JAPAN – February 27 – March 1
(Written by Steve)
“I was very thirsty,
and went out for water. I found the water with something like oil all over it.
I wanted water so much that I drank it as it was with oil all over it.” Sachiko Yamaguchi (age 9 at the time
of the 1945
Peace
fountain in Heiwa-koen (
That was
more than 50 years ago but, each year a somber ceremony recalls the horror of
that fateful day. Just after the bomb’s deafening destructive wave shook the
city as though an earthquake had struck, an eerie quiet fell upon
There is no
escaping the atomic bomb with
In nearby
Each year,
on the anniversary of the bombing, a somber pro life demonstration is held in
the park.
We walked
through
I just wanted to give you a quick run down of
our first impression of
We loved it,
really loved it, and we are going to move here! (I can hear my mother-in-laws
voice again) just kidding. But what an experience for someone to come to this
wonderful land for a year or so and learn the language, and see the way they
live.
We are not
the worldliest travelers quite yet, but we have noticed one thing that hits us
every time we enter a new country. You get a feel if you’re going to be safe,
if it’s clean and basically if you are going to like it. All of this seems to
happen in the first ½ hour, and it has been bang on so far. Well, we absolutely
love this place! The people are nice and the food is fantastic and everyone is
so polite, it’s awesome. The only problem we had today was with the kids. They were a bit of a gong show. That was
mostly my fault (Steve’s) because I wanted him (Nikolas) to be so interested
and he was not. Helen told me to leave him alone because, as she said “how many
9 year olds do you know that would be interested in this park”? I guess I would
not have bought into it either if I was his age, but it really angered me. I am
standing in the middle of the epicenter and looking into the sky to see if I
could see any planes, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Nikolas
moping around walking on the forbidden grass and having no part in this place.
O.K. it was not forbidden, it was not even green, but I was angry so it sounds
better. Anyways I lost it on him and the rest of the day between us went down
hill. I even let him wander in the museum and I think that was a big mistake, a
little too much for a 9-year old to be thinking about. He was here and he saw it, I just hope it
does not get inside his head. Or maybe I do, I don’t know. Standing there
myself, I was blown away, so I am not sure what effect it should have on
Nikolas in the future.
We went up
the block to the Atomic Bomb Museum and before you climb the stairs up to the
Museum itself you have to go through a park. The park has a handful of
monuments and the grass area is covered in little sticks and things, and part
of an original wall still standing from the Urakami Cathedral. It’s quite
amazing that the wall and the steps were able to withstand the blast and it is
in very good condition. As you walk up to the steps you see more of those
little sticks in the ground everywhere. I am not quite sure what is planted
there and could not find the words in the phrase book that we could use to ask.
That’s one
problem with not knowing the language, you spend ½ an hour putting 3 words
together that you hope make sense. Then you ask someone the question as if you
are fluent in Japanese and they blast you back with about 25 words in less than
2 seconds. After they hit you with that rapid fire response, you just bow and
smile and say A-ri-gat-to (Thank You) and bow and then walk away as if you are
going to exactly what they said to do, but you don’t have a clue what the heck
they just said.
O.K. now
back to the depressing part, the
After
leaving that place I felt a little guilty for being mad at Nikolas that morning
and I was wondering what was going through his 9-year old head. Everyone asked
us afterwards what Nikolas thought about the Museum and it wasn’t until that
moment that I realized we just let him walk through and look at whatever he
wanted. When you are walking through it, I can only say that you and everyone
around you are in a trance. I know what happened and how it happened but being
in there with the film footage running everywhere and all those pictures, you
just go from one room to another. There are hundreds of people in there, only
not a sound is heard, and we are all just walking. If you ever get the chance
please come to this Museum or
Phewwwww, enough about that, now back to
We got off
the ship and walked until we found a train and then I pulled out Lonely Planet
Japanese Phrase book and started speaking Japanese like it was my second
language. Well I managed to say Hello (kon-ni-chi-wa), Thank you (a-ri-ga-to),
goodbye (sa-yo-na-ra) and the number 4 (shi/yon). Pretty good for one day, no
one could understand a word I said, but I must have used those 3 phrases about
ten times today.
O.K. I know
I am a supposed to be a mature adult, but I was so excited today I just had to
bring my camera into the bathroom to get a picture of this thing. We were
eating in an average kind of Japanese diner when Helen came out of the washroom
and told us we had to see this thing. I went in and came right back out and got
the camera. Move over
We just had
a super great day, and are so looking forward to
(written by Helen)
I have not
seen the film “Lost in Translation” yet, but after walking through parts of
We were told
that
Lucky for
us, our friends from the casino (they hate it when I call them that) allowed us
to tag along again and so the nine of us headed off to the subway to get to the
temple.
The very
first thing you notice as you walk the streets and enter the subway system is
that there is not piece of garbage to be seen on the streets. I saw no graffiti and really the place is
spotless. The other thing you notice
when you enter the underground subway system is the silence. You really could hear a pin drop and I even
looked around to see if the place was deserted but there were people everywhere. It’s almost eerie. There is very little
noise, or should I say human noise, talking, shouting, laughing, nothing! They just seem to go about their business and
that’s it.
The other
thing we were surprised about is the lack of foreign people around. We were in the heart of
Back to the subway system. It is so well
organized. Each stretch of the city is
divided into different sections and each subway train going to that section is
a certain colour.
Does that make sense? For
example, we looked at our map and discovered that we had to take the ‘green’
train to a certain station (they are all marked for easy id) and then we had to
get on the ‘red’ train to reach the temples.
So it doesn’t really matter that you cannot read a bit of Japanese
because unless you are colour-blind you can figure it
out. In fact Steve was a little
disappointed that he could not practice his fluent four words he has learnt in Japanese, he didn’t really need to ask anyone a
question. He would however, much to Nikolas’ embarrassment , say “kanichi-wa” (Hello) and “arigato” (Thank-you) to every
person that was within a 2 metre radius. He also did a lot of bowing and I knew
instantly that he loved this place. It’s
almost like a comedy skit with him, as the person would bow and then he would
and then the person would and then he would and so on and so on. He didn’t know when to stop. I had to walk away and pull him along or we
would have been there all day. He was
also the typical tourist. He took over a
hundred pictures and he swore that he would never laugh at the Japanese
tourists back home again!
Again, the
best thing we did was not take a guided tour to the temples. Instead, we figured out the subway system and
made our way across the city to the temple area. Actually, there are temples all over
As we were
walking along we had to be careful because not only were there a few cars on
this road but more often than that were the bicycles. You turn around and there goes another one
zipping down the road. A very smart and convenient way to get around a busy city. We also noticed quite a few of the Japanese
people wearing white surgical masks.
Steve thought it might be because of the pollution but others suggested
it was to stop the spread of a disease like SARS or the bird flu. We didn’t get a chance to ask anyone this
question so we will have to figure it out maybe in
We finally
reached the temple and we were pleased to find out that it was a huge area with
a stone fence around it and it was the sight of many temples not just the
‘oldest’ one. As we walked inside,
again, we realized how quiet it was here.
We walked along and came to one temple that was located next to a cemetery
with many mausoleums made of granite.
Actually there were many of these pockets of cemetery throughout the
compound. This one temple had a big half
circle that stood about 10 feet high. It
was made of some sort of grass and dangling from the top was two origami
lightning bolts made out of paper. We
were all just standing there staring and we didn’t really know what to do. I kind of felt a little nervous because I
wasn’t sure if we were supposed to talk or not, or laugh or not
, or take pictures or not, or walk up to the temple or not. I’m a little superstitious so I was
contemplating all this in case it was bad luck to do either. This one lovely lady finally motioned with
her hands that we were to walk under this arc but first she motioned that we
must take off our hats first. After
walking under it we walked up to the temple and looked inside. It was beautiful. The giant golden Buddha
sitting there with candles burning and lots of incense burning as well. Every so often one of the locals would walk
up the stairs, bow with their hands in prayer and then walk away. We watched one lady walking back and forth
between two granite pillars and when she came up to the temple she would read a
page from her prayer book, bow, and then walk back and around the pillars, turn
the page and read another prayer. She
was there the whole time we were and you could tell that lots of people do this
because the ground has worn tracks from all the people that do it.
We walked from
temple to temple and each was more beautiful than the first. I wish we had
someone to explain each one and I wish I knew more about Buddhism because the
rituals look fascinating. Throughout the
day you could only hear the ‘bonging’ of a gong (is that what it’s
called?). Well, they would walk up to a
temple and there would be a huge rope hanging down and at the top of this rope
is a solid ball and when they swung the rope the ball would hit the gong and
make a ‘bong’ noise. It sent shivers up
my spine when I would hear them. We also
saw a huge pond with a ton of cute little turtles in it and again I wonder what
the association is with the turtle. When
I find out, I will write it in.
It rained a
little and we were starting to get a little cold so we decided it was time to
get back on the subway and head to the other side of the city. We were headed to an area called Namba. The area is
right beside a river and all along there are stores and restaurants and it is
THE happening place. When we got there
we were not disappointed. We actually
met a nice guy from
This Namba area was incredible.
It was a Tuesday afternoon and the place was packed with locals. The street itself is hard to describe, you’ve
got to view the pictures. It reminded us
a little of
The guy from
N.Z. told us to go to this one building for lunch and when we all got on the
elevator and made our way up to the 5th floor we came upon a most
incredible view. It is also hard to
explain this place and all but one of Steve’s pictures turned out because it
was so dark inside. This building must
have been very old, it was made of stone and the walls on the inside were also
made of big blocks. It was somewhat like
a castle and before you actually walk through it you are given a card and with
this card you can pay for everything: food, clothes, and souvenirs. When you are all done and you exit the
building they scan your card and you pay then.
It’s a really cool concept. We
wanted to find a restaurant that had room for all nine of us but all of the
restaurants in this building were tiny little spots here and there with a few
stools sitting around the cooking area.
It was more of a fast food, take out kind of
place so we didn’t end up eating there.
It was amazing though to walk through and each spot had its own
particular aroma, some smelt delicious, others almost made me gag. There were the gadget stores in here as well
and also in one dark tiny corner sat the fortune tellers with their palm charts
and tarot cards. Nobody was brave enough
to give it a try plus I don’t think they knew any English.
We decided
to head outside and find a place to eat and ended up in a nice restaurant where
we had some tempura, udon noodle soup, rice and green
tea. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever eaten
but it was an experience and we were glad we did it. The kids didn’t like it that much because we
poured the wrong sauce on their rice. It
was not Soya sauce and it made their rice taste ‘funny’. Soooo, from there
we dropped Steve off at the internet café and the kids and I went to
McDonald’s!!!!! I didn’t mind actually
because everyone told us you had to try it once. We didn’t find it any different than at home
other than the fact that they actually have a menu that you
look at and on the back is the English version so it’s easy to
order. Plus our girl knew a bit of
English so we got exactly what we wanted.
The other cool thing is that you must accept money, like your change
with both hands, it’s their custom. And
they bow.
From there
we walked a little down the streets and decided to head back to the ship
because there was a shopping area right beside our ship as well. Good thing we left when we did because we
made it back to the ship just after 5pm and the All Aboard was at 5:30. We did a tiny bit of shopping and then headed
back to our home away from home!
We felt so
safe in
Well, we all
really loved