<insert pseudo-wise phrase here>

Hi there,

It's now Monday, most of you will be returning to work after the weekend. I will to, but it is my very last day at Nova.  I'm incredibly sad about it in a lot of ways and very happy about it in a lot of others.  But this blog is not about that, this is my better-late-than-never blog about my trip last week to Hiroshima, on today the 62nd Anniversary of the Atomic bombing.  Enjoy.

So Tuesday morning, i woke at about 9 o clock, deliberately.  I had been really tired so i treated myself to a wee sleep in before i dashed off to Sannomiya in Kobe to catch the bus to Hiroshima.  I said goodbye to Tristan (Luke was in America at this stage) and went to the station. 

Upon arriving about an hour later in Sannomiya i quickly grabbed a juice and possible the nicest danish i have ever eaten and went to the bus station.  Pulling out my "watashi wa Hiroshima ikitai" (i would like to go to Hiroshima) i was given a pamphlet by the amused ticket man.  I looked at it with utter shock and disbelief.  The only buses of the day left at 9:20am and 4:45pm.  I had to sit down i was so shocked.  I was saying to myself "this is so fucking typical of you Neil, leave everything till the last minute, never organise anything, and look, now you're fucked". 

So next step in the process was what the hell was i going to do.  I started thinking about what i could do instead, go to Koya-San down past Osaka, or go to American Town in Osaka but i didn't want to do either, and i had told everyone i was going to Hiroshima.  When i told them i didn't go they would be so disappointed.  So i txted Tristan and told him the bad news and my two options, either dont go, or go on the Shinkansen (bullet train).  He said yup, catch the Shinkansen.  I agreed, and told him i was off to Shin-Osaka to catch it.  "Shin Osaka?" he replied, "just go to Shin-Kobe".  Having never heard of Shin-Kobe and it wasn't on my map i wandered around for ages (Tristan wasn't answering his phone anymore).  I saw a sign which said Shin-Kobe and i figured out i had to catch a subway there, and catch it i did.

I raced upstairs and talked to the information desk who usually speak English.  I asked her when the trains to Hiroshima go and how much they cost.  She had no idea, she was just an information desk for people coming to Kobe.  "Great", i thought.  So i stood in line and waited, thinking "how on earth am i going to communicate what i want to know".  As luck would have it i said to the man when it was my turn "Do you speak English?", and flawlessly came the reply "yes, very well".  So i found out the ticket cost 92,000Y (about $95, about twice as much as the bus) and that the next train left in 15 mins.  I bought the ticket and raced up to the platform.  I txted Tristan told him the good news and jumped on the beast of a train when it came in.

The Shinkansen is a wonderful experience, i'm so glad i went on it.  It's not really like catching a train at all, to me it felt like catching a plane, just a plane that never leaves the ground.  It is so smooth that you cant feel it turn corners and you cant hear the rails.  The seats are aeroplane seats, with tray tables and everything.  The cabin has that same overly-clean, semi-hygenic look that planes have, and there is a woman with a cart with food and drink that comes up the aisle.  After just over an hour  mostly spent watching not-as-blurry-as-you-imagine cities and countryside go by, we arrived in Hirshima. And i felt great. It felt awesome that i had chosen to catch the Shinkansen.  Now when people say "did you catch the bullet train?", i can say "yes, yes i did".

Hiroshima is not a very big city geographically and it doesn't rely on an intricate subway system like most Japanese cities.  Instead it has what it calls Streetcars, which are essentially trams (i'm sure there's a difference but damned if i can see one).  So consulting the key and realising the red one would take me past the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Park, i jumped aboard.  For a flat fee of 150Y the streetcars will take you anywhere around the city basically, so after paying my money i jumped off at the Genbaku Dome stop (thats what the Japanese call the A-Bomb Dome i found out). 

As soon as i got off the streetcar and walked up to the Dome i was struck dumb by it.  I'm not sure why, in a lot of ways it's not that impressive, but in other ways it is.  Looking at it you could imagine the mushroom cloud exploding 600ft above it and the fireball emanating from it and just destroying everything.  I had only been there like 2 minutes, and read one plaque, but already i had tears in my eyes.  The Dome used to be a market and a performing arts centre at different times i believe, at the time of the bombing it was being renovated for an orchestra performance i believe.  Everyone inside were killed instantly but because it was almost under the bombs epicentre it wasn't flattened like 99% of all the other buildings were.  As you can see in the phots it was blasted and broken, the warped and twisted, but it stayed up, and the people of Hiroshima chose to keep it up as a reminder. 

I looked out at the river running through Peace Park and how beautiful it is.  I was there on an absolute corker of a day, hot, not too muggy (for Japan anyway) and beautifully sunny.  The river sparkled and shon and across the other side there were people painting a mural.  I closed my eyes and i was reminded of a book we read at school i believe called merely Hiroshima but i may be wrong, in 5th form for English.  I remember how all the people rushed desperately to the river becuase they felt on fire. Their skin had melted off and was hanging hanging off them  like material.  Most had had their clothes and hair incinerated by the sheer heat (up to 5000 degrees C on the ground when it exploded) and it was said that those who saw the light radiating when it exploded had their eyes dissolve in their sockets.  It haunted me then and it haunts me now.  I could see the people lying face down in the river, however when i opened my eyes, the river was a brillriant blue again, but i was silently crying.

On my way over the bridge i saw an old man, probably one of the last few surviving hibakusha (those alive at the bombing) talking to a group of school children.  It made me smile that the young were still being educated about it, but i'm not sure for how much longer.  The hibakusha will die and less and less school tour groups are going to Hiroshima, which is very sad. I took a photo of the memorial they were at, it's the one with the angel.

Across the river in Peace Park there are many memorials, including one to the Korean victims of the bomb,the flame that wont go out until all nuclear arms are destroyed and a small mound where all the ashes of the bodies cremated following the bombing were put. But the main one that i saw a lot of people around was the Children's Memorial.  It depicts a girl (presumably Sadako who i'll come to later) holding a giant paper crane.  A guy spents his whole day underneath ringing a bell every ten seconds or so.  Surrounding the memorial are glass cabinets full with literally millions of paper cranes.  Some are on a big strands, others very cleverly make pictures and they range in size from one about 1cm long to one i saw about half a metres long.  They get replaced incredibly often because so many are sent it.  Usually made by schoolchildren.  I found it really amazing and tried to take some photos that showed it well, but they came out kinda naff.

Heading south through Peace Park towards the museum i was suddenly aware of how unbelievably hungry i was.  I hadn't eaten since about 11, (it was now 3:30 ish) and i had only had a bowl of cereal and a danish all day.  I decided to go look for some food before going to the museum when i was approached by a woman about 30 and two little ragamuffins, about 2 and 3 i reckon.  She asked me whether i had a couple of minutes to which i said "of course!", feeling my stomach groan in protest.  Each of the children handed me an adorably cute card in their mother's handwriting that said (in pink or blue pen of course), "Hello! My name is Kokoro (or Rihito), I am 3 years old (must have been twins).  I like Peaches (or Snakes haha). I hope you enjoy your stay in Japan".  It was adorable and their mother tried to get them to ask me questions like "where are you from?" (they were shocked when i said Kansai region, hahaha, but then elaborated of course),  "What do you do?" and "Do you like Japanese food?".  It was hilarious.  After answering the questions she took a photo of us, i got her to take one for me too and i was on my way, or so i thought. 

 I took a mere 10 steps when i was approached by another woman and her childen maybe 6 year olds.  I smiled and went through the same routine again, this time my stomach actually screamed at me, i'm pretty sure.  After that i walked in the direction of a cafe i spotted when two girls about 13 ran up to me and very sheepishly asked "do you....uh....have a ...couple of minutes?".  I said "of course!" but was thinking "i think i'm gonna be trapped forever".  They were really shy but had the same questions for me.  One of them had really good English so i was able to talk to her for a wee while before we exchanged polite bows and left.  I had no energy to run for the cafe but if i could, i would have.

I got a cheesy bread thing, an ice cream and a Coke (yeah, really god i know, but i didn't notice they had a menu of proper food till after i had bought it).  I sat next to a woman and her daughter.  She started speaking English to me and got me to ask her daughter (who was about 11) questions in English to help her practice.  It was pretty funny, nice way to meet people.  When i'd finished my Coke it was time to leave.  So off to the museum i went, now happy and not wracked with stomach cramps.

The Museum itself costs all of 50Y to get in.  Its really nice inside, and gives a timeline of the city, and in turn, of Meiji Era Japan.  It has a lot of really cool artefacts in cases, of which people were taking photos.  I took one of the first floor but felt bad, even though i saw no signs saying not to.  A lot of the stuff taken from the time of the bombing is crazy.  Watches stopped at exactly 8:15, helmets warped, items of ceramic and glass fused together due to the heat into weird masses of material.  Two really remarkable items include a shadow literally blasted into a pair of steps.  A woman was sitting on the steps and the blast bleached the stone around her a different colour so now her outline is left in shadow.  There's also parts of building with pieces of glass lodged into the brick from when the windows smashed at such a high velocity.  There's also scale models of Hiroshima before and after the bombing, and literally maybe 3 buildings managed to stay up.  One of course being the Genbaku Dome of which there is a scale reconstruction in the museum. 

Past the history or Nuclear Weapons and how they work lies the very dark and very upsetting part of the museum.  There are wax models of people with their skin melting off, clothes burnt off stumbling.  Its very graphic and very horrifying.  There are countless photos of people burned, scarred, with lumps, bumps and bruises of all kind, some are some of the most terrible photos i've ever seen.  There are items, accompanied by stories, of school children's clothes, lunch boxes, toys.  Most of them got home from school, but next to all of them died overnight from their burns.  Those that didnt died from infection or radiation sickness.

The stories themselves are the kind of thing one had to read for oneself, i could never do them justice by summarising them here, so i wont.  The only thing i will mention due to the well known nature of it is the story of Sadako.  I remember reading a book on her in primary school and her quest to make a thousand paper cranes.  She was a seemingly normal and playful child until she got to about 8 and she stopped growing, got amazingly thin and was diagnosed with leukaemia.  She had been told that you get to a make a wish after constructing a thousand paper cranes, so she started making them in hospital.  I remember her dying before she got to a thousand, but she made well over a thousand, but she was never cured and died.  In the museum they have a sampling of her cranes, which were made from cellophane becuase original paper was so expensive back then.  The detail is incredible.  As she got sicker they became smaller and smaller until she was forced to use needles to fold them.  Some there are no more a centimetre long, its incredible.

I came out of the museum feeling very upset, upset at a lot of things, but mostly at man's ability to make his fellow man suffer so terribly.  I had a sit next to the fountain outside the museum and determined my next plan of action.  I needed to find a hotel, and fast, it was almost 4:30, and i wanted a bed to sleep in tonight.  So off i went into town on a quest to find a hotel.

Tristan had told me that there was business hotels "everywhere" and i had the katakana for "hoteru"on my hand but i wasn't seeing anything.  I spent half an hour or more walking up and down the main streets and finding nothing.  I found one, but it was charging almost $100 a night to stay, and i didn't have that kind of money.  Panic was starting to set in as the sun started setting.  It was just like in Kobe, "this is so fucking typical of you Neil, leave everything till the last minute, never organise anything, and look, now you're fucked".  In desperation i started walking down sidestreets.  I found this place called Hotel 7, but it turned out to be a bloody car park building.  And then, i turned a corner.  Staring at me were those beautiful words "business hotel".  "Millions" was its name, and it was going to be my hotel.  I fumbled with pointing and speaking English to him, and he got the point, single room, tonight only etc.  Cost me $58, which was all good with me.

The room itself was awesome, was so stoked.  The key was, well, HUGE!! See the photo, but luckily i have deep pockets in my gay boy denim shorts. I took some photos, laughed at the accessibility of pay-per-view porn, turned on the air con and smiled a wide smile, before collapsing onto the bed and falling asleep, the first bed i had slept on in almost 3 months.
...And it was goooooood.  I had forgotten how good a nice bed is, either that or i had just got used to the shittiness of a futon.  I woke up feeling refreshed, really bloody happy and hungry.  So i stuff my usual shit into my pockets and it was off to Okinomi-Mura for dinner!  

Okinomi-Mura is essentially this building with lots of little Okinomiyaki restaurants in it.  Okinomiyaki people say is a savoury pancake or Japanese pizza, but it aint fucking either, not even close.  Its just what it is, noodles, cabbage, egg, teriyaki sauce, and other stuff.  But the thing is, in Hiroshima prefecture they make it differently and it tends to be called Hiroshima-yaki by anyone else in Japan.  Instead of just flipping it together they kind of stack it and press it down, its very hard to describe.  Two places were full of gaijin, and there was nowhere to sit down so i pulled up a stool with japanese people and using every single piece of Japanese i know, i ordered some Hiroshima-yaki.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hiroshima-yaki onegai shimasu" ("Hiroshima yaki please")
Woman: "hai, yadda yadda yadda?" ("yes", then something i didnt understand but clearly a question)
M: *shrug* "uhh, to nama beeru" (assuming she's asking if i want a drink, "and a beer")
W: "hai"
[makes hiroshima-yaki in front of me, i drop my chopsticks on the ground like an idiot]
M: "uhhh, o-hashi onegai shimasu" ("chopsticks please")
[after finishing and paying]
W: "yadda yadda yadda yadda? (.......)
M: "uhhh oishi, arigato gozaimasu" (assuming she's asking if it was good "yummy, thank you very much").

And that's pretty much how EVERY conversation i have in Japan goes.  Except replace "hiroshima-yaki" or "o-hashi" with "this one" or "these" most of the time.  Nothing like mixing and matching languages.  So after struggling my way through the hiroshima-yaki (which for the record i enjoyed more than how they do it in Kansai) and paid the 1200Y i headed back to the apartment.

I bought an ice cream on the way from a Lawson's (convenience store) and went upstairs and ran myself a hot bath thinking to myself, "this is gonna be the shit".  So i grabbed my book, my ipod and my ice cream and sat in the bath listening to Gwen Stefani and reading Neil Gaiman and eating somethig rather too rich. 
After 15 minutes however i remembered why i never have baths, they dont relax me whatsoever! I was overheating and getting all hyperventilatish so i jumped out, put on my free yukata and climbed into bed, reading.  I was asleep by 11, ready for my big day at Miyajima, starting at 7 in the morning.

Stay tuned for the next installment in my Hiroshima trip where i see yet more tame deer, animal mistreatment and the highest gondola i've ever had the privelege of being fucking scared on (and i promise i wont make it a gigantic novel this time.  For those of you reading this, congratulations on making to the end, you are a more awesome person for doing so).

Until next time, dont take a bath if you can take a shower.

Neil