.

Dave: You'd hurt yourself a lot.

Me: Ok, so it'd be cool to run across the river.  Let's have a race.

Dave: You're on.

But since we were heading to a bar we put off running across the river till afterwards.  However, after didn't happend because we got a bit lost on the walk home.  We were too determined to find our way back that we passed every bridge and river without even thinking of running it.  And then when we finally found the hostel the moment had passed and no race was had.  We did talk a lot of smack, which was fun.

 

Sunday (9/11) we started the day back down on Hooker street to have a little food at an apothecary's coffee shop.  Some toast and egg and we were running to catch the #12 bus up to Kinkaku-ji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion).  Which, besides a beautiful pond that reflects the grandeur of the Golden Pavilion, there wasn't much to see there.  I bought some nice wasabi nuts and saw a Praying Mantis, but that about topped it.

From there we headed towards the center of Kyoto to see the Imperial Palace, which we couldn't see because we didn't have reservations, but we walked passed it and enjoyed the park surrounding it.  We found an old residential house that someone important used to live in.  It's now been converted into a mini-museum that we walked through, but we had limitied time so we were off again and on our way to the Nijo-jo Castle.  

There were about four signs in the whole castle, with one sentence each that explained what we were seeing.  Very informative as you can imagine.  The floors were cool though.  They "sang" as you walked on them, nightingale floors they're called; designed to make any movements within the castle know.  Clever or paranoid?  I'm not sure which I'm leaning towards. 

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Back on the move, we stopped to get some Ramen for lunch before going a bit out of town to Fushimi-Inari Taisha.  Gorgeous.  Stunning.  Just... awe!  The toriis were magnificent.  There's 10,000 of them there.  All painted with red lacquer, lining the pathway up the mountainside, bringing you to various shrines, mausoleums and alters along the way.  It was an amazing sight!  Had the bugs not been so bad that day it would have been inspiring to walk the entire path, but after 20 bites I couldn't take anymore - I had to get out of there!!  Back through the toriis and we were on our way out of Kyoto enjoying one last sweet ice on our way to Tokyo.

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