golden oldies

yesterday marked the last of a string of national holidays. all of my students, upon interrogation, didn't much care what the holidays were, only that they were in fact days off of work. this is a common phenomenon with most holidays here, well reflecting the national workoholic attitude. for those interested, in succession, it went:

4/29 - previous emperor's birthday (the current's is also celebrated, 12/23)

5/3 - constitution day (when the long, skinny land was wrangled from the depths of feudal lawlessness)

5/4 - green day (a bit like earth day. i find it less important, because japan, as a state, is way more environmentally conscious than most others)

5/5 - children's day (a total fucking misnomer. it's only celebrated if you have a boy. in the ladies' defense, however, march 3rd is reserved for celebrating womanhood.)

collectively this is known as Golden Week. this particular year, 5/1 and 5/2 fell on a weekend, so much long-lasting fun was had by all. especially me. it went a little somethin' like this:

i wrapped up thursday around 9:45, then headed for osaka to catch the 11:30 night bus to hiroshima. the night bus is by far the cheapest way to travel most places. i heard nothing but complaints from peeps about the lack of sleep and whatnot. i thought it was fine. i didn't sleep much, but, as previously stated, it was REALLY fuckin cheap.

got to hiroshima round about 7 in the am and set out on the exploration tip. walked around a bit, took the following photos:

the place quite reminded me o' p-town. there are a few rivers running through it, everybody rides bikes, and a couple hundred thousand of it's inhabitants were needlessly murdered once. no wait, maybe just the river and the bikes part.

also there were mountains nearby. this is a common feature of most places on J-street.

this was the first thing to... i keep saying "blow me away", but only for lack of a better phrase. i mean no disrespect by it; it just fits. this is a panoramic photo of the "city" shortly after the attack. you'll notice that almost nothing is left standing. everything within a mile was completely fucked.

atop the monument, you'll notice a whole bunch of paper cranes. these are in memoriam of a girl who developed lukemia after the bombing. she very much didn't want to die, and there is a japanese legend that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. she died before folding all 1,000 though.

center: genbaku domu, or atomic bomb dome. 'twas the closest building to the blast to remain standing.

little boy exploded about 500 meters from yon' building. the river here is quite famous. after the temperature on the ground reach roughly 3000°C, a lot of people started looking for water. their skin was melting off, and they weren't too comfortable. some people made it to the river (which was also incredibly fucking hot), and some just piled up on it's banks. pretty much all of them died.

this is the Aioi bridge right by the dome-piece. T-shaped, it was easily visible from the sky, and was the determined target. homeboy came pretty close. neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, but effective either way.

this is a clock tower across the river from the dome-ski. every day at 8:15 am, the clock chimes. this is the exact time of the explosion on august 6, 1945. friday morning, i happened to be walking right past this clock at that time. it really put things into perspective. i looked around at folks sitting on park benches and biking to work. just like any other day.

what i basically gathered was this:
japan was a broken country long before the bombing. germany had fallen, and japan would inevitably find no alternative. the war was pretty much over. america had multiple options for securing an end to the war. they could have invaded japan troop-style, perhaps costing the lives of up to a couple thousand people who volunteered to die for their country in battle. they also could have renegotiated the terms of surrender they proposed to japan. they were a bit unreasonable to begin with, and basically granted japan no rights.

in reality, america had invested a billion dollars and a whole bunch of man power in "the bomb". the combination of man's ruthless curiosity and the need to justify such cost to the american public pretty much paved the way for the unbridled destruction of life. interestingly, when the set of potential targets was chosen, all further air raids on the targets were cancelled. these fuckin pricks wanted to have a clean slate so they could witness and document the full effects of the bomb. hiroshima was chosen because it housed a fairly major military installation, had a landscape that would minimally hinder the atomic bomb's annihilation, and didn't contain any POW camps. god forbid a couple of captive american soldiers die amidst HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of innocent japanese people.

before visiting hiroshima, i was a bit worried that i would feel embarrassed due to my nationality. thirty seconds after entering the museum, all semblance of birth place was forgotten, and i remain in disbelief that people from any country could authorize, execute, and benefit from such an action.

after some sobering morning exploration, miyajima was in the sights. this is an island close to hiroshima, supposedly harboring on of the 3 best views in japan. took the ferry over, shot the following:

itsukushima shrine. built mad long ago. very famous. made of wood.

tall building with five floors. i'm running out of steam on the caption tip...

view of miyajima from miyajima.

this Hugh Jass temple on miyajima. all open, all wood. it was raining a bit at this time, which added to the ambience.

another view of the temple. it was pretty neat!

there was a priest here a long time ago who developed the revolutionary rice paddle that we all know and love today. his innovative design spread like mononucleosis in a junior high school, and rendered miyajima somewhat of a celebrity. there are oversized replicas like this one all over the place.

part of a network of temples in the tidal flats.

yet another view of the shrine made famous by japanese postcards. miyajima was overall incredibly beautiful. the only trifling thing was the deer. deer in japan are a national treasure, and mustn't be harmed. as a result, they are way too fucking tame, and try to eat all of your apples. right out of your hand. i got into a bit of a skirmish with one of them. i think it was more used to high-pitched screaming and cringing, and not so much to having 'bows dropped on it's face-piece. score one for lil' mikey...

stayed that night at an internet cafe. i mentioned this in my previous post. hands down the coolest place i've ever stayed. although exhausted, i stayed up watching movies and eating ice cream.

here's what it looked like. sweet padded floor with a bean bag chair, electrical outlet, and wastebasket. a shower cost four bucks.

took the bus back to kobe in the evening, much shorter than the night bus. worked the next day, then took a serious hike on this island to camp for a night with some buds. next morning headed back mainland to meet up with a student who wanted to take me to a tea ceremony. unshowered, wearing shorts and short-sleeves, i rushed up to her car. inside i found three beautiful women dressed in full kimono, and immediately felt as though i'd slightly under dressed for the occasion. i suppose it was expected that i wouldn't get it right (being a foreigner and all), but i felt disappointed in myself that i played right into the stereotype.

anyway, the tea ceremony was one of the sweetest experiences i've had in japan to date. even the women i was with had never experienced such a traditional event. the guy whose house we went to was basically mad rich, and had a tea ceremony room built into his house/garden. super private, super traditional.

his backyard was designed by some famous landscape architect and has been featured on television programs. there were multiple paths, and they used traditional markers such as this to kindly show which way not to go.

another marker, after being removed from the path (to let us know it was time to go down said path).

my man collects antiques. seriously. inside was like a museum, with spot-lit glass cases and the like. he even had an autographed photo of gerald ford.

sweet back yard, hella-scaped.

afterward, i was treated to a traditional japanese dinner at this super sweet restaurant. clockwise from top left: tempura rice-type thing, raw horse tongue, rare beef with tasty sauce, tempura spinach, seaweed in thick broth, tomato with cheese/bean combo stuffing, tempura lotus root with spicy mustard. it was BAD ASS.

apologies for the awful picture quality. mostly i just want to drive home what an asshole i was, and also how sweet it was to hang out with kimono-clad ladies for an afternoon.

in summation, the past week kicked tons of ass. i'd say that i'm now living the shit out of the dream. also, if you've ever supported war, for whatever reason, please visit hiroshima.