Anyway, about the blog updates, I plan on filling you all in on my travels with ma and pa every couple days or so, I still don't have all the photos (nearly 1000 in all) sorted out, but I'm working on it. In the mean time, enjoy my stories of Christmas and New Years.
As some of you know, I had to work Christmas Day, but it was ok, because Christmas night was my school's bonenkai, literally "forget the year party." It was fun, we had some amazing food then went out to karaoke, then a handful of us went back to another teacher's house for more celebrations and a little bit of Nintendo Wii. I got back home around 2:30 in the mornin, but was up by 8:00 so I could catch the first ferry back to the mainland. Then I met up with Martin, from Oki Dogo, and we took a two and a half hour train ride down to Tsuwano, to meet up with our friend Leonard. We spent a few days in his town of Tsuwano, which the locals call Little Kyoto. It's a quaint little town with some nice sites and history. The main street looks like something out of the feudal era, with it's sake breweries, samurai houses, and edo-period shops. Oh, and an intricate waterway meanders through ditches alongside the road. They're stuffed with enormous carp, and no matter where you are, you hear the sound of running water. It was pretty cool.
The only thing standing out of place is the local Catholic Church. A small chapel started by the Urakami Christians who were exiled there from Nagasaki in the late 19th century. The church is still active and has a small congregation, we however weren't there in time for mass or services. A little farther up the way, hidden in the nearby forest is the Chapel of St. Maria, which was erected in the 1950s in honor of the Christians who were exiled and the many who were martyred while the Meiji government tried to get them to renounce their faith. I bought a small storybook that told their struggles, including being locked naked in a 3'x3'x'3' cage in the winter snow, and being dunked repeatedly into an icy pond.
On the other side of the hill, prominently overlooking the town, is a large Inari Shrine. The path to the main complex, lined with over a hundred orange tori, was cut out off the steep side of the mountain, and took a while to walk, as Martin was recovering from a broken ankle. The view from the top though was amazing, and inside the shrine, four maidens were performing some sort of dance. I would've taken photos but it would have been disrespectful.
Even farther up, at the top of the mountain, are the ruins of Tsuwano Castle. At one time it was a very prominent and intimidating feature of the area, but it fell into ruin during the end of the Meiji era. Now all that remains are a few stone walls. Unfortunately, it's quite a hike, and the chairlift isn't operational in the winter, so I wasn't able to see it up close.
During our stay, we were treated to some excellent food both at local restaurants and in the house of a kind lady who had been wanting to meet Leonard, the local ALT. I've no idea who she was, and even Leo had only met her once or twice. But she served us nabe (think stew) with crab legs and fugu, commonly known in the west as blow fish. Absolutely hands down the best meal I've had since coming to Japan. We also met up with Leonard's friend Hack, the resident drinking buddy for generations of JETs in the area. He was an interesting character to say the least, but his English was excellent. Martin and I have been invited to return in the fall to enjoy a local blue grass festival. After two days in Tsuwano, we caught a two and a half hour bus into Hiroshima, where we would spend New Years.
Hiroshima is a beautiful city. Like Nagasaki, the entire area is accessible by street car. Also like Nagasaki, the legacy of the atomic bomb still lingers in the area. Our first stop after checking into our hostel, was the A-bomb Dome. The building, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was once the Industrial Promotion Hall of Hiroshima. It was one of the few structures to survive the bombing of August 6, 1945.
Across the river is Peace Memorial Park. Statues and monuments to victims and survivors alike dot the area. Most notably are Peace Bell, which I felt obligated to ring as a small personal call for world peace and nuclear disarmament, especially considering that the pilot of the Enola Gay was from my native Hendersonville. Another popular monument is the Children's Peace Monument, inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki, a hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivor. At the age of ten, she was diagnosed with leukaemia. Following an ancient custom, she decided to fold 1000 paper cranes, believing that when her task was complete, she would be granted a wish. The crane is a symbol of longevity and happiness in Japan. Sadly Sadako was unable to achieve either as she passed away before she could reach her goal. Her classmates folded the rest though, and later petitioned for a monument to be erected in honor of the children victims of the bomb. Thousands of paper cranes are sent to the monument every year in Sadako's memory.
Farther down the park are more monuments, including the cenotaph, an archway inscribed with the names of all the bomb victims of Hiroshima. The archway frames the A-bomb dome and an eternal flame which burns at the other side of a reflecting pool. The Flame of Peace will only be extinguished once the last nuclear weapon on earth is dismantled. Behind the cenotaph is the Peace Memorial Museum, which, unfortunately, was closed for the New Year.
The next day, we got a late morning start for Miyajima, a nearby island famed for the Itsukushima Shrine and it's large Tori. The Shrine and Tori are both built on a muddy beach, but when the tide is in, the entire complex appears to float on the water, and the Tori is large enough to sail a small boat through. The island is fairly large and actually dotted with temples and shrines. We only visited the main one and a few that were immediately adjacent though, as it was a very rainy day, and, as I mentioned earlier, Martin had a bum ankle. Speaking of my Irish friend, the island was also full of deer, believed to be messengers of the gods. They were quite tame and would walk right up to you. One came up to Martin and took a big bite out of his map!
After Miyajima, our site seeing was all but finished. Even though there were numerous more places to visit, Japan simply shuts down for New Years. Even the conbinis had limited hours, and we were hard pressed to find an operational ATM to help our financial struggles which were brought about by excessive New Year celebrations. It was a fun time though, we found an incredible American Bar with a display of autographed sports memorabilia that would have been impressive, even by American standards, and that was just in one room. The other was decked out in old west paraphernalia like six-shooters, cowboy hats, and even a rebel flag! To top it off, they had a wonderful beer selection including one of Martin's favorites, which until now, he thought only available in northern Spain. For New Years, we met up with some more friends at the local Irish bar, Molly Malone's. It impressed Martin with its authenticity and the availability of an Irish whiskey that he even had trouble acquiring back in Ireland. Later we went clubbing and karaoke singing, finally turning in around 7:30 in the morning. We were pretty broke for the next two days, and everything was still closed, so we just stayed at the hostel watching Monty Python clips on Leonard's computer.
Hopefully I'll have updates from my November trips later this week. In the meantime, enjoy my full Tsuwano and Hiroshima photo albums.
Glad to see you had an amazing time! Happy New Year! Nice Pictures....we'll talk soon...lumi
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