Hiroshima and Ise

I finally made it out to Hiroshima, one of the spots I was determined to visit before I leave Japan. It was all I expected with an added bonus of being close to Miajima- an absolutely beautiful island a ferry ride away. Although it was quite a serious and somber trip, filled with pretty overwhelming moments, definitely glad I went!

Jordan, Jess, Narin and I made the trek by Shinkansen on Friday night and came back Monday after the long weekend (thus no nenkyuu! Yeah!) We stayed at the ever so lovely Super Hotel and one hostel as well. Saturday we started the tour with a trip to Shukkeien garden. Japanese gardens are always calming and well taken care of, but it was a little different at this one, when you learn of the history that surrounds just about every inch of the city. We then took in the rebuilt Hiroshima castle Hiroshima-Rijo where Jordan and I enjoyed dressing up like Samurai and taking pictures from the top after climbing 6 sets of stairs.

After lunch our main pursuit of Hiroshima was reached as we explored the A-bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park (including a Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, a mound of tens of thousands of victims’ remains, various peace bells, a monument for students of Hiroshima, a monument for Koreans killed (did you know that 10% killed were Korean workers in Hiroshima?) and a Statue of the A-bomb children in particular memory of Sadako Sasaki) and the Peace Memorial Museum. (For more info: http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html ) I was reading in the Lonely Planet that the cranes around the Children monument were actually burned by a college student protesting the fact that he couldn’t get a job, a few years back. I was shocked and sickened. Peace Memorial Park was a very good place to reflect, but filled us with profound sadness. It was powerful, difficult, and intense to say the least. Since I am, after all a social studies teacher, I hope you can bear with me as I recount some of the things that we witnessed.
As soon as we turned the corner and saw the Genbaku-domu atomic bomb dome, we all fell silent. It made such an impact to bring across the fact of how one bomb tore up such a city and so many lives. While the city is filled with life and growing rapidly now, (1,100,000 people) it was once believed that nothing would grow here for 75 years. Where once stood the Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall with a bright green roof, is now the skeletal remains that are known as the atomic bomb dome—the building that was right at the hypocenter and somehow remained intact. It is located maybe a hundred meters from the intended target- a T shaped bridge nearby.

Hiroshima was once a city known for Education, industrialization in the Meiji period and later some military. It was chosen as a potential bomb site in May of 1945 along with Kokura, Niigata and Kyoto (which later was removed and replaced with Nagasaki). It is estimated that 140,000 people were killed in the explosion and its aftermath within a few years. Other estimates say 200, 000 died overall as a result of the bomb. The survivors, known as hibakusha, some say were cursed worse than death. I bought a book of drawings compiled by the museum from the hibakusha and they truly show the terror that must still haunt these survivor’s memories. We enjoyed the museum so much that we went back a second time for another few hours before we left Hiroshima on Monday. The museum had great video testimonies, a headset to listen to victim’s personal experiences, and stunning artifacts that will not leave my memory any time soon. Particularly affective were the fingernails of a hibakusha, a tricycle of a child, full but scorched child’s lunch box, and a watch of one of the victims, frozen at 8:15, the time the bomb detonated. The images that centred around students and children were particularly disturbing for me, as a young person and a teacher I guess. The stories of them going out on duty that morning and teacher’s trying to comfort dying children tugged at me pretty deep. The museum also included various displays of black rain and the famous shadow burned onto the cement stairs in the later sections of the museum. (By the way, if you ever go, make sure you to save most of your time for the part of the museum AFTER the gift shop, because that’s where all the real artifacts are. The first parts are just background information-which is more important for those who don’t know the basic history I suppose.) I ended up buying three books, and am still thinking about getting another powerful (but only Japanese captioned) photo book called “My lens filled with tears.” It is about a journalist who went to cover the bombing when it first occurred, but was too overwhelmed to take more than a few pictures, and so there are very few actual photographs of the immediate bombing aftermath that exist today. There was also a large portion of the museum dedicated to the future of nuclear weapons. I found the museum to be quite fair to all sides involved and share a variety of perspectives. It was surprisingly honest about the build up towards the catastrophe and the reasons that lay behind the various aspects in the war, and the future threat of nuclear holocaust

As we left the museum, we found a group of “Free Hug” people outside—a most appropriate spot really. There was a Japanese school visiting the memorial and various people from around the world filled the park. I really hope that the youth of today get a chance to visit these historical places and don’t lose the memories and lessons. After the museum, I looked at the citizens of Hiroshima a little differently, realising some of the older people would have been survivors themselves, and nearly all of the people currently living in the city would have their own personal family stories from the bombing. I was overwhelmed at just how quickly they had rebuilt the city and their lives, after seeing pictures from the blast of the emptiness that remained. It also got me thinking about my own grandparents and how I want to spend more time when I get home, talking to them about, and recording their war stories.

Next we headed to a cathedral on the other side of the city. Catholic churches are generally pretty hard to find in Japan, but this one was build through international cooperation funds and was just what we needed to sit and take it all in.

That night we had a Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style (which is so much better than Osaka style I will state for the record!), walked around the city for a bit, and then fell into our beds exhausted.
The next day we made it out to another UNESCO World Heritage Site- Itsukushima Shrine and the famous floating torii gate. Arriving at Miyajima we had perfect timing for the kaki(oyster not persimmon this time) matsuri (festival) and joined the swarms of people on the island. The ride over on the JR ferry was quite lovely itself- it’s crazy that I somehow seem to forget that Japan is an island since I am stuck in the inaka of the one landlocked prefecture (lol I’m not bitter). In addition to sampling some fresh grilled kaki, we also fell tempted to the Japanese regional food addiction and picked up momiji manju omiyage (souvenirs of Japanese maple leaf shaped pastry.) I even bought some in Hello Kitty shapes—man am I ever turning Japanese sometimes! (So are Narin, Jess and Jords as I filmed them all sleeping on the tram home—so Japanese!)
Miyajima was absolutely beautiful! Deer everywhere wandered the island- although not quite as aggressive, nor as talented as the Nara ones. The turning of the tides, heaps of pagodas and the gate and shrine itself made for a perfectly picturesque day! Virtually impossible to get a bad shot (minus the people who stayed at the hostel and didn’t shower that morning of course!).

On the shinkansen ride home on Monday (after visiting Peace Park one last time and buying the last of our omiyage of course); I read the hibakusha book from cover to cover and found myself back in a daze. I recommend it to any history teachers or anyone just interested in the experience of the victims themselves. The man who compiled the book also gives interesting commentary that makes you think about things like changing world attitudes about remembering the bomb, and the initial concept of “Ground Zero.”

So yes, combining the history that is seeped throughout the city, being close to Miyajima, having great transportation network of trams and the Shinkansen, being close to the sea, not to mention an ideal population size and climate- Hiroshima left a lasting impression as my favorite place in Japan so far (and unlike the warnings— no Yakuza as far as I could tell!). I loved it! There were so many more museums to see and also a bustling central downtown shopping and karaoke core! Maybe I’ll be back with Mom and Dad—hopefully we can even catch a Carp baseball game next time too!


Part 2:
Well since I couldn’t let the Hello Kitty cell phone charm collection remain the same size for more than a week or two, I decided it was time to travel again this weekend. I managed to find an awesome group of people and a pre-planned trip to join too! Bonus!!! So, after a cooking class with Narin, Kiri, Jess and the international centre of Mizuho City on Saturday, early Sunday morning, I joined the Gifu Youth Overseas Association on their trip to Isse Shrine and around Toba city in Mie Prefecture. (For more details http://wikitravel.org/en/Ise_shrine).

My traveling companions this round included 23 Japanese people and 16 other foreigners originally from Canada, USA, Sweden, Peru, and the Philippines. What a great bunch they were too! Using a combination of Japanese and English, we all made many friends that trip and learned a lot too! First stop was Isse Shrine after contesting for a spot with hundreds of other busses around the area. They weren’t kidding when they said this is the most famous shrine in Japan- holiest and most important Shinto site! (more info on Shinto: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto ) Here’s a little of the reason why the shrine I visited was so important, loose compliments of Wikipedia!:

According to the official chronology, Ise Shrine was originally constructed in the year 4 BC. Although some historians claim it was 690 AD. Sacred objects of the royal family reside within, including a covered mirror which has reportedly not been looked into for over a thousand years. The shrines are famously dismantled and rebuilt to exacting specifications every 20 years at exorbitant expense. The present buildings, dating from 1993, are the 61st iteration to date and are scheduled for rebuilding in 2013. The shrine consists of two sites, some 6 kilometers apart but connected by a sacred forest. Access to the inner sanctum of these sites is strictly limited, with the general public allowed to see little more than the thatched roofs of the central structures, hidden behind three tall wooden fences. Guards are on hand to ensure this too! The Gekū or Outer Shrine is dedicated to the goddess of food, clothing, and housing, and Naiku or Inner Shrine is dedicated to the sun goddess (obviously the more important of the two).
From some of my new Japanese friends I learned about the proper way to wash my hands and mouth before going to the shrine, how to properly pray (5 yen is apparently the best to throw by the way). We also were very fortunate and visited the shrine in the midst of a harvest praying celebration. It was really interesting to see one female in the procession as well! Apparently women were once refrained from going to Shinto shrines, especially if they were menstruating.
After observing different people praying in different manners and locations around the grounds, and checking out the next site for the shrine in 2013, we went by the charm area where one of my new friends bought a shrine charm (yakudoshi) for her and her friend to ward off any bad luck from the Japanese bad female years of 19 and 33 (males bad age years are 25, 42 and 60 by the way).

Next we went for a very quick shopping trip to Oharai Machi, but luckily for us, one of the guys on the tour decided not to visit the shrine at all and immediately lined up for the famous (and lately infamous) akafuku, a mochi rice cake wrapped in red bean jam. (The running joke is that this famous food is more of a reason that people come to the shrine, than the shrine itself). Apparently akafuku is the highest selling omiyage in all of Japan and even with being closed down for health infractions from last October until it just reopened a few weeks ago, they still had a record sales and a line that lasted a little over an hour when we were there! Fortunately the super genki (jolly) guy on our tour bought 50 some boxes to sell to us Gifu-ites back on the bus : ) Yeah! My schools were pleased!

Lunch was a wonderful meal at the top of a seaside hotel near Toba. We had sashimi, oysters, miso soup, seaweed rice, duck, and more! After lunch we also were treated to a sweet little onsen too! We were the only ones in the place and so we really did feel quite fortunate (how this whole trip only cost $35 I will never know!) Palm trees, snow and onsen are a perfect combination by the way!

Next we went on a tour of a Pearl Museum, and home of the world famous Mikimoto Pearls (first cultured pearls in the world.) We even got to see the female divers go into the Pacific Ocean and dive for the cultured pearls! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/aug/24/japan.justinmccurry (remember it’s also February and snowing!!) It has always been female divers in Japan and never males because of a tradition that was based on the belief that women have an extra layer of fat to insulate themselves, and also that they could hold their breath longer. Anyways we got to tour the museum, make our own peal keitai straps and shop! I am now the proud owner of Mikimoto pearls by the way (although of course I only looked at the ones that were the 10th grade ones and thousands of dollars, and bought the lower quality, but all the same, I own some Mikimoto’s!
On the trip there bus games were played and we had arranged seats to get to know each other (by the way bus trivia: anyone know how long those middle white lines are on the super express roads are? 8 m each, with 12 m in between each one.. lol don’t ask.) On the trip home, everyone warmed up even more and the characters really came out. It was not my first time to play Bingo in Japan, or Karaoke on a bus, but it certainly was memorable! Man do they like their bus bingo! The views were gorgeous too! Including a fake castle amusement park that was coated in real gold! It was particularly gorgeous driving by the sea (Pacific Ocean) and up the mountain sides. It truly was another great trip and with a new great group of people!

Time for me to get back to work (my students were doing year end tests most of the day today but I still have planning for the elementary students tomorrow!) Convo class is still lots of fun! Rika taught us freestyle traditional Japanese flower arranging last week (which her work sponsors females in the country to learn twice a month). The frog stand with spikes is perfect for making a gorgeous display! The weather is still pretty crappy (it’s ridiculous how much the weather plays with my mood!) but I guess it gives me more time to watch the Amazing Race (kindly burned from Narin)—they were in Osaka last episode!!

Valentine’s Day come and went; nothing super special since Duane and I were in different continents and all. Narin, Jess, Kiri, Sanj and I went to Sweenie Todd and grabbed dinner together, and we gave Narin chocolates though. Valentine’s Day is only for boys in Japan, girls have their own day later called White Day. For bigger news, I did find out another one of my friend’s got engaged!! Ahh are we truly at that age already?? Congrats to Kirst and Andy! The two high school sweethearts really are great together!!

Hugs to all! I really do miss home and although am having a blast here, can’t wait to see and talk to you all again!!!

I’ll leave you with two last questions,
1) What kind of traveler are you?
One who takes a picture and says, been there done that? Or one who truly enjoys the moment in a new place.
2) What makes a hero?
Thinking back to the drawings and stories by the survivors of Hiroshima, and also remembering Rachel Scott from Columbine, who stood up for her beliefs and answered in the face of death, when asked, “Do you believe in God”, replied, “You know I do.”

Carpe Diem!

2nd Blog of the Year

Well, the papers are officially signed and are going to be faxed tomorrow. I had such a hard time telling my JHS that I was not staying a second year (my principal thought I was breaking contract as he’d not even assumed going home after one year was an option.) In Japan, there is a saying that if you don’t try something for at least three years- you aren’t giving it a chance. Although people are disappointed, and I feel like I am somewhat letting people down, I still think I am making the right decision for me right now (even when accompanied with a huge amount of guilt.). Tomorrow should also be awkward as I have to tell my super genki principal about my decision, and probably surprise a whole other school that my initial contract is only one year and I am not renewing. Oh well, not going to dwell on it too much here.

Holy moly, officially less than six months to go now. Here’s what’s happened since the last update…

Narin, Sandra and I watched an awesome movie called Dare mo shiranai (Nobody Knows). It was a Japanese movie based on a true story about some abandoned children living on their own. It was really sad but I encourage all of you to watch it (with subtitles of course). For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_%28film%29
This weekend Narin and I also watched Letters to Iwo Jima. It’s so interesting now that I have been living here and understand more of the culture and mindset.

Life at school is pretty much the same. The students are still meticulous (yet only half write any notes in class) and aren’t held accountable (at least to the extent my university education taught me they should be), but they still manage to go from test to test. We’re still in entrance exam season for our grade 9’s applying to highschool’s. Therefore life is busy, but also rewarding. Once the students get accepted into their high school, they go around to each of the teacher’s who helped them and tell them about their success and say thank you. The students are so emotional and sweet. It was especially adorable when the first girl came up to me after class (when I hadn’t yet seen the procedure and thought it was just random and genuine) and recited the thank you. Still, it’s nice to have the student’s come up to you and acknowledge how you have helped them along their journey (especially when they are nervous and sweating and struggling to find the words in English.) Also writing my note to the grade 6 and grade 9 classes for the year book has brought me into a reflective mood about my whole experience with the kids.
Now that the weather is getting a little better, I’m trying to get outside more. Whenever the ground is not wet, I try to get outside and play with the kids at both schools. Sometimes if it’s snowing I’ll go play with the girls on the mats in the gym, and some of them finally taught me the sakura song and another one on the ocarina! Yeshha!
At the Elementary school, I got to watch a grade two math class the other day. It was very interesting because the grade two teacher is someone who the kids are always all over since they just love him to death. It’s quite interesting watching him interact with them. A lot of time’s he reminds me of dad and his kids—or even more what dad would be like without all the legal restrictions and if he were teaching grade one or two. The interesting thing I observed at that class was how much Japanese schools seem to value quality over quantity. Where, for example, in Canada a math class would learn the new procedure and then have multiple examples and trial questions to practice; in Japan, the entire class goes over again and again the same problem and recites it multiple times. They also show their friends how they got the answer and have to explain everything orally multiple times. However, they only did a similar problem with different numbers during the last two minutes of class. It really was insightful for me (reflecting on both systems.)Anyways, for those who aren’t teacher’s, maybe that’s not that interesting, but the next few things may be… so last week was Kyshoku (school lunch) anniversary and appreciation week. Students learned to be thankful to all the people who contribute to their daily meals and also we tried many new types of food—including whale (which I got out of eating if you hadn’t heard.) Since then there have been even more scandals with dolphin and whale meat, including the discovery of extremely high poisoning levels of mercury in dolphin meat. Eeks. Yikes. On a related note, don’t worry, I didn’t eat any of the poisoned Gyoza imported from China—although it was quite the story around here for a while. Hundreds of people are still in hospital throughout Japan.
Now, for what Jordan would deem the most exciting part of today’s blog entry: this week, my favorite little grade one student (who I absolutely adore), front kanchoed me! (for those who don’t know what kancho is- refer to previous blogs or wikipedia it). He thought he was quite clever and had himself a good laugh out of it. I was used to being ‘molested’ by my grade one’s during “head, shoulders, knees and toes” when they decide to try to do the dance with my body instead of theirs… even though they can’t quite reach and end up mangling me in the process…..but kancho intentionally is where I definitely draw the line… eww shudder.
Although it’s starting to warm up a bit, the kairos are still very near and dear to me (shakey heat bag things). A few weeks ago, after our second Jet Midterm conference, I went on a trip to Gero snowboarding with heaps of other Jets. There were 80 of us altogether at the Kashimo lodge for the weekend of onsen and snowboarding. Most were Gifu Jets but some also came from Aichi and there were other Japanese and Brazilian friends of Jets there too. It was such a wonderful time! It was one of my best weekends in Japan (despite or maybe partially because of my ridiculous alcohol consumption—nomihodai can be such a killer). The mountain was fantastic for beginners-very open and not too many people on the hill. The view from the top was likewise quite perfect. I did my best snowboarding ever while I was there and just had a great time! As anyone who has spent a day on the hill would know, the onsen afterwards topped things right off too!
Although the drive back was long for a full car of hungover and tired people, the massage at Aeon once we got to Jess’s place was fantastic!

Other news in life—I can’t believe how fast time is flying. More people than ever are getting engaged (or at least being asked rather), and I’ve been catching up with a few old elementary school friends lately too (oh the wonder we call Facebook!).

My conversation class is still quite an experience, and along with my Japanese lessons and weekend adventures, the week passes quickly. This past weekend I went out for a friend’s birthday dinner at a great Indian restaurant in Ogaki and then the next day went to a Spring Festival outside Ogaki city. One of the men I met at my friend’s birthday was Japanese and he offered to take us to the festival the next day (which was fantastic because I am really getting fed up with Japanese roads (if you can even call them roads!)). Anyways the festival was so unlike anything from home! It was centered around an old monk ritual and Setsuban. Setsuban is the festival throughout Japan on February 3rd (the first day of spring on the Chinese calendar). Roasted soybeans are scattered in and around your house and into crowds at shrines and temples to drive out sickness and misfortune. Represented by a devil mask- bad luck go out, good luck come in! Is the theme of the festival. In the particular one in Ogaki—the traditional monk ritual was performed by almost 40 daring volunteer men (none who were actually monks I might add—and all who were quite drunk!) who stripped completely naked—minus a sumo looking loin cloth and ran around the streets chanting and getting soaked with water. They then went running through the river (oh yah, did I add that it was one of our coldest days in Japan yet (below 0 and super windy) and that they were practically naked for 3 hours!) haha it was quite the sight to see. Ooh and also at the end they hoisted each other up and crowd surf style passed naked people (still throwing water at them) until a man threw a big bale of hay down from a tower—which the men then ripped apart as fast as they could to get the prize inside. Oh and for the best luck, the crowd should try to catch and eat as many roasted beans as they are years old. I don’t know if I quite caught and ate that many, but I had quite a few. Some of the bags of beans even had prize tickets in them too- although I wasn’t one of the lucky ones this year. You’ll have to check out my pictures and videos on Facebook—coming soon!

Random Japanese of the day:
Foot/Leg in Japanese is: ashi
Finger in Japanese is: ubi
Thus, toe in Japanese is: ashi no ubi (or leg/food finger). Sometimes this language just makes sense : ) I wish English was so—for example today trying to teach the students how to answer “Don’t you like mushrooms?” – yes, uhh, no, uh...

Buffet in Japanese translation- Viking Style

Banzai: Literal meaning is “ten thousand years” is the Japanese equivalent to three cheers! It is often yelled (with hands above your head) three times at a high point or end of a celebration. Letters to Iwo Jima got me thinking about this one.

Kashiwade: refers to clapping of hands in worship at a Shinto shrine. It is done in order to attract the gods’ attention and to concentrate one’s own mind.

That’s all for now!
Stay genki! And as Mom always says… Make Wise Choices! : )