To all,
It has only been one day since we left India that I am writing this email and my emotions haven�t quite all sunk in yet. I typically wait longer to write my emails to organize my thoughts and avoid a stream of unconscious reflection. In this case, with India, I feel it is only appropriate to do so to capture the imminent feelings I do have about this wonderful country. I�m left feeling blessed, saddened, grateful, guilty, and envious. I�m sure you are wondering how I could have experienced all these emotions in a matter of five days, but if you�ve ever been to India you would know why. I�m blessed to have gone to a country that is high on life and rich in culture. I�m saddened at the impoverished state, especially children, that a lot of these people live in. I�m grateful for my experiences in this country. I�m guilty for being a privileged American and taking it for granted. I�m envious of their happiness and their contentness, something we lack in the States.
So this begins my journey on Day 1. We docked at Chennai (aka Madras) in the morning and had to wait a couple of hours for the ship to clear Immigration. My trip left two hours after it cleared. I went to Delhi, and Agra. The first day was just spent traveling to Delhi. We took a bus from the port to the airport. On our way to the airport we saw a large community of people leaving in extreme poverty and substandard conditions. These people lived in little huts lined up one right after the other. On the main road they sold trinkets and miscellaneous souvenirs to try and make ends meet. The poverty in this area is far greater than poverty I�ve seen in any place I�ve been to thus far. What was admirable about the Indians living in this area is that despite their situation they were all happy. As we drove past people waved and were screaming hello to us. To us we would pity them because they are poor in material wealth, shelter, medical attention, and food. On the other hand, what we often don�t see or look is how poor they might be, but yet they are rich in happiness and love.
I felt much safer and at ease with these people, than the people in Tanzania, or Salvador Brazil. After our short bus ride we then went to the airport and hopped on an AIR India flight to Delhi. We stayed at what seemed like the nicest hotel in Delhi. Being me I carried extra sheets and bed bug spray just in case. Well, this hotel was ridiculously nice that I didn�t even need and of those items or have to worry about sanitation problems. We arrived at about 10 at night and we were all just absolutely starving, the food on the flight really wasn�t that appetizing. The hotel had a Korean and Chinese restaurant in it, but interestingly enough, the hotel owned restaurant that serves Indian food was closed. So me and a couple of friends went to the Chinese restaurant and had a few drinks and got a meal. At the Chinese restaurant there was a band playing all American music. It wasn�t just any American rock and roll music they were playing Shaggy, and Eminem. It was all very humorous, we�re in India at this Chinese restaurant listening to a band play and sing/rap American songs with Indian accents. That night I got to talk to my parents for the first time which was quite a pleasure. I missed hearing their voices and after our phone conversation I felt very much at ease. We had to wake up early the next day because we were going by train from Delhi to Agra to see Fort Agra and the fabled Taj Mahal.
We got to Fort Agra with little problems. Once we were there our tour guide notified us that the president of Suriname was also in Agra and touring the Taj in the morning and would be headed to Fort Agra in the afternoon. The president got a private tour of both buildings so we kind of had to rush through the Fort to make way for the president. The Fort is just down the street from the Taj so once we got there we could see the Taj and take pictures of it. I�d go more in depth about Fort Agra but we were rushed and I wasn�t able to learn much about it. All I know is that it use to be a strategic place for I think the Mughals to protect themselves.
After that we headed to the Taj. Since the Taj was blocked off in the morning for the president of Suriname almost everyone was there in the afternoon including a lot of the Semester at Sea field trips. It was kind of chaotic but beautiful nonetheless. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum that was built in the mid 1500s for the King of India�s late wife. It is both Hindu and Muslim. The Taj is made out of white marble and completely free stone, meaning there is not mortar or nails holding it together. The construction of the Taj took many years and put the nation in debt. Semi-precious stones are embedded in the white marble to form ornate and decorative flowers. It was absolutely beautiful and best of all we got to stay there for the sunset. We were then moved to another hotel in Agra which was beautiful but not quite as nice as the other one we were just in. We were greeted with musicians and the hotel staff presented us with leis made out of roses. The roses were piled one on top of the other and the lei itself was rather large. That night we had a magic show at the hotel and we all just hung out at the bar. They told us that Agra isn�t really safe at night.
The next day we went to the red sandstone palaces that the Mughals use to live in. The palace is gated and included a few building for all of the king�s wives, knights, guards, and other important people. During the Mughal empire it was forbidden for women to go out and were forced to stay indoors. This palace, since it was gated, allowed many important women to be out and enjoy life. Often times the King�s wives would play games together like hide and go seek. The actual building�s stones were all carved with intricate designs. What was most incredible is that this palace was almost completely intact with 80% of it remaining untouched. So what we saw was exactly what the Mughals saw and lived in. The Mughals lived here for only six years in the 1600�s and were forced to move because of turmoil inside the country. The Mughal empire ended shortly after they left this palace. The palace also had many fountains that would have magnolias and other scented flowers mixed in with the water to create a natural potpourri throughout the entire palace. This palace was also designed to remain warm in the winter and cool at night with the position of the windows and doors. They also had their own draining system where rainwater would collect and be used for the fountains and drinking water.
After our trip to the red sandstone palaces we went back to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we headed off to the �tourist� market that was scheduled on our itinerary and set up by the tourist company. This market was actually a building with marked up prices and was more like a trendy boutique than an actual market. The sales associates gave us a demonstration on how they make their silk rugs and the time it takes to make them. It�s crazy, we saw this one rug that was selling for ten thousand dollars. It took a family of four two years to make one single rug and that is there income for two years. Not only that, the �market� where we were at gets a cut on the rug plus we were granted a 30% discount so the rug was considerably less than $10,000. They had other silk and cashmere rugs they were trying to sell us for under a $1000 but I�m only 21 and don�t live in a nice enough place to have one. Oh yeah and lets not forget, I have no money to buy a rug I�m a poor college student. Personally, I would have felt too guilty to buy a rug where I knew that children were help making it instead of living their youth. I left the market rather quickly because everything was too expensive and just not the cultural experience I was hoping for.
After that adventure we decided to go to the old market, which was quite the ordeal. See, the taxi drivers don�t drive tourists to the market but to these expensive stores. They figure that tourists don�t want to go where the people shop plus, the taxi drivers are paid off by the expensive stores to drive us there. So, it took a lot of talking for us to go to the market where the locals go. Now this was a cultural experience for me. We got out of the taxi and it was Holi day. Holi is a Hindy festival celebrating Vishnu. Vendors on the street sell brightly colored sand and throw it on you. Other vendors were selling fruits and vegetables as well as other basic necessities for life. We were the only tourists there but I felt completely comfortable. No one asked us for money but we had people come up to talk to us and shake our hands. People in India are so friendly. We had a small group of children following us who just wanted us to take their picture. There were definitely other countries where I felt uncomfortable being the only tourist at a market (i.e. Tanzania where I almost got mugged). I felt completely safe here. People asked us about the war and about our country. Everyone was just really pleasant to talk to.
After the market we went to Mother Theresa�s orphanage for abandoned children and handicapped adults. It was all really sad. There were newborn babies covered with mosquito nets to protect them from mosquitoes that carry malaria. Many of the children we saw were bedridden. Some of the adults were so weak and emaciated that they didn�t even have enough energy to swat the flies and mosquitoes that were swarming them. A lot of the residents here were picked up from the street and were either mentally retarded, blind, deaf, and suffered from other disabilities. I heard that people got head lice when they played with the children on previous trips. That didn�t stop me from playing or touching the children. I heard somewhere that it is important in a child�s development that they are physically touched and as some of you may know I�m not the best with children because I�ve hardly ever been around them. There was also a prayer house at the orphanage and I said a little prayer for the people at the orphanage as well as some people that have been on my mind.
After the market we went back to the hotel to gather our things and take a train back to Delhi. At the train station we saw a boy with Elephantitis. Elephantitis is a disease where limbs will swell up so that they are incredibly enormous. This boy was about twelve years old and had the biggest feet I have ever seen. I didn�t stare because he wasn�t a freak show, he�s still human, but his feet were gigantic (not an exaggeration). I would say they were a foot and a half long a foot high. His toes were the size of small pipes. It was so sad, worst of all we learned later that his condition was brought on by a water born virus that makes his feet swell up to that size. At the train station is where we saw the most extreme forms of poverty, my only regret is that I had brought little to give away since my ATM card didn�t work and had less than $50 for the entire trip.
After our short train ride, we went back to our nice hotel. You can�t help but feel a little guilty staying at this ridiculously nice hotel and you�re surrounded by poverty. The next morning we went to a Sikhism temple. Sikhists make up less than 2% of the population in India. The people are really intense about their religion, at the temple people are praying, chanting, bowing down and kissing the ground. There�s a pool near by and people are immersing themselves in the water. I think it�s holy water but I�m not positive. Nevertheless, it was an amazing experience and extremely surreal. I don�t completely understand Sikhism, it is monotheistic and kind of reminds of Christianity. Instead of having 12 disciples they have 10 Gurus who are under the Creator. Sikhism started in 1469 so it�s a rather young religion.
After the Sikhist temple we drove past where the president lives and the Capitol. Very beautiful buildings but we didn�t get to go inside, we only drove past them. Then we went to the Gandhi museum. At 6:30 in the morning our time President Bush made his announcement to the country that we were going to �war� with Iraq. I was sleeping when it happened but I just found that it was rather ironic that a few hours after President Bush declared war on Iraq I am at the Gandhi museum where Gandhi was assassinated. Gandhi�s entire message in life is non-violence and peaceful intervention. The same day our country declared war on Iraq I was at the assassination site of the largest pacifists (along with Dr. Martin Luther King) of the 20th century. Call it irony, hell you can even call it fate but I think there was a deeper underlying message as to why we were at the Gandhi museum on that day.
His museum is filled with quotes about non-violence and peaceful intervention. I bought a Gandhi quote book for two dollars and here is one famous quote that he has said �Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man� �Gandhi 1935. We only had 45 minutes at the Gandhi museum so again we were kind of rushed, but in that quick 45 minutes I became hooked on this magnificent man because his teachings and his life is so inspiring. Gandhi is also a huge religious pluralist respecting and loving all religions.
As some of you may know, I was very on the fence about this war with Iraq but after learning about Gandhi and Mother Theresa I can�t help but wonder why it is absolutely necessary to take human life to disarm Saddam Hussein. Why can�t we continue with the weapons inspections? Why is Saddam a bigger threat to us than North Korea or any of the five dictators living in South America? Osama Bin Laden is still alive and we are invading Iraq. These thoughts continue to run through my mind. About three months ago you could even say I was for the war but now my mind has changed. Couldn�t we set the stage to find some peaceful way to disarm Saddam Hussein so we could spare human life as well as gain the respect for the entire world? My point is there are threats to the United States all over. Remember Cuba use to have nuclear weapons pointing at us and we were able to have them deflected through the use of diplomacy. The US is flexing its muscles just because we can. Everyone talks about what a threat Saddam is to us but have we ever thought about a threat we are to them? Who is really the evil one? We have been bombing them on a weekly basis since 1998 and with our sanctions hundreds of thousands of children have died in Iraq. President Bush blames Saddam for the problems of his people but I can�t help but wonder if our foreign policy is worse and a bigger threat to these people than Saddam. Hundreds of thousands of people have died without restraint from the international community since 1998 and now more will die because we think Saddam Hussein might (emphasis on might) be making weapons of mass destruction. Now I am no way a supporter of Saddam Hussein, I think he is evil and a regime change is long overdue but, traveling the world and talking to some of the international students on the ship I have a different perspective on this war that I didn�t have before.
I met a girl from Venezuela and her family just moved to Germany because of all the political problems they are having there. She said the reason why there are so many presidents and political turmoil is that the US has done nothing to help institute a stable government or a democratically elected president. She does feel that the US does too much in world affairs but that we do have the clout to set things right and that if we went to Venezuela for a day our government could do some positive changes. President Bush continues to say that this war will benefit the Iraqi people because it will install democracy in that nation. Well if he is going to use that as a justification for war why must he be selective. Why then not overthrow all the dictators in the world? As I mentioned before there are five dictators in Latin America alone.
With some of my classes I have learned about our foreign policy and the CIA. I was shocked when I watched a documentary about the CIA and our involvement in other countries. Did you know that in Argentina we overthrew a democratically elected president and replaced him with a dictator because we thought he was a threat to us? Honestly, one minute our government used the implementation of democracy as a justification for war but at other times we have overthrown democratically elected officials. The fact that no major weapons have been found besides an unmanned airplane and some empty bombing canisters makes me hate this war even more. Nothing seems to add up. How come our country hasn�t learned from the great pacifists of the past? War can be averted and we should be exploring different options. I wrote down one inspiring quote from Gandhi and here�s one from Mother Theresa �Peace and war begin at home. If we truly want peace in the world, let us begin by loving one another in our own families. If we want to spread joy, we need for every family to have joy.� With this message I believe if we spread peace and love to as many people as we can, no one would have turned their backs against us nor would they be anti-American.
We were going to pay Turkey $30 billion to use their land for a military base. Do you know how much food $30 billion could feed millions of Indians or anti-retrovirals for AIDS in Africa? Out of all the industrialized nations the US gives the least amount in foreign aid, in fact it�s less than 1% of our GDP. It�s sickening, we have so much wealth but yet we do little to help the billions of people who are starving, dying, or living in substandard conditions. Well, this is how I saw the Gandhi museum, I tried to apply his teachings to my understanding of what�s going on in Iraq. I have come along way, considering three months ago I was for the war and now I couldn�t be more vehemently against it. I don�t mean to push my views on anyone but to simply make you understand where I�m coming from.
After the Gandhi museum we went to a Baha�i temple that was shaped like a lotus. The temple was unlike any other structure I have ever seen before, it is made out of 27 pedals and actually looks like a lotus. The Baha�i faith started in the late 1800�s in Iran. The basis for the faith is that religion conforms to reason. Meaning, there is one God but throughout time man has manifested God in his image according to culture and beliefs. So essentially, all the different religions in the world believe in the same god we just have manifested god with different characteristics and different religions over time. The creator has educated humanity through a series of Divine Manifestations, which include: Krishna, Buddha, Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Jesus and Muhammad. The Baha�i temple is rather plain inside, at the door they ask you to go in and pray according to your faith. So I prayed for peace and for other people who were on my mind.
After the Baha�i temple we had a few hours to kill at the hotel so I decided to go on a walk with some friends. We weren�t near the center of town so we were just walking on the side of the road. We ended up at the Dutch embassy and we asked the guards where the American embassy was. It turns out it was right around the corner. So, with all this time to spare we went to the American embassy to see if we could get a tour. Well, that�s easier said than done. The security at the embassy is extremely tight. We asked the guard for a tour and were denied. He said we would only be able to go to citizen�s services in Gate 6 of the embassy (the American embassy is so huge that it has different gates). So we went to Citizen�s Services and of course we had to go through 20 questions on why we wanted to go inside the embassy. We told the guards we were students studying politics and just wanted to go inside it, eventually they let us in. Citizen�s Services is only a room with a tv and a small cafeteria with people waiting in line for visas. There wasn�t much to do so we talked to the guards to see if we could see our ambassador of a diplomat. Of course that didn�t fly but the guards did talk to us about the embassy and told us how it operated so it was educational nonetheless.
That was our last day in Delhi, we got back to the ship that night and I was so inspired but the deep spirituality that irks Delhi and Agra that I decided to break open my Bible for the first time on this trip. At the same time I got an email from UMHE my faith group back home about the war in Iraq. My friend Andie wrote about the ramifications of the war no matter which side your on and at the end she gave a Bible verse that I feel is extremely pertinent to the current situation. It goes �Blessed are the peacemaker for they will inherit the kingdom of God� Matthew 5:9.
What I took away from Delhi and Agra is how spirituality transcends all people, religions, and all races. Even though I�m not Hindu, Baha�i, or a Sikhist but I felt a deep spiritual connection when I went to these places and felt more connected with my God. We spent that night on the ship and I went to Mamallapuram the next day with my friends Constantine and Melinda.
Mamallapuram is a small town in India with temples carved into rock that are approximately 1400 years old. The three of us decided to do it completely independently instead of going with a tour or an SAS sponsored trip. We found a taxi driver to take us there and back for six dollars a person. Not bad considering the place was an hour and a half away and our taxi driver stayed with us while we were at the place. The first temple we went to was in a gated park. There were only a couple other tourists there and a bunch of Indian students who were on a field trip. I don�t think the Indian children were use to seeing tourists so they swarmed us. They were only 9 and 10 and spoke pretty good English considering they are so young. We introduced ourselves to them and they told us their names. They taught us how to dance the ethnic dances and Melinda and I showed them how to do the funky chicken. Needless to say it was a great learning experience for us as well as the children. We spoke to their teacher afterwards and I gave their class an American t-shirt to remember us by. After that we went to a different temple that was carved in the side of a mountain. We did this all independently so we didn�t have a tour guide and were kind of lost. Mamallapuram use to be a temple for the kings and queens of this area and they worshiped the Hindu gods Vishnu, Brahman, and one other god but I blanked on the name. I split up from Melinda and Constantine and met this stone carver. He followed me around and became my designated tour guide. He explained the history behind everything and was extremely informative. Afterwards, I bought two of his stone carvings as a compensation for being my tour guide. He explained to me that he doesn�t have a lot of money now because he�s an apprentice but after two years he is going to be certified to teach others how to carve. He then gave me a wooden beaded bracelet as a token of our friendship and I gave him an American t-shirt. After the temple in the mountain we went to another temple on the beach that was made out of stone and held together by mortar made out of mud. It was the perfect ending to a perfect stay in India. We headed back and spent our last Rupees at the shops by the ship.
This concluded my stay in India. Now you can see how I experienced so many emotions in such a short period of time. One thing I would like to expand on is the poverty in India. Yes, poverty and famine are serious problems and often times too real to comprehend. But as I stated before, these people are poor in many things but rich in culture and happiness. We have to remember that these people are multi-faceted just like we are. Many of the other students on this trip focused too much on the poverty and did not see the other dimensions of these people. The experience reminded me of my sister when she use to work with wheelchair bound children. People would go up to her and say how much they pitied these children for being in a wheelchair. Instead of stigmatizing them as wheelchair bound handicapped children she focused on positive aspects of their lives and eventually looked past the fact that they were in a wheelchair. What she did with those children is what I have done with the Indian people living in poverty. I�m not trying to diminish or downplay the poverty in India because it is atrocious, but at the same time I found the other side of these people that�s often hidden from us. A side that is spiritual, loving, happy, innocent, and peaceful. What they are lacking in tangible wealth we are lacking in intangible wealth. There are so many layers in India that it takes a while for it to completely sink in.
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JAPAN 1
Hey Mom andDad,
I do not know if I will be able to call but I will try my best. I have only stayed in one real hotel since I have been here. the first night we went to Hiroshima and could not find a hotel except for this sex hotel aka whore house it is a long story where we spent the night. the second night it was really late and we stayed at some random house near the trains station and last night we stayed at a karaoke bar another long story I will see if I can call you tonight but I will be on the ship tonight.
love always, Ryan
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Hey all,
Ok, so I�m sure some of you are wondering why you haven�t gotten an update about Hong Kong and Vietnam, well that�s because we didn�t go there because of the respiratory virus going around. We were suppose to spend 11 days in Hong Kong and dry dock so our boat can get inspected. Since our boat wasn�t inspected we were told that our boat would be quarantined and not allowed back in the US after April 30th. So we had to cut our trip early by a week. I was so upset that we weren�t going to two of our countries and coming home early. With the friends I�ve made we formed a pact that that on May 31, 2008 we will all go to Vietnam and Hong Kong together since we weren�t able to go on this trip. The date is completely arbitrary, we all wrote down three dates and chose one of them randomly. We just found out at the end of our trip that we�re going to Alaska, and Victoria British Columbia because we got an extension on our inspection and are now coming back on May 6th. This was the first time SAS has ever docked at Nagasaki, British Columbia, and the port we�re going to in Alaska.
So, for our first day we walked around Nagasaki and got a train for Hiroshima. There are vending machines everywhere in Japan and sell all kinds of things like coffee, candy, beer, cigarettes, underwear, and tee shirts. I exchanged about $500 into Japanese Yen. There are no international ATM�s in Nagasaki so any money that I took out for the trip is all that I was going to get, plus credit cards aren�t used that often either. We went to a Shinto shrine in Nagasaki before our departure for Hiroshima. After the shrine we had lunch at a local restaurant. The menu was in Japanese but they had pictures of the food they served, so we just pointed to pictures of the food we wanted. We had no idea what we were ordering but that was part of the adventure. I used the bathroom at the restaurant, which was quite an experience. The toilet was all high-tech, it was a toilet and bidet (you know that thing that squirts water and cleans your bum) in one. The toilet had many functions like it had a seat warmer, you could change the temperature and intensity of the water shooting at you from the bidet and choose which part of your body you wanted to get cleaned, it even had soapy water that it would squirt at you. Some other toilets that I hear about played music while you went to the bathroom so no one could here what you were doing. I myself was not brave enough to use any of the functions of the high tech toilets besides the flush option (I haven�t had very good luck with foreign toilets).
The first night we took the bullet train to Hiroshima. We bought all of our train tickets in advance and spent $230 for all the destinations we went to. Trains and taxis are ridiculously expensive, much more expensive than Amtrak. The train system is equivalent to our airline system. The bullet train was out of this world. It had all electronic doors to get from car to car. Inside the train was leather interior and hard wood floors with track lighting. The bullet train goes so fast and is so efficient. The transportation system there in general is very efficient. That�s the great thing about Japan as that it is relatively easy to get around. It is rather difficult to get around though if you don�t speak Japanese and don�t understand the system. When we first got to Hiroshima, we were suppose to get on a tram, instead we accidentally got on a train. We asked a girl where to go, and she didn�t speak any English. We thought traveling in Japan would be easy because we thought everyone would speak English, sadly that wasn�t the case. She got off the train with us and she showed us which tram to get on, she almost missed her own train to show us where to go. The Japanese people were by far the friendliest people I have ever met, and the most honest.
For our first night we wanted to stay at this Hiroshima peace non-profit organization run by an American couple. They provide lodging and give you a tour guide, plus they will also introduce you to bomb victims. We were really excited to get to this place but it was in the outskirts of Hiroshima, we went on the tram to find this place. We got off the tram in search of this peace non-prof place. After a half hour of searching and asking people how to get there we decided to give up looking for this place and stay at any random hotel we could find.
We saw this one hotel that was called Moonlight, it looked pretty unassuming from the outside, it just looked like a normal hotel with blinking lights. We get inside the lobby and all the rooms that are available are lit up on a screen. We thought it was pretty cool that you get to pick the theme of your room. There was a hotel manager standing behind a black tinted window so you couldn�t see his face. This is when I noticed that things were pretty shady at this hotel. Then we saw a poster of all these women wearing provocative clothing with numbers next to them. That�s when I realized that we weren�t just at any hotel, we were at a whore house. The prices of the rooms were all listed by the hour and you can pick which prostitute you want by their number. The hotel manager approached us and asks if we wanted a room, well by this point we just wanted a place to stay even though we�re a little sketched out by this hotel. We explained to him that we wanted one room for all four of us, me, Melinda, Constantine, and Amy but that we didn�t want a prostitute. We negotiated a price and got one room for the four of us, it ended up being only $18 a person and it included breakfast plus four snacks that night. We picked a Mickey Mouse themed room.
The hotel itself was kind of amusing, the gift shop was selling all kinds of sex toys and you know how I told you that they sold all kinds of things in vending machines you can only imagine the things they sold in the vending machines at this hotel (I�d go into more detail except I know my grandparents read these emails). Our room had a king sized bed with mood lighting, tv and radio controls right by the bed. We also had a karoke machine in our hotel room. The bathroom was the size of our room; it was huge. It had an in-ground bathtub and a huge shower area that could fit all four of us. We wanted to go out to a karaoke bar that night but since we were in the outskirts of Hiroshima we couldn�t find one close to us. So, we just ended up buying a lot of alcohol and doing karoke in our room after eating dinner at a local restaurant. It was all rather amusing, we got kind of loud and the hotel manager told us to keep it down.
The next day we went to the Hiroshima peace park where we saw the site of the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan. The peace park had an eternal flame for those that lost their lives from the bomb as well as a small tomb that contained the remains of all the deceased that that were found. They also had a children�s monument where people donate paper cranes, which stands for peace and longevity. After the park we went to the peace museum. The museum wasn�t anti-American, it was anti war and anti bombs. The museum gave the history behind WWII as well as the factors that lead up to the dropping of the bomb and the effects of it. There are still people living with radiation effects from the bomb. The bomb affected all things within a 2 km radius and at the hypocenter temperatures reached over 2000 degrees Celcius. Because of the extreme hot temperatures people�s skin and bones literally melted off their body. The people that survived had intense third degree burns all over their body. Their finger nails had burnt off exposing some of their blood vessels so when new fingernails would grow in they would appear to be black because blood would be under them. Approximately 350,000 people were injured from the bomb and more than 140,000 lost their life. What was sad is that the American government gave no warning to Japan that they were going to drop the bomb. The bomb cost $2 billion to create and was estimated that it cost twice that off the national budget of Japan at the time. The peace museum did not stop with the dropping of the atomic bomb but continues to educate people on current countries that are making nuclear weapons and the effects it will have on the Earth.
The US was the first one to create the Hydrogen bomb in the 1950�s and is a 1000 times stronger than the atomic bomb, pretty scary. At the height of the cold war the US and USSR had enough nuclear weapons to destroy all of humanity. The US has had the most nuclear weapons of any country including USSR. In fact, we had over 200 nuclear weapons, nearly a 100 more than USSR. Germany, France, and England over time also developed and have tested nuclear weapons. There are seven countries that have nuclear weapons capabilities which include the US, Russia, Germany, France, England and now Pakistan and India.
After the peace museum we went to a local restaurant where you pick out all sorts of raw fruits and vegetables that are on a stick. You coat the food with a batter and then deep fry it, it was the first time I had ever eaten at a restaurant like that so I thought it was pretty cool. After the restaurant we went to Hiroshima castle that was reconstructed after the atomic bomb. Everything was in Japanese so I don�t really know the history behind the castle. After the castle we went to a park and folded paper cranes to reflect on everything we had seen. After the park we found a cyber caf� and got to email some of my friends and family. We had a hard time finding an internet caf� so we walked into a bank and asked a guy where we could find one. The man working in the bank was so nice that he left the bank and walked with us for about five minutes and found us an internet caf� what�s perpetuating my love for the Japanese people, they are so friendly. That night we left a train for Fukuoka. I really don�t know anything about Fukuoka but that was part of the adventure.
That night we arrived in Fukuoka. We had to look for a hotel again. We asked a guy on the street where we could find a hotel and he pointed to a place with a bunch of neon lights. We headed over there and guess what, we ended up in the red light district. I don�t know how this keeps happening to us but we are surrounded by a bunch of sex hotels again. This time, they were just one right after the other with well dressed pimps waiting outside. We couldn�t get into a whore house because there�s four of us and we wanted one room. So we decided to stay at a traditional Ryokan, which is where you take off your shoes at the front entrance and sleep on top of a mat and they serve you green tea. Well after walking for a good hour we went to all of the traditional Ryokans and they were all full. So we found a cheap hotel near the train station which only cost $45 a night per person.
After unloading all of our gear at the hotel we went out to dinner. Once again we went to a restaurant we had no idea what we were ordering because it was all in Japanese, but this one woman sitting down next to us did speak English so she helped us out order food. After dinner we went to a karaoke bar. The karaoke bar was fun but we were so exhausted that we decided to leave early. After leaving the karaoke bar we ran into some Canadians, Americans, and English people who were in Japan teaching English. They told us not to waste our money on a hotel room but that you can rent out a room at a karaoke bar because they are open until 5 in the morning and afterwards you can go to Starbucks and sleep. Well we were already at a hotel and didn�t feel like changing.
The next day everyone decides to put me in charge of figuring out how to get to the cave park. Bad idea. At the cave park we were suppose to go on a boat ride and explore caves. I asked the hotel manager how to get to cave park using the train, he wrote down everything in Japanese to show the people at the train station where we were going. We got to the train station, I handed the piece of paper to the ticket teller and he told us which train to take. We got off at our stop that we were supposed to, only to realize that we weren�t at the cave park. The cave park is north of Fukuoka and we somehow we ended up going south of Fukuoka. When we got to the tourist information counter we asked the tourist agent where we were on our tourist map. We were so far south that she couldn�t tell us where we were on the map because we weren�t on the map anymore. The whole situation kind of reminded me of the time when I was sixteen and accidentally drove to Chicago from Whitewater when I was suppose to be going to Brookfield.
So, we are in this random small town called Fukukashi. It was actually kind of nice because we were the only tourists there. Fukukashi is kind of a small town and it�s known for it�s spas and bathhouses. We decided to go to a bathhouse, called an onsen, because there�s literally nothing to do in this town. They had different kind of bathhouses, some of them had waterfalls and bubble baths, or you could go to a traditional bathhouse that uses water from a natural spring. To really experience part of the local culture we decided to go to a traditional onsen.
Now remember we thought this was going to be like a spa, a place you go to relax. We go in and they separate the men from the women. We were hoping to all go as a group but it wasn�t a big deal that we got separated. We weren�t planning on going to a bathhouse so we don�t have a towel, soap, or anything. The dressing room is all open, and the windows are open so everyone passing by on the street can see you naked. In the dressing room we realized we were the only ones under the age of 75 at this bathhouse. We got a lot of strange looks from the Japanese men because we didn�t have soap or anything. They asked us if we were Americans and we said yes. They got so excited and gave us their soap and talked to us the entire time. After the dressing room we went to the bathhouse.
The bathhouse consists of three small pools and filled with natural spring water that smells like sulfur and hot water on the floor. Now remember we came to relax because we thought it was like a spa. This bathhouse people actually come here to bathe. All the old men soak in the first pool, then they get out soap up and wash themselves in the second pool and rinse off in the last pool. A lot of the men were shaving to, We had already showered before we got there so we didn�t end up bathing. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The old Japanese men loved us. Our friends Melinda and Amy were in the female section and all the old women helped them bathe. They scrubbed their backs with soap and poured hot water on top of them. I don�t think they understood that we weren�t there to bathe. The whole experience was just rather amusing.
After the onsen we went to a resort to get a massage. It was the first time I had ever gotten a massage from a masseuse before. It was awesome and so relaxing. We realized that we needed to get our train tickets changed because we had only planned out four days in Japan and we were staying for five, another bonehead move on our part. We asked the manager at the resort if he could write down in Japanese that we want to change our train tickets. He was so friendly that he actually stopped what he was doing and drove us to the train station. He use to live in San Franciso so he could pick up English to enhance his career in the tourism industry. It was such a relief to find someone who speaks English. He drove us to the train station and he talked to the ticket teller about our situation. He took off work for an entire hour to help us out. Getting our train tickets changed was quite the fiasco. The man then gave us his address and phone number and told us that if we didn�t have a place to stay that we could stay at his house with his family. Honestly, the Japanese people are unreal. I�ve heard the expression "city of angels" before but I would call Japan the "country of angels". Everyone is so hospitable and extraordinarily friendly.
In the afternoon the resort manager told us to go to Komoyozaji Shinto temple, because it�s the largest and the best in Japan. We went there and the temple was so beautiful and it was surrounded by Japanese gardens. We stayed at the temple for a little over an hour and took the train back to Fukuako. We had already checked out of our hotel but left our bags in the lockers, we hadn�t planned on spending another night there so we took all of our bags and put them in a locker at the train station. That night we went out to Tenji, which is where all the bars, clubs and restaurants are located. We got dinner and decided to go a club afterwards. Remember though that we did not have a hotel room for that night. Our train the next morning was at 7 so we didn�t think it was a good idea to get a hotel room for just of a couple of hours since we were leaving so early the next morning. We decided to stay at a karaoke bar for the night. We went out to a club called the Voodoo lounge and stayed there until 1:30 in the morning. After the club we found a karaoke bar nearby and rented a room. It ended up only being $6 a person so we fell asleep on the couches.
We got about three hours of sleep and woke up at 5 to head over to the train station. At the train station we went to Mister Donut to get breakfast and sleep for another hour before we got on our train. We hadn�t showered because we stayed at a karaoke bar and we were planning to go to Aso which has natural hot springs and the world�s largest active volcanic crater. So, we were just going to bathe in the hot springs since we hadn�t taken a shower. It sounded like a great idea but when we got to Aso, it was pouring rain outside and really cold. We took a cable car to get to the top of the volcano. We got soaking wet when we took a short hike around the volcano and took the cable car back down for lunch. We were the only ones who actually went on a hike, everyone else once they saw the crater, went back on the cable car and left. We had lunch and at lunch we decided to skip the hot springs since it was still raining and really cold. We had to transfer trains at this city called Kumamoto. We decided to hop on an early train and explore Kumamoto since we already had a train ticket. We just made the train from Aso to Kumamoto by a minute and were literally running to get on the train. I had to go to the bathroom at the train station too and they only had the traditional hole in the ground toilets. I had been trying to avoid the hole in the toilet bathrooms but this time I had to go so bad that I couldn�t escape it. In Japan there is no normal toilet, it�s either too high-tech or like for me, it�s a whole in the ground. Why they can�t have a normal flush toilet I will never know.
We got to Kumamoto and went to the modern art museum there. The modern art museum was really cool and afterwards we had dinner at an Italian restaurant. The restaurant served Italian food but with a Japanese twist. We then went back to the train station and headed back to Nagasacki. We got back at around 11 o�clock at night and I went straight to bed.
The next day we went to the Nyokodo museum. Nyokodo is a Japanese medical doctor who treated children in Nagasaki who were hurt by the bomb and was a peace activist. After the Nyokodo museum we went to the Nagasaki atomic bomb museum. I was even more pissed off at the American actions after I visited this museum. Did you know that after the war America filled out a report called the US Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report, saying that we didn�t need to drop the bomb because the Japanese had so badly been beaten that they most likely would have surrendered?
The report went on to say that Gen. Eisenhower (who later became president) told President Truman not to drop the bomb because it was unnecessary and would cause too many civilian casualties. We dropped the bomb on Nagasaki just three days after we dropped it on Hiroshima. Germany had surrendered a month prior and it was pretty clear that Japan was going to surrender soon. The report also went on to say that the dropping of the bomb would not have prevented anymore American casualties than if we hadn�t dropped it. The reasoning for dropping the bombs is because we were bombed at Pearl Harbor when we weren�t at war. Well, at the time when we were bombed at Pearl Harbor we were providing England with steel to build weapons and blockaded Japan from importing steel or material that could be used in building weapons. Now even though we hadn�t declared war it sure looked as is we were at war with them. For me, it is sad to think that we killed/injured 750,000 civilians and they had killed less than 2000 American soldiers.
I�m not excusing Japan for what they did at Pearl Harbor because we dropped two atomic bombs on them, both countries were at fault. I just think that it was sad that we dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima without warning, and we dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki killing more innocent people. I�m even more disgusted that our government came out with a report saying that the dropping of the bomb was unnecessary and that even our own General told us not to do it, and we went ahead and did it anyways. There are different reasons why we dropped the bomb. One reason is that the bomb cost $2 billion to create which was twice that of the national budget of Japan. We wouldn�t build something that costs so much if we weren�t going to use it (even at the expense of human life), plus as I said earlier it was a political move to show our strength against the USSR at the start of the cold war. I also learned at the museum that America was the first country to go against the Weapons Non-Proliferation Act, which was ratified and signed by all countries with nuclear weapons capabilities. We signed a treaty that we would stop the testing of nuclear weapons, but we have since broken that treaty by doing computerized testing. Because we have broken the treaty India and Pakistan have since developed and tested nuclear weapons. Albert Einstein as well as thousands of other scientists world-wide signed a petition after the dropping of the bombs, to stop and put an end to the development of nuclear weapons because it would lead to the destruction of mankind.
I have two grandfathers that have fought in WWII and I am not taking the Japanese side, but I am against the use of nuclear weapons. It was unnecessary for us to use them, our government has even admitted that in a report. I�m not trying to change anyone�s mind about the atomic bomb whether you thought it was a good thing or a bad thing, I�m just simply trying to make you think and challenge your beliefs about the dropping of the atomic bomb. After the museum we went to the peace park. At the peace park, countries from all over the world have donated statues for world peace. Sadly though, the US has not donated a statue.
After the peace park we were on a hunt for sushi. We asked a bunch of people where we could find sushi, we finally found sushi at a cafeteria in a mall. The sushi comes down on a conveyor belt and you just pick out what you want. After lunch we went to a computer store to see the technology at the store. It�s crazy, all of their cell phones have digital video cameras on them with color screens for about $150. They were selling digital cameras that were the size of credit cards that were just a little thick. We think we got the hookup on the latest technology, we don�t even compare to Japan. They were selling 256mb cards for digital cameras for $100 and that�s how much my parents spent on mine for a 128mb card. On ship time was 4 o�clock so that concluded my trip to Japan. It was one of the best ports I�ve been to. There were so many adventures and great times. I have so many memories and the best part is I got to spend it with people I love. I�m going to end with a quote that my friend Constantine wrote in his journal:
�On April 1, 2003, four friends set foot in Nagasaki, Japan, not knowing what lied ahead of them. Shinto shrines, atomic bomb museums, the red light district, and bathhouses were just some of the adventures that they partook in. While these sites have left a lasting impression in their minds, the friendship that grew within this beautiful country will forever remain in their hearts for eternity.�
KOREA