Japan page 4 of 4
April 1, 2003
Nagasaki was not what I expected from Japan. I say that and then think back to the fact that I really didn�t know what to expect. I guess I was expecting to see tons of people rushing around in a hurry, that�s just what I had in my head from movies (this whole trip has really taught me that you can�t base a judgement on a movie. I think I�ve heard that somewhere before). We got in to Nagasaki on April first, there were no April fools jokes, and we did finally get off the ship. We got off the ship as soon as we could (9:45am, the fastest customs clearing yet!) and headed straight for Nagasaki Station to buy bus tickets for the next day. The station was on the way to the Peace Park, so we decided we would just walk there, good exercise you know? Especially after sitting on a ship for 12 days. We were wandering along the street, taking in the sights when all of a sudden someone looked to the left and gasped. We all starred, not sure what to do. We saw a sight that we had not seen in a very long time. Directly down the street, with green lights glowing and a sweet aroma, lay Starbucks. I know this sounds sad to you. Mom and dad, you�re probably sitting here reading this thinking �we paid good money for that girl to go out and explore the world and she goes to Starbucks, you can do that in the US!!!� Well, the coffee on the ship is only good when they have banana cake with caramel sauce. The banana cake has nothing to do with good coffee. However, if you take the ship coffee, add some sugar, milk and some of that tasty caramel sauce you get something that resembles a caramel macchiato � very tasty in my mind, but nothing like Starbucks. So we wandered into the store and ordered our coffee. We also shared some milk; strange as that may sound the only milk on the ship tastes something like milky chalk water � yeah, not so good. It was pretty cold in Japan, and raining too, nothing like the hot and humid ports we had been to before, so the coffee warmed us right up. You may be wondering how we ordered since everything is written in Japanese. Well, every restaurant in Japan (most of them at least, you�ll find out later that not all of them are this way) have picture menus or plastic food representing what they have � this makes it much easier to order.
We went on our way and arrived at the bus station at about the same time as other mobs of SAS students who were also buying tickets. We finally got our bus tickets, after realizing the sheet we had been given was wrong about prices and the bus was indeed cheaper than the train. We had been informed that Japan is known for its vending machines and convenience stores, they sure are. There are vending machines lining the streets � they sell soda, coffee (warm and cold, don�t know how they warm up those little aluminum cans so fast, but that coffee was hot, beer, cigarettes, and we were even told they sell underwear � we didn�t see this though). In the convenience store we rediscovered Pocky sticks � those cookie like sticks dipped in chocolate, not a good thing to find the first day you are there. They have tons of flavors � we started with regular chocolate, moved on to strawberry, soon discovered that banana was really good and then we bought the coconut ones. BIG MISTAKE. Those of you, who have tasted Samoa�s before, the Girl Scout cookies with chocolate and coconut, will have some idea just how good these things were. They taste exactly the same as somas and they were delicious. Sorry about that story, I just had to share some more random information with you.
Before going on this voyage I figured that in the majority of the countries we went to the people would not speak English � let�s just say I was wrong. I was expecting Japan to be one of the few countries where most people spoke English � let�s just say I was wrong again (0 for 2, so sad). Everything in Japan is in Japanese (makes sense since that�s the country we were in). They tease you though, they really do. We would walk up to some really interesting looking building and go to read the sign and it would say something like �former location of the so-and-so colony� (in English) and then it would explain the significance in Japanese � very frustrating. But we saw a lot of neat stuff on our walk, I couldn�t tell you what half of it was but it looked really interesting. Moving on��.we were walking to the Peace Park, which, on the map, looked as though it was pretty close to the ship and we soon discovered that it was not so close to the ship (Luckily the signs were in English). About 3 � or 4 miles (apparently this map was not to scale) later we arrived at the Park. This distance would not have been so bad had I not been sitting on my butt, locked up on a ship for 12 days previous to it, but it hit hard. The park was absolutely beautiful. The cherry trees were blooming, they apparently only bloom for 1 or 2 weeks during the year so we were really lucky to see that. We had all been chatting on our walk to the park but the instant we arrived it got quiet. Everyone just stopped talking and took in everything that had happened here. I�ll give you a little history on exactly what the Peace Park is, before arriving in Nagasaki I had not idea exactly what the significance of Nagasaki was. During WWII the US had a whole list of potential Japanese cities that could be targets for our atomic bombs, we all know of one of those places � Hiroshima (you�ll get info on that one after I go to Osaka). After looking over the list of over 30 cities they finally had it cut down to 3 or 4 target cities, Nagasaki being included. On August 9, 1945 the US bomber Bockscar was sent on a mission to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Kokura, at this point it looked as though Nagasaki would not be hit. However, there was a dense cloud covering over Kokura and Bockscar was rerouted to Nagasaki. At 11:02 the bomb was dropped. No one knew what hit them, how could they? We walked around the park before going into the museum so we really didn�t have any clue what the impact of the bomb was, other than the fact that it killed thousands and thousands of innocent people. I probably need to tell you that Nagasaki was not a military base; the victims were civilians, innocent people who had no say as to what the roles of their government and military were in the war. We walked around the park in silence; if we spoke it was in whispers. There was something about being at the hypocenter of an atomic bomb drop area that really gets ya. Many of the statues and monuments had hundreds of paper crane chains draped over them as a sign of peace giving the area some color other than the pink of the cherry blossoms. We walked further into the park and arrived at the actual peace statue. This is a huge man (statues usually are pretty big, that was probably self-explanatory) with his right hand pointing to the sky (toward where the atomic bomb came from and to the threat of nuclear weapons) and his left hand is pointing toward world peace and tranquility. The quote from the sculptor read �after experiencing that nightmarish war, that blood-curdling carnage, that unendurable horror, who could walk away without praying for peace� that kind of made the whole experience a little easier to understand, not much though. We were approached two or three times by Japanese men who acted out the bombing. They would say �Nagasaki, Atomic bomb.� Then they would go on to act out the bomb being dropped and the mushroom cloud that came next � it was really creepy. The peace park was emotionally something that is really hard to explain but I never could have expected the emotion that the museum provoked. Before leaving the park I threw a coin in the fountain by the Peace Statue and I made a wish.
The pictures and writings in the museum were really powerful. Saying that doesn�t seem like enough, �really powerful� doesn�t seem like a good way to explain what we saw. I saw pictures of water towers that had melted, the metal just twisted into a new shape, the only thing I can liken it to is Roger Rabbits Toon Town � the frames were just all bent out of shape, like you were looking into those weird mirrors at an amusement park. Bills inside safes were burned, but intact. Coins and glass bottles had melted together. There were pictures of people who had been hit by the radioactive waves of the bombs, those who were killed right when the bomb hit, those that died instantly were by far the lucky ones. Those people, the ones who were hit first looked like dirty dolls. Their bodies were strewn on the ground and the radiation had burned their eyes out � there were just holes there now. The skin had burned off of others, there bodies lay on the ground looking like they had been decomposing for years � these were no signs of facial features left. A quote next to one of these pictures put the remains of the town into perspective �charred corpses seem to be crawling out from the endless field of rubble.� The biggest impact for me was the shadows. There was a picture of a wooden house with the shadow of a ladder and a man. This may seem perfectly normal to you, but something here is backwards. The shadow of the ladder and the shadow of the man were white; they were not dark like shadows normally are. The other problem with the picture is the fact that neither the ladder nor the man were present at the time the picture was taken. The radiation from the bomb burned shadows into wood. I have no other way of explaining that and it may make no sense to you, but I stood starring at this picture for I don�t know how long amazed and horrified at the fact that something could burn the image of a human onto wood � I still can�t fathom it. Everything within 6.7 square kilometers of the hypocenter was reduced to ashes. My friends and I stood in the museum, with tears welling up in our eyes. Mine were tears of sadness and of anger. I kept wondering how our government could do such a horrific thing to innocent people. I tried to tell myself that Japan did it first; Japan did Pearl Harbor that killed thousands of soldiers. But they were soldiers. Don�t get me wrong I don�t like war anymore than any of you do and killing a soldier is still killing a person but for me killing innocent civilians is in a league of its own. I starred at a quote by Roosevelt; I couldn�t believe what I read. I couldn�t believe that the dropping of the bombs could be justified in such a way, for me there is no justification for it. I couldn�t believe that someone could be elected our president and say something that to me is absolutely ridiculous and is just so far from a reason to kill thousands of innocent people. He said �we have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.� So what then Roosevelt? End the lives of thousands and thousands more Japanese, that have nothing more to do with the war than the fact that they are the same race as a ruler who involved his country in the war? I just don�t get it.
I�ve felt uncomfortable in other countries, but that has all been due to the fact that I was being starred at by people who I had been told would pick my pocket if I was not careful. I not only felt uncomfortable in the museum and park but I felt ashamed. I was embarrassed to be standing there next to people who had lost family members, and maybe people who had been through it. For a moment I was ashamed to be an American, I wanted to leave. I felt like the eyes of the Japanese in that museum were all starring at me, blaming me for something that had occurred 37 years before I was born. Then I looked to my side. I was enthralled in a picture, in some horrific scene set on August 9, 1945; no one was starring at me. They were all mesmerized by the same pictures I was looking at; they were not interested in my presence. I then remembered many people in other countries had stated that they did not blame the citizens of the US for the war that is going on right now, they blame the government and our leader � I guess the same goes for WWII. We left the museum in silence and we didn�t talk about it for a good couple of days. A few days later I found out my friends and I left that museum with the same emotions, with a mixture of unexplainable images, with sadness and anger swirled together in a combination that had never before been experienced by any of us � over something that we were not alive for, something that we had no say in, no way of controlling. Another thing about the museum is the fact that it was not anti-American, it was just anti-war. So many things portray the bombing of Pearl Harbor as anti-Japanese, but that won�t get us anywhere it just creates more animosity toward a people that had no control over the events of almost 60 years ago. Many different countries donated statues to Japan for the Peace Park. Over and over again the same phrase was repeated��. �This monument is donated to Japan from so-and-so country as a sign of peace��..so that an event like this will never happen again.�
We walked back to the ship after that � I�m going to move on to happier times now. That�s right; we walked back to the ship. We didn�t learn our lesson the first time we walked 3 � miles so we decided to do it again, we had good intentions � after all every last one of us had been on the same ship for the last 12 days. Nagasaki reminded me of San Francisco; it probably did so because I was told that it would � kind of gives you a certain mindset when you�re told something will be a certain way. Somehow Japan seems to be very up to date yet very behind the times. Technology wise they have newer stuff than we do in the US, but clothes wise it�s another story. I said it reminded me of San Francisco, but it was like San Francisco ten years ago. Then men all wear business suits (yes suits, you know those nice slacks, pants and ties) and the women are all in skirt-suits and heels. Nagasaki was very clean, there were trash cans everywhere (which were separated into sections, let�s hope we read that Japanese right � they had pictures so it was easier to tell what trash goes where). In the morning we saw business men, in their suits, sweeping the streets, collecting the leaves and throwing them out. Do you have any idea how much cleaner the US would be if people swept the street every morning? My goodness, it�s just too easy. I better move on before my parents get too excited about the fact that I have realized picking something up everyday (like say your room) will keep it much cleaner than letting it pile up for weeks and weeks. J There were not tons and tons of people like I expected either. Late at night, yes it was finally safe to go out at night, there were really bright signs � it was like a miniature version of Times Square.
We went back to the ship for dinner and the head of restaurant staff on the ship approached me and asked if I would give him some Yen for US dollars so one of his crew could call his wife back home. He kept looking at one of his buddies and they were smirking and the other guy was laughing so I knew something was up but I gave him the money anyway knowing that they crew hadn�t gotten off in time to go into the banks and exchange money and I figured they would use it for a good time. Laura and I were walking around later that night and when we walked by a park we saw a whole bunch of the ships crew � they were drinking and living it up. It looked like they were having a blast. I figure they need some time to blow of all the hard work they do on the ship, so my money exchange went to a good cause. Plus I made Rudy, the head of the restaurant staff, promise to make really good brownies with frosting for us � they are the favorite dessert on the ship. Laura and I stopped into one of the casino places they have just to check out the games. They had some slots and then they had this game with little silver balls that you have to fling up and you have to try and get them through a certain slot � very descriptive I know. If you do well you get the little silver balls back and you turn them in for money. Well, we didn�t do so well. We only got one ball back. Other people had 6 or 8 buckets of those little silver balls � one game was enough for us.
April 2, 2003
Our bus to Kumamoto left at 8:40 this morning so we left for the bus station at 7:45, just to get there early. Cabs are expensive and we hadn�t figured out the tram system yet, so we walked again. The ride was about 3 hours, half of it spent sleeping and the other half of it was spent starring out the window. Japan looks a lot like the U.S. we kept saying it was like being in the US, but not. Strange I know, but that�s how it was. We arrived in Kumamoto and went to the tourist information center to ask for help. We told the lady we wanted the cheapest hotel they had. She called the �hotel� and told us to go to the tourist info desk at the train station and they would call the owner and he would pick us up. We felt pretty dang special at this point. We went back to the bus station and tried to find the tourist info desk, we thought the train station and bus station were at the same place. We should have noticed that the lack of trains probably meant that the train station was not there. We finally figured it out and took the tram to the train station. They called and soon this little old guy in sweat pants, with his t-shirt tucked in tight, pulls up in his van and loads us up and heads off to the �hotel.� A couple minutes later we arrived at his house! Strange, we thought. But we had wanted to do a home stay and by luck we ended up doing one. He and his wife welcomed us, gave us tea and some kind of squishy-doughy-sugary-white & purple ball thing (bean paste) and we signed their guest book while sitting at one of the little tables where you sit on the floor. They showed us our room which was just a big area with mats on the floor � it was great to get a different experience, rather than just staying in a western hotel.
We left their house, after being told we had a curfew at 10pm, and headed for Kumamoto castle. This was not what I expected from a castle. I had expected some kind of Irish castle or something. It was really neat though. The walls were what I expected, made of stone and all � but the main structure was built with Japanese style architecture (yeah, weird since we were in Japan). There was a lot of construction going on and the inside of the castle had been redone so it didn�t really seem like a historic site. It was still pretty neat though. There was a little market with lots of food so we decided we should do a little taste test. The first thing we hit up was the ice cream stand � we hadn�t been allowed to eat ice cream in some of the other ports (you know the whole un-pasteurized deal) and the ship ran out of fro-yo AND only had 1 flavor of ice cream left after our 12 day journey, so we had to get some. The ice cream was good. As for our next taste test I really don�t know what to say. We saw these doughy ball things (not like we had earlier) and they resembled a rice ball with some kind of fried coating � so we bought some. The lady packed up six of them for us, put on some soy sauce looking stuff, and threw on some kind of thin something-or-other that looked, well this is going to sound gross, but it looked like peeled skin. We bought it, so we had to try it. It was gross � that�s all I really need to say. It had some gooey stuff inside along with some squid and just left an awful taste in your mouth, but we tried it and lived so we threw it away and moved on.
After this we wandered around the little park that was adjacent to the castle, it too was beautiful. All the trees were blossoming and people were having picnics, again very US like. We were quietly walking along a path when all of a sudden we heard these loud gasps and REALLY loud giggling. We turned and these 5 Japanese girls were sitting on their tarp (the ground was wet, it was a rainy day picnic) having a picnic pointing and giggling at us. They were soooooooooooo very excited to see us, it was a great self-esteem booster. It�s crazy how good it makes you feel to have someone who does not know you get so very excited to see you. We went over and took a couple of pictures with them (they of course threw in the peace sign whenever they could). As we were walking away I realized that I had some postcards to give away. So I walked back toward them. Let me tell you, the first time they saw us they were really excited, but if you walk away and then come back again��..oh my goodness those gals were just hysterical � it was great. I pulled out the postcards and gave one to all of them and they were absolutely thrilled about it, they just kept shrieking and giggling and waving to us. We walked into some temples and shrines and then headed back to town.
At this point we were all pretty hungry so we stopped at this little place on the corner. We got some really good rice and meat and were enjoying our meal when this voice says �where ya�ll from.� Sitting across from us was a guy from Australia. It was nice to be able to talk to someone in English. He had worked in Japan for 3 years and knew the area we were in pretty well, so he pointed us in the direction of Jeff�s World Bar (this is where we would be able to find English speaking people that had lived in Japan for a while) after dinner and headed back to work. We noticed that the Japanese work a lot. We probably finished dinner around 7:30 and the guy was rushing back to work after a dinner break � pretty crazy. At dinner we all felt a little uncomfortable because the whole time we were eating there was this Japanese guy starring at us. No joke. It wasn�t like he looked at us then looked away. The whole time we were there he was starring at as; we didn�t know what to do so we just kept eating. This guy had talent though. He ate his whole meal while starring at as, he never once looked down to see where his food was or if he was getting it into his mouth � pretty amazing for eating rice with chopsticks.
After dinner we walked around an outdoor mall area for a while. There were a lot of people there. I guess more people go out at night because they are all working or going to school during the day. We almost gave up on finding Jeff�s World Bar because we were all turned around and were not sure which direction we were to go. We finally figured it out and found the place. It was a little hole in the wall and had just opened when we wandered in. Larry, the bartender, gave us a strange look when we came in (probably something along the lines of �where the heck did 5 white girls from the US come from? And more importantly why do 4 of the 5 of them have shaved heads?� He even asked us if we were with the military when we told him we were docked in Nagasaki. Soon we found out that he was from Pittsburgh (where two of the girls I was with were from) and he had heard about SAS and knew all about it. He had come to Japan 2 years before to teach English. There is a program that allows people to come to Japan and teach English, even if they don�t know any Japanese. He was fluent now, so I guess it paid off. There were lots of games (like Jenga and connect 4) to play and so we sat around playing games for a while and then headed back to the trolley so we wouldn�t be late for our curfew. We got back to our house at about 9:55 (just made it) and when we went into our rooms we discovered Kimonos (the robes they wear). We took and extensive amount of pictures wearing our kimonos and then headed off to bed on our mats.
April 3, 2003
We had planned to go to Mount Aso today, so we got up early and headed for the bus station. Our ticket was in Japanese so we really had no clue what it said other than Kumamoto to Aso. A bus pulled up at our stop at the time our ticket said so we got on. I showed the ticket to the driver just to make sure we were on the right bus. He nodded his head and pointed to the back, so we got on and settled down. Many of the buses in Japan have seat numbers, this one included. We noticed that there were no assigned seats on our ticket � I guess we chose the right one�s to sit in. A minute later a family came on and through much sign language we discovered that we were in their seats. One man that spoke a little English helped us out and we soon realized that we were on the wrong bus; lucky for us we caught it before it was too late. Our bus showed up a couple of minutes and we were on our way to Aso.
We got quite the disappointment when we arrived because it was really foggy. We tried to go up the hiking trail but the man in the booth turned us around and made us go back down. We couldn�t see anything and really had no clue where the mountain we were looking for was. The postcards we found of it looked beautiful, but we never got to see the mountain. We walked around the base area for a while but the roads were not quite the same as a walk up a mountain. On the way to the bus back to Kumamoto Callee bought a recorder � remember those little flute like things we learned how to play in fifth grade? She only knew two songs so those two songs were all we heard for the rest of the day. We jumped on the last bus to Kumamoto and settled in for our next long bus ride. One of the girls had left her bag in a locker at Aso station and ran off the bus when we got there to grab it. The bus driver closed the door and was ready to leave without her. He told us that he had to stay on schedule and we tried to explain to him that she would be back really soon. We convinced him to wait and she made it back on the bus just in time. We arrived in Kumamoto and knew we would be heading straight back to Nagasaki. So 4 of us walked around downtown Kumamoto for awhile and got some TCBY frozen yogurt � very tasty!
We finally got back to Nagasaki around 9pm and we were starving. We found a little restaurant and once again found ourselves sitting down. After being on a bus for 3 hours we all had to go to the bathroom so we headed in. The toilets we found were very strange. Previous to this the majority of the toilets just looked like toilet bowls in the ground; we got excited at this restaurant when they had actual toilets. There was a strange apparatus attached to the toilet though and we were not sure what it was. I finally figured the pictures out and we discovered that it was a toilet with a bottom cleaner attached. We didn�t play with it and according to some of the stories we heard about others getting soaked by these things it�s good we didn�t. After dinner we decided we would like to relax and see a movie. We found a sign that told us the last movie was starting at 11:45 and we decided to go to that one.
I have a bruise on the palm of my hand. You may find yourself thinking that�s a strange way to start a paragraph, what movie did they see? Did she forget a whole paragraph? I�m lost! Only some of you (especially you Maria) will understand the suspense needed to introduce my next Japan experience. We didn�t see a movie. Apparently the red Japanese characters above the time we were planing to go meant something along the lines of �this movie does not show at this time today,� so we nixed the movie and wandered around the mall. The only thing open at the mall at midnight is the arcade, which we later found out wasn�t actually still open � the doors being open doesn�t mean come on in and have a blast, it just means that the doors haven't been closed yet. We wandered in and in the back we found one of our newest addictions � air hockey. Right now my parents are thinking �Starbucks and air hockey, what more could we ask for her to experience while she�s in other countries.� Some of you just may not understand how necessary it is to regress back to your childhood after being locked up on a ship for so long and not seeing anything that resembles something familiar (other than your family in Africa, but honestly who sees that?) So, moving on. Callee and I ran for that thing like it was candy or something. We threw in our 2 bucks and started to play. But what was this? It ended up being air hockey with a twist. Earlier I mentioned that Japan is ahead of the US in some ways and behind the US in others. Air hockey is definitely something they are ahead in. This was �three puck play� air hockey AND the pucks were electronically spit out, none of that manual throwing of the puck onto the table (some of you may have experienced such air hockey before but we sure hadn�t). so you start out playing with one puck and randomly the machine says �THREE PUCK PLAY!!!!!!!!� and out come two more pucks, a goal, another puck, a goal, another puck � pure madness, it was great. We had about a minute left to play when one of the guys that works there comes up to us and tells us it�s closed. So we finished our game and headed back to the ship. I should say we walked back to the ship � another mile. But the walk went pretty fast because Callee was playing her recorder and we were all singing along. We attempted our own version of �eye of the tiger� when we went up the gangway but it didn�t sound too hot and the crew looked at us like we were out of our minds.
April 4, 2003
This morning we looked at our map and decided we knew exactly which way to go to get to Glover Gardens. After walking for about 30 minutes up a steep hill we looked at the map again and figured out that we were definitely going the wrong way. This ended up being a good experience for us because we went back down the hill through a neighborhood and got to see just what a Japanese neighborhood looked like, plus there was a jungle gym on the way down, but we won�t get into that. The gardens were really pretty but it ended up being more of a makeshift neighborhood from the 1800�s than a garden. We also went to Oura Catholic church which is the oldest church in Japan, once again beautiful. We headed over to Dejima wharf, the old Dutch colony town, but discovered it was more of a nightlife place and there was absolutely nothing to do there during the day. Since we didn�t get to go to China earlier in the voyage we decided to hit up China Town. Lunchtime was approaching so we decided to go to a random Japanese restaurant that was out of the way. It was called Moonshine and the whole sign was written in English. We got up stairs to the restraint and discovered that no one spoke English and the menu was not in English. Callee and I finally got the point across that we wanted something with noodles and Laura explained that she wanted chicken. We got really excited for our random tasting of Japanese food. Then they brought the food to us. Callee and I ended up with spaghetti and Laura had something that looked like a chicken patty for a chicken sandwich. The food was really good but not what we were expecting from this restaurant.
We wandered around the city a little more and then headed back to the ship for a nap. On the way we stopped at the 100 yen store. This is like a dollar store in the US, only the quality of the stuff is better. It was a great way to buy a lot of random stuff and not spend too much money. That night we went to Starbucks again, it was a chilly night and a cup of hot chocoloate was all I needed to warm up. We were still pretty tired from all of our travels so we headed back to the arcade. Callee and I discovered that we have absolutely no rhythm what so ever. After a couple of games of air hockey we moved on to different games. We played some electronic ping pong and then tried this game with light beams and music notes and all this crazy nonsense that we were just awful at, but it was fun. Then we tried that dancing game. The one with the four arrows (one forward, one back, one left, and one right) and you have to stomp on the arrow when it matches up with the other arrow on the screen. We got addicted to this game and found our favorite song �I�m a cowgirl� and kept trying it over and over again, we got a little better as the night went on. I, however, was not allowed to press the buttons anymore because the first time I did it I accidentally pressed �heavy� which is the toughest level and we lost after about 10 arrows went by, so I was banned from pressing buttons from then on out. l
We decided to call it an early night and headed out of the mall. We stopped and took some pictures at those picture booths, where you can pick the background and all, and then headed back to the ship � once again we walked. I definitely got my fair share of walking in while I was in Japan.
April 5, 2003
Our last day was spent wandering around the city again. We walked through one of the malls and noticed some shirts that were made of old shirts from the states, they were cut up and re-sewn, there were also bags like this. I was looking at one bag that was made of an Arizona State shirt when I heard Laura say �holla, holla, what do we have here?� I went over to see the bag she had found. It was made of an old blue shirt with the Boy Scout sign on it. I looked closer and it said Troop 26, Napa CA! I just thought that was great. Had it not been so ugly I may have bought it, but it just wasn�t my style. We left the mall and went to the shrine for the 26 Christian Martyrs that were killed and went to some really big shrine with a huge buddha and dragon on it, we weren�t sure what it was though � everything was written in Japanese, no English subtitles this time. We had a little snack and Laura and I decided to wander around some more streets of Nagasaki. We were supposed to meet Callee at 1:30 at Starbucks so at about 1:00 we headed back down to where we thought the bus station was, so we could situate ourselves and then find Starbucks. Well, the road we though paralleled the bus station didn�t really run anywhere near it. We had no clue where we were. We kept walking, in what we though was the right direction, and soon found ourselves in the hills of Nagasaki. We had seen the hills of Nagasaki from afar but had never actually been anywhere near them, we now found ourselves in those hills. We finally found a sign that pointed us in the right direction (back the way we came) and soon found ourselves at the station. We booked it over to Starbucks and Callee was still waiting for us there. We grabbed some lunch, again not really knowing what we were getting, got some Baskin Robbins (yummy!) and sat in a park waiting for on ship time to role around. Once again we were not ready to leave the port, but we only have one day on the ship until we are in Korea so it won�t be as bad as our last 12 day adventure on the ocean.
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Liesel item [39]
Everything in Nagasaki had been quick and efficient. Naturally I expected the same from Osaka, so I thought we would have cleared customs and been off the ship before 10am. I was wrong about that one. We didn�t get cleared until and noon and weren�t off until 12:30. SO day one started off a little slow. Laura, Melody and I had planned out our whole stay before hand so we headed straight for the subway station. The subway and train system in Japan is amazing. It�s so easy to figure out where you are and where you need to go. We decided that our first day and night would be spent on Mount Koya � the home to many Buddhist temples. It was absolutely gorgeous. The train ride to Koyasan (the city) went through the countryside that was filled with tons of bright green fields and blooming cherry trees � it was beautiful. It was nice to get away from the big city and all the people. To get to the top of the mountain you have to take a cable car and this thing went straight up! It was misty when we got there and the forest reminded me of a mixture of the redwoods and Truckee. We got to the top and were surrounded by trees and silence, it was so nice.
We took a bus to a temple and got off. We took our shoes off and left them outside and wore slippers until we left the next morning. They took us right in and we were shown our room. It was much like the house we stayed in at Kumamoto. It was a big room with mats on the floor and a little table. The little table was amazing. An amazing little table? What in the world is she talking about. We looked at the table and found it a bit odd that there was a blanket sandwiched in the table. We sat down and soon discovered why � it was to keep the heat in. The bottom of the table was heated and the blanket was to keep the heat in � it was great. Some monk brought tea and a little bean paste ball in for a snack before dinner. It had taken about 3 hours to get to Mount Koya, plus our wandering time in Osaka before we left so we arrived around 5pm � just before dinner. We were sitting at our little heated table, playing cards when there was a knock on our door. It slid open and one of the monks peeked his head in. He rambled off a few sentences in Japanese and then looked at us. We just stared right back at him. He caught on quick and then said �dinner!� We understood that one and headed down the hall to dinner.
Dinner was served, while sitting on pillows on the floor. I don�t know what all I ate, it was vegetarian though. There was some rice, as there always is, tempura (fried veggies), miso soup, and some tofu something or other. Whatever it was it was really good. While we were eating the lady who runs the �sleepover� part of this temple came in and explained some of the history of Koyasan. She was 83 years old and do you know what she did? She walked right into that room and plopped down on the floor and sat there, in the same position, for nearly 20 minutes while she talked to us. Then she popped right back up again and left us. The elderly people of Japan are in such good shape, I just don�t see how they do it.
After dinner we headed back to our room and played a couple more card games before going to bed. We were tired and knew we would get up early the next day, so we went to bed really early � 8:30! I don�t think I�ve done that since I was in elementary school. We had to make a potty stop before this and we got a new adventure here too. There are slippers that you wear around the halls and then there are slippers that you wear in the bathroom, plus you don�t wear your slippers into any of the rooms � this leads to much changing of the shoes. Now Koyasan is in the mountains so it�s very chilly. The toilets were well equipped for this � the seat was heated! These new inventions are just great, they are so exciting. I�m sorry if you don�t like hearing about my bathroom adventures, but let me tell ya you would be excited too if you had witnessed all of the contraptions that I have in these countries. Of course you have to be the lucky one that gets the actual toilet and not just the bowl in the ground to get the heated seat.
April 15, 2003
Today we woke up at 5:30 to watch the morning monk ceremony. It was very relaxing and surprisingly did not put me to sleep. The ceremony was about 30 minutes long (and we were kneeling this whole time, I guess you have to get used to that) and was very relaxing. There were 7 monks � 3 chanting, two reading (quietly) and two meditating. The lights were dimmed, there was incense burning and the floor were heated (I just love that). The three monks that were chanting held the same tone for the full 30 minutes and never once were off from one another. It was all very peaceful and a great way to start off the day � I just don�t think I could start every day off that early.
Breakfast was pretty much the same as dinner. Yep, that�s right friends, there were no eggs, no pancakes and certainly no french toast � but it was good food. Even though the food was good I am not going to change what I have for breakfast � I found this food a little more suitable for lunch or dinner.
The next half of the day was spent wandering around Koyasan. We went to the Buddhist cemetery, which was surrounded by forest. The previous day we had been told that no one knew the exact number of people buried in the cemetery, we all found this odd but soon discovered why. There were some areas that were very well kept up and then there were other areas that just had plots everywhere. It is believed that there are over 500,000 graves there. We walked around Koyasan until early afternoon, stopping in at many different temples, before heading back to Osaka.
That night we went to a baseball game and it was soooooooo much fun. I missed over half of the game because we were cheering the whole time. It was the Osaka Buffaloes against the Lions (I don�t know where they are from, the ticket says it but that�s in Japanese, so I�ll have to figure that one out later). We bought the cheap tickets and I�m so glad we did. We headed out to our bleacher seats and were soon welcomed by 25 or 30 Buffalo fans. The three of us were looking around trying to figure out where to sit (there were seats saved all over the stadium) when these women waved to us and motioned for us to sit with the. So we did. It was a blast. Every time the Buffaloes were up every one of those fans would be on their feet cheering and slapping their noise makers together. There was a guy with drums and a couple of guys with trumpets. One guy, with a horn would announce the next cheer that was to be done and then they would just start up cheering again. At the end of the 6th inning everyone in the stadium began to blow up these long balloons. As soon as the middle of the 7th inning came everyone let their balloons go. There were security people on the field who picked up the balloon remains and the game went on, it was very well planned out � they must do it every game. I can�t even tell you how much fun we had. They have so much spirit � I absolutely loved it. The Buffaloes ended up winning the game 2-0, so the night ended well.
April 16, 2003
Today was another early day for us. Laura, Melody and I went with the SAS trip to Hiroshima and the buses left at 5:30 am for our 5 hour drive. We were so exhausted from the past couple of days that most of the drive was spent sleeping, so it flew by. We got into Hiroshima and our guide began to tell us about some �historic� sites that we drove by. It was truly sad because she had to follow each explanation with the phrase �well, this is not the original Hiroshima Castle (for example) because that was destroyed by the bomb.� That really shocked me. I never even thought about the fact that not only were the buildings of the city destroyed but so was the history of the city. To put it into perspective I thought about how I would feel if I went back to Washington DC and was told something along the lines of �here is the Lincoln Memorial, well it�s not the original Lincoln Memorial because that one was destroyed by a bomb.� Or �here is the White House, well it�s not the original White House because that was blown to pieces by a bomb.� It was really hard to imagine that all of Hiroshima�s history was lost to that bomb. Our tour guide told us why Hiroshima had been bombed over Kyoto � she said that the US felt there was too much history in Kyoto and it would be too difficult to get Japans cooperation if we destroyed a city with so much history. I guess the US was trying to be as considerate as possible when it destroyed cities and killed innocent people.
When we arrived we walked through the Hiroshima Peace Park. We started at the A-bomb dome. This was a building very close to the hypocenter of the bomb and it was one of the few left standing (it was in pretty bad shape though). The dome has been worked on a few times to keep it standing so people can see a reminder of what went on there. Hiroshima was the US�s first test site. They chose it for two main reasons. The size and the shape of the city was suited to the destructive power of the bomb, it hadn�t been bombed yet, so asserting the effects of the bomb would be easy and there was a high concentration of troops, and military facilities that hadn�t yet been subject to significant damage. The morning of August 6th was somewhat a morning of hope for the people of Hiroshima. For the first time in days the air raid sirens had been silenced. No one was in a bomb shelter, everyone thought it was safe to be outside again. Many children of Hiroshima were saved because they were sent to rural villages � most of these children ended up family-less after August 6th.
The story of the paper cranes was told at the Hiroshima museum. There was also a statue built in remembrance of Sadako Sasaki. The funding for the statue came from fundraisers done by elementary school children who wanted Sadako to be remembered. She is the one that the book �1000 paper cranes� was written about. At a young age she contracted leukemia because of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is an old Japanese tradition to fold paper cranes for those who are sick in hopes that it will cure them. She felt that if she folded 1000 paper cranes she would be cured of her leukemia. Oragami paper was much too expensive so she made tiny cranes out of the wrappers her medicine came in. She folded all of those cranes but at the age of 12 she died. This is one of the main reasons that paper crane chains are left at the Peace Parks � in hopes that the wounds will some day heal. The Peace Park and museum in Hiroshima were very similar to Nagasaki and were therefore more of a reinforcement as to what happened rather than a shock to me. The second time around just left me with more unanswered questions.
After the Peace Park and museum we went to Shukkeren Gardens in Hiroshima. This too had to be rebuilt after the bombing. Japanese gardens are more natural. They are not filled with many different kinds of colorful flowers. Rather they are full of ponds and different kinds of trees. It was first built in 1620 and was given its name Shukkeren which means �shrink-scenery garden� in hopes that it would collect and miniaturize many scenic views. In 1945 it was destroyed by the bomb but by 1951 it was reopened to the public and was fully restored by 1974. The garden was absolutely beautiful and very peaceful. There were little stone benches along the paths and many trails leading off into wooded areas. It was a nice change from the shock of the atomic bomb museum. After the garden it was another long ride home on the bus.
When we arrived back at the ship the three of us decided that it was time to ride the worlds largest Ferris wheel. It takes about 15 minutes to get around the wheel once and it gives you a great view of the city. There are light bars on the rungs of the wheel that tell the weather for the next day (fair is in red, cloudy is in green, and rain is in blue).
April 17, 2003
Today was spent in Kyoto. We got an early start and headed off to the subway station and then the train station. Japan�s subway and train system are amazing. It was so easy to figure out which subway line and which train to take. However, when we arrived in Kyoto we soon discovered that the Japanese bus system isn�t so easy to use. We figured it out quickly though and slowly made our way through Kyoto. Kyoto was one of the Japanese cities that was not bombed to destruction in the war and I could really tell that the architecture and the feel of the city went back further than the other places I had been to. We spent a good amount of time at the Rokuon-Ji Temple (also known as the Golden Pavilion). It was a beautiful temple, but there was a little too much gold for me. The top two floors are literally all painted gold � very beautiful and very bright. The temple was surrounded by a wooded area and was very relaxing � except for the shreiks of all the young school children there on a field trip. Every day that we went out there were multiple field trips. I guess the kids in Japan go on field trips a lot, we were surrounded by little kids half of the time we were in Kyoto.
After that we wandered around and looked at random parts of Kyoto. We ended our Kyoto day by going to the Nijo Castle. It was a much better experience than Kumamoto castle (I visited that one while in Nagasaki). This castle was still intact and had not been made into a museum. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden and had a great view of the surrounded city area as well as the tops of many cherry trees � it was gorgeous. Construction began in 1603 and was finished in 1626. The walls still had their paintings on them and had been kept in great shape. The paintings were beautiful. My favorite part about the castle were the floors. They were not just your average wooden floors � these floors squeaked. It was a good squeak though, something like a swing makes, yet it wasn�t annoying. They were called Nightingale floors and would squeak slightly when someone was walking on them so that the people in the castle would know if there was an intruder in the castle. I�m telling you, these people are really quite inventive!
Fun fact time for ya! Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan and it simply means �capital.� Tokyo is now the capital, but Tokyo is not the full name. It�s really Tokyoto, but it�s shortened for pronunciation reasons � and it�s a good thing it is.
We headed back to Osaka after this an arrived for the last 3 hours of the Cherry Blossom festival. This too was beautiful. I had seen many cherry blossoms during my Japan stay but never so many trees just full of pink and white blossoms � they were gorgeous. This was the first time in a really, really long time that we were not the only one�s taking pictures. There were hundreds of people at the festival and everyone had their cell phones and were snapping pictures of the trees. I should explain the whole cell phone thing. I think I saw commercials for them in the states before I left, but I�m not sure.
Anyway, everyone in Japan has the same cell phone (pretty much everyone) and these cell phones take pictures. It�s quite a shocker the first time you see it. I was watching a guy while I was in Nagasaki and I really felt for the poor guy. He was holding up his cell phone and pressing buttons and staring at it and I really felt I knew what he was going through. I totally misinterpreted this whole ordeal. He had looked somewhat like me trying to find service on the USD campus, however he was taking a picture � oh well. The Cherry Blossom festival was a blast. It only goes on for one week a year, so we were extremely lucky to be there while it was going on. We all ate way too much food, but it was delicious. Once again I don�t know what all I ate, but the three of us are pretty adventurous and we decided we had to try most of it. We had some great names for some fot the food we tried, we really had to keep a good sense of humor about it. We had tried the octopus balls in Nagasaki and knew we were not fans � so we steered clear of those. The first thing we tried looked somewhat like a shishkabob (no clue how to spell that one!) � we ended up calling these �Fat sticks� because they just tasted like fat, yeah we threw those away quick. We had a Japanese pancake thing that had some squid and veggies on it and it was pretty good. We played it safe with a hot dog and ended the night with chocolate covered pineapple and crepes. We hung around there for a while and then sat down by the river staring at Japan. Right now most of us are having the same feelings about leaving. We keep going back and forth about whether or not we want to go. We want to go home and then we don�t want our adventures to end � it�s pretty tough. We just sat by the river for about 30 minutes and took in our last night of a foreign country.
April 18, 2003
My last day in Japan! It was so sad, I really did not want it to end. We had really early on ship time (2pm, come on now that�s barely half a day!) so I had to get up early to get in a full day. Laura and Melody went to the aquarium this morning, but it was a little pricey and I didn�t want to spend my last Japan time somewhere that I could find an equivalent to in the states. So I decided to go downtown and just wander around for the morning. Nothing too exciting happened, I just took Japan in for the last time before heading back to the ship. Laura and I found a sushi restaurant and ended our time in Japan with some great sushi and then followed that up with a Haggen Dazs ice cream sundae (we�re going to be on the ship for a long time without good ice cream, you�ve got to get it while you can). We had about an hour before on ship time so we wandered around the mall. While in Nagasaki I had realized that I was going to freeze in Alaska. All I had brought with me, in the way of warm clothes, was one long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt � Alaska was going to have to be all about layers. I told myself I would not waste money on a jacket because I had a million at home and I figured I could just suffer for 2 days. Laura and I were heading out of the mall when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted jackets. I figured I might as well check them out, I have been known to find a pretty good bargain. The two jackets they had both had fur on the, this I found hilarious, but figured I fit in with the Eskimos if I bought it. The one I really liked had removable fur, a definite plus. I looked at the price tag and noted the thing was about $95. So I began to walk away. I looked back at the red tag above the jacket and saw that they were on sale � they were on sale for 1900 yen. That was wonderful news to me, so I bought it. That�s right, I found a 95 dollar jacket on sale for 16 dollars! I was very excited that I would no longer have to freeze in Alaska.
Well, Osaka was my last foreign/never before visited port and it�s kinda sad. I�m definitely still going back and forth every day � some days I really want to be home and others I don�t want this voyage to end. It�s been a blast though and I still have a couple days in Seward and a couple days in Victoria � I�ll definitely make the most of those.
Take care, I�m not sure when you�ll hear from me next. Most likely after I�m home. We�ve got pretty rocky seas today and they�re just supposed to get worse! No fun. Plus I think I�m getting a cold (no, not SARS Kelly), and we have finals � my goodness it�s just going to be a very busy couple of weeks. Talk to ya later! Oh yeah, and HAPPY EASTER because apparently that�s tomorrow!
Always,
Liesel