Hiroshima, Japan 10/23/06

Hiroshima, Japan 10/23/06

Ahhh, finally a day to sit around and write, well kind of, even today has consisted of about 6 hours of walking around; exploring a new city and seeking out some specific landmarks, most specifically the Peace Museum and memorial.

I have now been in Japan for over a week. I have visited the cities of Nagoya, Osaka, Koyoto, Nara, Ki Katsuura, Okazaki, and finally Hiroshima the last of which has been by far my favorite. Not to say of course that I didn’t enjoy the others. Hell any new place is hard to be bad in my mind. Any new experience alone gives me pleasure. Plus on this trip, up until now, I have had an excellent local tour guide and new friends to hang out with. Again, always a good time for me.

Japan and East Asia were chosen as my first section of world travel, after quitting my full time job, to coincide with the wedding of Dave’s brother, and my former fellow Camp Drake staffer, Tim Krug. Tim has lived in Japan for the last 7 years and 2 days ago was married to his Japanese girlfriend of about 6 years.

Dave has been one of my best friends since we were 13 so with Tim only a couple years younger than us I basically grew up with him too. I was honored to be invited to his wedding and even more delighted to actually be able to get to Japan for the occasion.

The wedding was amazing! A cultural experience I will never forget. Tim planned a week of sight seeing and travels before the wedding for his guests, which consisted of about 14 of us, so the entire week was more of the experience than just the actual wedding.
We spent the first few nights in Osaka with day trips to the temples and shrines in Koyoto and Nara. Both were culturally amazing places and very beautiful. One early morning, when I was probably fighting some minor jet lag, I found myself wide awake at 5:30 a.m. To pass the time until breakfast I read the beginning of "The Teachings of Buddha" that was located next to the Bible in my hotel room. I found it very interesting and when I made it to the Temple at Todai-Ji I was able to understand a bit more of the customs and information.

At the Temple, however, I think it was my healthy lifestyle and not my brief Buddhist readings that helped me secure a corner in eternal Paradise. According to legend if you can fit through the small hole in one of the temples large support columns, a hole believed to be the same size as the nostril on the huge bronze Buddha that the temple houses, you are either reserved a corner in paradise or some other benefit depending on which guide book you read. The hole in the column looked snug but it was no smaller than any cave entrance I have pushed myself through. I cut in line by some school kids and I pulled myself through to the cheers of on lookers.

The nights in Osaka were a lot of fun with everyone. Tim even added more to the cultural experience when he gave us all an authentic kimono. We wore them to dinner our last night out in Osaka and we tore up the town. I had a moment that froze in my mind at about 1 a.m. when I realized I was drunk, throwing darts, and wearing a kimono in Japan. Now that’s a night that doesn’t happen a lot.

After Osaka the group journeyed way off the gaijn (outsider/foreigner) path when we arrived by train in Ki Katsuura. It’s located on the coast, south of Osaka, and we stayed right on the water in a resort called The Hotel Urashima. The hotel is built on, and even in, a mountain peninsula and features a few natural on sen`s, (bath) that are filled by hot springs that are directed into the baths.

Just thinking about our first trip to the on sen cracks me up! Talk about your cultural experiences; Walking through the lobby with just a small bath robe on made all of us giggle like we were 12. Luckily Tim was there to guide us all through the process of showering, bathing, and even which little towel you use to…uhhh, cover your manhood. It’s weird to get used to walking around naked, and sober mind you, with all your friends....and their Dad and brothers! Soon we all relaxed and enjoyed the experience. Since then I have even gone to one of the on sens by myself. It is located in the hotel here in Hiroshima and I wrapped up my travel day there last night. Look at me go! It wasn’t a natural hot spring like Ki Katsuura but the sauna and hot tub were still very nice.

Tim’s week long tour culminated last Saturday at the wedding of him and Yumiko. It was a beautiful Shinto ceremony at a very old shrine in Okazaki. During the ceremony I watched Tim read, in what sounded like perfect Japanese to me, his marriage vows. I looked at his beautiful wife in a traditional wedding kimono. All I could think of during the ceremony was of young Tim; the smart, young staffer at Camp Drake that I grew up with. Who would have ever thought that his life would lead him to here? It just reminded me once again that it is a small world and even in one short lifetime the path of life can take you anywhere.

I had a blast at the receptions that followed the ceremony, all 3 of them actually, which is probably why I’m still avoiding the biiru (beer). The Japanese have a great custom of never pouring your own glass. You are to take care of your friend’s glass and fill it when they get low. I thought this was a great idea until Tim’s new 20 year old cousin taught me his version of the tradition. His custom was: he fills your glass, you fill his, and then you both chug. When he beats you, which he always did, he announces he is number 1 and you are number 2 or 3 or 4...depending on how many people are participating. I think counting was the only English he knew but when you are “Number 1” you don’t need to know much else.

Yesterday Dave and I arrived here in Hiroshima. We are wide open until November 1 when Dave heads home and I head off for other destinations. We had hoped, me especially, to head to Mount Fuji for some serious hiking but it’s the off season for hiking Fuji and even though it’s still possible the more I read the more it sounds less than ideal. Our plan now is to spend a few days here and then possibly jump to Okinawa, Vietnam, or Northern Thailand. Who knows?! I love it! Have backpack and money, will travel!

Dave and I both really like Hiroshima. It has a good feel. Clean and wide open spaces. Good restaurants, bars, and cafes that look foreign but inviting to all; beautiful streetscapes and public spaces along flowing rivers. Not what I imagined for the historical place of mass destruction.

The Peace Park is a beautiful place. Proof again that the human spirit is capable of creating great spaces but usually only after equally great destruction. I think just as amazing as Tim Krug standing in a samurai kimono getting married in Japan, it was hard for me to imagine a boy from Philo, Illinois, USA standing next to the shell of a building that 61 years ago was frozen in time by the blast of the world’s first atomic bomb attack. It’s hard to imagine that 61 years from now my grandkids could be sightseeing in Baghdad or Afghanistan but like I said earlier, anything is possible.

Of course that statement also allows for the possibility that 61 years from now kids won’t be able to go anywhere, or worst yet, we blow ourselves up before 61 years even passes. Let’s hope that the fact that I am standing in Hiroshima, and possibly heading to Vietnam in a day or so, is a trend that shows that mankind is on the right track.

MJF