#57 Hiroshima

Hiroshima is known for being the first city in the world to have been hit with an atomic bomb by USA during WWII. However, apart from one remaining structure, you wouldn’t be able to tell that the ground you are walking on was once obliterated to rubble and on it crawled thousands of people dying from burns and radiation.

It’s an eerie thought, and one that you are reminded of as you walk by the A-bomb Dome at night. It was decided that it was to be left it standing to remind the world what happens when humans let war get too far.

I visited the City Museum and Memorial Hall, which in my opinion, all did a good job of being as fair as possible when describing the events of the war. They acknowledged that Japan wasn’t entirely guilt free when it came to the terrible things it committed during war-time, but neither were the countries exactly heroic angels either.

Walking amongst the tattered remains of kid’s school uniforms and packed lunch boxes burnt black from fire, rusted toy bikes and stopped watches, photos of burn victims and pieces of walls splattered with shards of glass or with black rain streaked solemnly on the sides of them, one begins to realize how destructively far humans can go.

It’s almost impossible to believe that it was even true. It felt so far fetch’d that I almost couldn’t fathom that it had actually happened right where I was standing, just a couple of decades ago.

In any case, the objective of the museum wasn’t to bash on other countries, it was to try and spread the message against nuclear weapons. The people of Hiroshima believe that as long as nuclear weapons exists (or even the threat of it) peace cannot be made between humans on earth when we can just blast our enemies into oblivion with a push of a button.

I can’t say I disagree with this point of view, and although some may say that the bombing of Japan might have been ‘necessary’ to stop the war, when you’re reading the stories of dead little girls your view tends to shift a little. I just couldn’t have helped thinking that there must have been another way, any other way, apart from this kind of devastation.

Hiroshima before the bomb

Hiroshima after the bomb (the red line marks where the bomb fell)

It was a bitter couple of hours spent, but it was necessary to remind people of the real horrors of war, something a lot of us thankfully have never witnessed in real life. It’s definitely an emotional experience that everyone should go through, if not out of respect for those that died.

Cranes are a symbol of peace in Japan

Whichever side you lie on the nuclear debate, one thing is true. We are all aiming for the same thing. A world where there is no war and fighting, a world where children can enjoy their childhoods and adults can live without worrying about rationing for the war effort or whether they’d live to see their kids grow up.

We’re all aiming for world peace. Will we live to see it happen?

#94 Shinkansen

Japan is a big country. In fact, it’s so big that it stretches across three different climate zones. Most of the big cities lie along the coasts, often separated by miles and miles of countryside, forests and mountains. Japanese people can’t spend all day travelling, so short of the technology to invent teleportal machines, they decided to invent the fastest train in the world instead.

Yep, in Japan if you want to go somewhere far, you can get there very fast – on the (appropriately translated) bullet train.

Since it was built 45 years ago, it has carried 7 billion passengers and has not suffered even one casualty, despite the fact that Japan is a country that doesn’t do too well on the natural disasters front. Engineers have taken great care to make it an extremely safe way to travel, by installing brakes and other fail safes to stop the train should they detect a problem with the track.

Taking the Shinkansen isn’t cheap, but you get what you pay for. It’s smooth, comfortable and the time really does go quickly. With good friends to chat with, the journey goes by before you even settle down to read a book. It took just over an hour to travel from Kobe to Hiroshima.

However, depending on where you go, your view can range from the beauty of Mt. Fuji to the boring blackness of miles of tunnels. Either way, although a pretty view would be nice, the shinkansen was built for speed and will take you whichever way is the shortest route to get there.

The Shinkansen runs so on time that it’s almost scary, and when it arrives on the platform don’t dawdle, you  better hop on that thing because the doors close just a few seconds after letting the previous passengers off. Everything about the Shinkansen is about efficiency and speed which is kind of refreshing compared to the laid-back approach public transport tends to take back at home.

They’re constantly working on expanding the reach of the Shinkansen within Japan, and it’s good to know that tourism and business in many smaller towns and villages are being reivived because people can access them much easier.

It’s exciting to think about all the wonderful places you can be in just a few hours from the Shinkansen entrance.

 

#71 Todaiji

Todaiji (literally meaning Eastern Great Temple) is a Buddhist Temple in Nara. It is known for its magnificent main hall, which is the biggest wooden building in the world. It houses a giant bronze statue of the Buddha, which also happens to be the biggest of it’s kind in the world. Todaiji is the main attraction of Nara, and it’s beauty and rich history has earned it’s name on the World Heritage Site list.

It has stood as the headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism for centuries. During the years Nara was the capital of Japan, Todaiji acted as a place of administration and ordination. But when the Buddhist powers shifted to other schools and the capital moved away, Todaiji lost much of it’s influence. Furthermore, the original structures have been lost in ancient fires and earthquakes and has gone under several major reconstructions. Still, although 30% smaller than the original, the current construction has managed to stand for over three centuries.

There were once two 100m pagodas on either side of the main hall (said to be some of the tallest structures in the world during that time) but since their collapse they have never been rebuilt and only the metal tips of them (called sorin) remain today.

Today, tourists can enter for just 500 yen through the outer gate (though it’s possible to snap some distant pictures from outside) from which you walk past the beautiful garden towards the main hall.

Inside, you will be able to see the Daibutsu (Big Buddha statue) as well as a collection of other statues and models. Being a very famous tourist spot, it will most likely be quite crowded, especially on days that there are festivals in Nara or during public holidays.

My recommendation is to go near closing time, so that there are fewer people to get in the way of taking pictures! But more importantly, there is a high chance of little/no queuing time to crawl through the famous ‘Buddha’s Nostril’ – which is a small hole through one of the supporting pillars the size of the Buddha statue’s nostril, that one is supposed to squeeze through as a wish for long life.

This was my attempt to fit through it (it’s a tight squeeze but it’s possible for even some smaller adult men to fit through).

After this experience, I realized that I really really need to go on a diet.

… so that’s how it works.

#69 Shibuya

Shibuya is a busy shopping district in Tokyo famous for:

• Hachiko
• lot’s of shopping
• the crossing:

… and that’s about it.

I can’t say that I wasn’t disappointed when I went to Shibuya. It seems that it’s reputation of being a busy, social area is true, but for the same reason as for most of Tokyo – there are many people there because… there are many people there. As quite a few Japanese people have told me, the least ‘Japanese cultural place’ in Japan is coincidentally – it’s capital. If you’re looking for Japanese history, or to be exposed to traditional cultures and customs, you’ll find little of it in Tokyo.

With western clothes brands and chain restaurants aplenty, Shibuya feels a lot like the center of almost any big city in the world. If you’re a fan of fashion and shopping, this is the place for you. In Center Gai you may see a lot of fashion trends that seem crazy now, but wait a little while and they could be on the wildest catwalks of New York one day.

Also, it is perfectly possible to spend almost an entire day in the massive shopping malls, some several floors tall, including Tokyu and Shibuya 109 (pictured above).

At night, the district comes to life with neon lights and advertisements and people bustling this way and that, meeting up and making their way to clubs and bars.

If it wasn’t for the occasional hiragana or Kanji written on signs (along with English), it would be all too easy to forget that you’re in Japan at all – my Japanese friends were right, there was hardly any ‘culture’ there (if anything is more demonstrative of this it’s that the only museums in the area worth mentioning exhibit 1. tobacco and 2. electric power) but the place is quite lively and if you’re anything like me you’ll completely ignore this minor weakness and go all the way there just to take a picture with a statue of a dog and to cross the (in)famous intersection anyway.

Well, at least there are some things you can do that don’t cost a penny.

#29 Udon

Yamakake Udon

If there’s one place that’s renowned around Japan for udon noodles, it’s Shikoku – home of Sanuki udon. Named after the a city in Kagawa prefecture (one of the four that make up Shikoku – lit. meaning ‘four countries’) it is famous for it’s pleasurable chewy texture and thick but almost earthy flavour.

Generally, udon is made from wheat-flour, which is made into a dough, rolled out and sliced into thin long pieces. It can then be served hot or cold, depending on the season. In the winter, it is popularly served in a dashi-based broth, with various winter vegetables and/or meat. Other ways of serving it hot include with a generous helping of curry (pictured below), or tempura, eggs and tofu. In the summer, it can be eaten dipped in a chilled dashi-shoyu mixture, served with light, fresh ingredients such as green onion, daikon (radish) or nori (seaweed).

Curry Udon

Sanuki is a regional variety found in Shikoku, where it is said to be the first area to adopt udon when a monk brought it from China centuries ago. These days, it can be found with many different kinds of toppings and sauces, with a few regions producing their own udon of varying thickness, length and texture.

Udon is cheap and delicious, and stands proudly next to ramen as Japan’s answer to good fast food. It’s versatility is exactly what makes it interesting – if you ever live in Japan for a while you begin to grow fond of your own variety (in my case Kitsune udon of the Kansai area) and it’s exactly one of those things that make travelling a great experience since you don’t know what kind of delights to expect wherever you walk into an udon restaurant.