Wednesday, December 25, 2007
Before leaving for Hiroshima I took one last stroll around the streets of Kyoto through the shopping district in an attempt to do something traditionally Christmas-y, buy some gifts. Since I don’t have all that much to write regarding our events of the day, I will get into some of the trends and things that I have noticed since I arrived in Japan. Anyone that has some sort of cold or illness wears a mask covering their nose and mouth. It’s so common this time of the year that it’s no longer uncommon to see about one out of every ten people is wearing a mask. I guess its part of their “considerate” nature to not spread their germs or whatever. Almost everyone, and I’m talking like one out of every two people smoke cigarettes here. God forbid you catch a cold from someone, but cancer well that’s ok. Maybe their Surgeon General didn’t pass on the memo since the population is still booming here.
The one thing that has really troubled me, along with the language, is the lack of eye contact. Not only will passing strangers keep their heads down, but cashiers or anyone you attempt to speak to will not look you in the eye for more than a split second. This is tough for me cause I am so used to trying to initiate eye contact with everyone stateside and keeping it almost for the entire duration of whatever encounter it may be. Apparently the only reason you would look into another person of the same sex’s eyes is if you were trying to initiate a challenge of some sort. But when traveling to the 23 different countries that I have been to, I’ve tried not to get hung up on little cultural differences like that. This trip has truly been the most foreign I have ever felt.
Moving on, literally, we hopped on the bullet train called the JR (Japan Railway) and traveled southwest to Hiroshima. For all of you who have been living on the moon the past fifty years or have never taken an American history class, we (the U.S.) dropped the first Atomic bomb on August 6th 1945 at exactly 8:15 am. It will be interesting to see especially since we were the aggressors on that dark day in history. On the other end of the spectrum, I have been to Pearl Harbor and seen many people of Asian descent there as well. It’s funny that I’ve been to visit the place where WWII began for America and where it ended. Both visits were over Christmas breaks. Of course my dad and I have been shooting off our cynical jokes about how this ancient city looks relatively new and how we are going to go on a jog through the peace park yelling “Torah Torah Torah What!?” In all seriousness though, it will be a fascinating experience going to such a historical part of the world and having our countrymen be the ones responsible for the complete and utter devastation of an area and to see it from a different perspective. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to see both ends of the historical spectrum that im sure only a handful of people have witnessed.
On the train ride to Hiroshima we traveled along the coastline where little towns and villages sat at the base of high, sharply pointed mountains. Before too long we finally arrived in Hiroshima. With only a few hours of daylight left we went to check out the Memorial Peace Park. The Atom Bomb was detonated about 600 meters above the area. I got to see most of the park including what was left of the original structure of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. It had gone through very minimal preservation, as it was to remain as a reminder to the world of what weapons of mass destruction can do and also serve as a symbol of global peace.
Running out of daylight we decided to grab a bite to eat in the underground mall that was on the way back to the hotel. The Japanese have a lot of their shopping centers and retail space below ground and around the subway stations. They resemble American malls in just about everyway except there isn’t more than one floor and of course, they are underground.Eating Christmas dinner at a Japanese restaurant wasn’t exactly traditional in any means but at least I was full after. We went to a place that served these pancake like things that were noodle, cabbage or onion based and we thrown on a huge skillet and cooked kind of like a pancake. We ordered three, which was more than enough, and they each had a variety of fixings inside including shrimp, squid, veggies, egg and some other stuff that turned out to be very good to my mother’s surprise!
Hope Santa was good to all of you and enjoyed the holiday!
-GB
Following the eventful day we went out to a local restaurant and ate some “new generation Japanese food” as the hotel manager described it to us. As we entered the restaurant we removed our shoes in traditional Japanese fashion and immediately noticed that the floors were actually heated, a nice accommodation for a chilly night in downtown Kyoto. We enjoyed some Curry pizza that was especially delicious, a kind of chicken Kabob, and of course my favorite kind of sushi fried crab and a Yesibu beer to wash it all down. 
