JAPAN

R & R in Tokyo

On Monday, July 25, 2005, Alwyn and I caught the 3 hour hydrofoil ferry from Busan, South Korea across the Japan sea to Fukuoka, Japan for our
week long trip ot Japan with a number of questions on our mind. Is it really as expensive as people say? Were we going to be able to afford eat? Are Japanese people as short as people say? Is Tokyo truly the city we see in movies like Kill Bill & Lost in Translation? What's that strange smell? All of these questions, with the possible exception of the last one would be answered in our week long tour of the land of the rising Yen.

HIROSHIMA

Upon arriving in Fukuoka we caught the night bullet train to Hiroshima. A tram ride and a frustrating search for the hole in the wall hotel I had chosen for our accomodation later we went to sleep in our sweatbox hotel room. We checked out the hotel the next morning and headed out to explore the city. In the light of day we noticed that Hiroshima was a beautiful city, the tramline really lent it an old charm.

Although the hotel was fairly basic it was good in the regard that it was right near all the places we wanted to see that day. So after breakfast and a coffee we walked the short walk over the bridge to Hiroshima's Peace Park. Peace park is a very nice park that was set up as a memorial of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. The park's site is located at the hypocentre of the explosion and is dedicated to nuclear disarmament and peace in general - the perfect use for a place that was witness to such brutality. Yesterday (August 6) marked the 60th anniversiry of the bombing, so you may have seen pictures of Peace Park in the news.

To look at the park their wasn't much to suggest that it was once obliterated by nuclear bomb - except for one thing, The "Atomic Dome". The Atomic dome is an old government building with a dome roof (hence the name) that is one of the few buildings that survived the blast, and is the only one still standing today.

The Atomic dome sits at the back of the park as a grim reminder of what happened 60 years ago. They say the reason it is still standing is because the bomb was detonated in the air almost directly above the building, the force hitting the building downwards instead of across. It gutted the building, everything inside caught fire and everyone inside was killed instantly, but the the building's framework remained untouched. It was so surreal, we stared at for an hour.

During our walk in the park there were a bunch of young japanese English students who interviewing the foreigners in the park, most of them around 5-7 years old. They were so cute , asking questions like "What is your name?", "Where are you from?", "Do you like purple?" and "Do you like lollypops?".

After the walk in the park, we headed to the museum. The relatively calm atmosphere of the park was contrasted in the museum. The museum documented the history of the war and the bomb, emphasising the nuclear bomb's destuctive power and the need to get rid of these weapons. The part on the rebuilding of Hiroshima added some hope to the picture. The most moving part of the exhibition was the section where they showed relics from the bombings, complete with children's school uniforms that they were wearing at the time of the blast, a watch that stopped at 8:15 (the time of the blast), a child's lunch box with his lunch burnt to a crisp inside, a piece of someone's thumb, and a toddler's tricycle. Everyone around the room was close to tears.

Going to Peace park and the museum in Hiroshima is something that will stay with the me for the rest of my life. If you are ever in Japan I strongly recommend that you go, it has a way of putting things into perspective...

Late in the afternoon we traveled to Kyoto by train.

KYOTO

We arrived at Kyoto at about 9:30pm. Tonight we would be staying at the Holiday Inn, which strangely enough was the cheapest hotels out of all, possibly because it was one the hardest hotels to find (My hotel choosing skill once again proudly displayed). We had no idea to get to the hotel so we called them from the closest payphone and got rough directions. So we did what they said and got on the bus and got off at the bus stop close to the hotel. The hotel wasn't in eye shot, it was dark and we had no idea how to get a hotel. After wandering around for 20 minutes, we finally asked someone for directions. This was where we got our first real taste of Japanese politeness. The guy we asked, he looked like he was on his way home from work with his dinner in his hands, did an about face and gestured us to follow him. He walked us the way to the hotel, which would have been very difficult for us to find as it was in a back street. If that had been in Australia I'm sure all I would have got was a vague point followed by "over there" or something to the effect. So, we found the hotel which was your typical international hotel, it was fairly nice.

The next morning we first headed back to the train station to put our bags in lockers so we could trek around and see the temples. We got some tourist info and off we went. We got on a sight seeing bus, which was similar to the regular buses but it traveled to different temples throughout the city. Kyoto is an absolutely amazing city, one of the few cities that did not get bombed in WW2, so it still looks and feels like old Japan. The old-style arcitecture in the town was good to see; especially all the buddhist temples and shinto shrines. Their are over 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto so it was hard to chose which to visit. In the end, we found a walk by the name of the "Path of Philosophy", which was a scenic walk that took us past many small temples and shrines and ending with the magnificent Nanzen-ji temple. The walk was beside a small river and lined with cherry blossom trees. The walk took us about 2 hours, it wasn't very long but we stopped to look at things on the way. The buildings we saw were nice, so different from anything I'm used to at home.

At the end of the walk we found ourselves at Nanzen-ji temple, an absolutely breathtaking place. It was originally built in the 13th century as a retirement villa for the Emperor but was turned into a temple upon his death. Most of the original buildings were destroyed in the 15th century by civil war and were rebuilt in the 17th century. After walking though the menacing sanmon gate we found ourselves in the temple's grounds. Within this were numerous sub-temples. We explored the small temples and the grounds before paying our 500 yen (about $AU7) to go inside the main hall. In the main, or hojo's, hall we explored the old sleeping quarters which had walls decorated with old Japanese drawings and enjoyed the beautiful traditional gardens, - "Hows the serenity?"

What we saw of Kyoto was amazing; and what we saw was but the tip of the iceberg. It is a big city with all soughts of things like this to explore - I'd love to go back someday. After our day of walking - it was on to the night train to the buzzing metropolis that is Tokyo.

TOKYO

We got into Tokyo at about 8pm on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. After having some problems with getting the ATM's to accept our foriegn cards we hopped on the subway to catch a train to our next place of accomodation, the Ryokan Kantetsu. A Ryoken is a Japanese style hotel. So it was a futon on the floor and a fairly basic room. It was similar to a backpackers at home only Japanese style. The grounds were nicely landscaped with Japanese gardens and rock pools, the common room had internet and a cool, but strange, massage chairs.

We had two days in Tokyo to explore the city before the fuji festival. We spent our time basically just wandering around the city and checking it out. We went to the Sony building in Ginza, it was good but there was not as much hi-tech new gadgets as I had hoped and no sign of the PS3, the shinjuku shopping area, which was buzzing with bright lights and people everywhere, the Ginza shopping district, and the electric town, a conglomerate of electronics shops (a must for all cybergeeks). Tokyo is a city of contrasts, while it is a huge bustling city unlike any I have been to, there are places like Ueno Park, which was a giant park surrounded by museums, art galleries, an antiques market and a zoo. Inside the park there were also Shinto Shrines and beautifully landscaped grounds. It was the perfect escape from fast city environment, and the shade provided much needed respite from the heat, as it was a very hot day. We spent all afternoon there.

Tokyo had the big city vibe that I was hoping for and more. Of all the cities we visited its hard to pin down a favourite but Tokyo is the city I would most like to spend an extended time in, maybe someday.

So, what did we learn in our week in Japan? Well, Japan is not as expensive as people say, its a little more expensive that Korea and Australia but nothing to stop anyone from going. I mean if you wanted to eat steak every night and go exclusive stores and clubs then yeah you will drop a lot of cash, but otherwise its okay. So, yes we could afford to eat. We also learned that Japanese people are not short people (another Myth BUSTED). As for the movie question, well I think its best to visit a place like Japan especially Tokyo without to many preconceptions, having said that those movies are not completely off the mark. We never found out what that smell was....

Till next time

-T