Kyoto and back to Tokyo!

Wow, it's been a few days now... need to catch up! Our first full day in Kyoto we actually spent going for a day trip to Nara. It was raining consistently all day, but I didn’t really mind, as it added to the atmosphere of Nara Park, which was again full of deer. In Nara Park we visited a National Treasures Museum, which housed quite a few magnificent statues, including a 5 meter tall golden Kannon statue, with a great many arms and a serene expression. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos in there, but there were many beautiful pieces of ancient artwork inside. We also visited the giant Buddha, the largest bronze statue of the Buddha in the world, in Tōdai-ji, the largest wooden building in the world. It was almost 15m tall, and quite impressive. 

Manhole cover in Nara - featuring deer!

Craig vs deer face-off

 Tōdai-ji, which houses the gigantic Buddha

The huge bronze Buddha

Two heads are better than one...

Another statue in Tōdai-ji

The next day we went to Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The actual shrine itself is composed of several white and orange buildings surrounded by fox statues, but the main feature of the complex is thousands of bright orange torii gates lining a path throught the forest. It was somewhat mystical and very enjoyable walking through the bright orange gates in amongst the trees. The temple is also said to be home to kitsune (fox) spirits, hence why there were many fox statues guarding the gates. Some of the ema (wooden cards you write prayers/wishes on) were also fox themed, and people had drawn some pretty amusing expressions on the fox faces!

Entrance to Inari Shrine

A fox guardian by the gate

Praying

Which way??

Calling someone 'foxface' has a new meaning now...

Gates through the forest

After Inari Shrine we went to Arashiyama (once we eventually found it, several train and tram rides later), and visited the Tenryuji Zen Temple. It was surrounded by a beautiful garden, with a large pond filled with koi, gravel gardens, and trails up the hill side, surrounded by lush greenery and dainty flowers. We also went through the Temple hall itself, and paused several times to sit in the building on the tatami mats and relax in the pleasant breeze, watching the people walk through the garden. The sun was warm, the wind refreshing, and the whole temple felt very peaceful and serene. It was a lovely place to spend the afternoon. 

Outside Tenryuji Temple

 Heron standing by the pond

Sitting in the temple

We returned to Tokyo and Craig departed, after making sure I made it to my next accommodation safely! I then spent a couple days catching up with my very dear friend, who extended her trip in Tokyo just to make sure we could spend time together. She brought her boyfriend along on our first day out, and he was heaps of fun! Although he couldn't speak much English, he quickly caught on to the fact that my sister and I are pretty crazy, and laughed along with us, making the whole day a lot better. So it was my friend, her boyfriend, my sister and I who went to Quil Fait Bon in the Ginza area. It is a expensive cake cafe, with delicious (and pricey) slices of cake to buy and try, along with pots of tea. The cakes were delicious! We then all went to Asakusa and spent the afternoon strolling the markets and making a wish at the temple (5 yen wishes... bargain!)

 Sissy with her cake

 <3

All together at Asakusa

Looks like a strong wind was blowing... except it was dead still! (And so was he)

My friend and I met up again the next day and had lunch out at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. I had kitsune soba, which had some fried tofu thing on it, and it was actually really tasty! It was so great to catch up with my friend... every time we do we talk so much! 

So then my dilemma was deciding where to go next in order to keep using up my Rail Pass, and so far I have decided on (and acted upon) a three night stay in Himeji, which is the sister city of my own hometown, Adelaide. I am staying in a small backpackers' hostel, but the host is really friendly and lovely, so when I arrived she gave me the double private room since it was being unused! I then went out for a brief stroll and to find some lunch, and then I returned she asked me "Do you like sweets?" to which I replied, "Uh, yeah?" She smiled and said that her friend had just contacted her and said that she had some Japanese sweets ready to eat, so she invited me along and we went and had homemade mochi-rice sweets! It was delicious, and very nice to meet new people. We had a bit of a laugh and a small chat, but as I don't really know Japanese a lot of it was smiling and nodding (and eating delicious sweets, haha!) I felt really lucky to be included in such a private event.

 Delicious hand made Japanese sweets

Then, in the evening, she had a few friends over, and somehow I was included and we had a lovely evening of laughs and lots of great food! Some of them could speak a little English, but for the most part they spoke Japanese, so there was quite a bit of miming or sounding out a few words going on. We talked about Miyazaki's movies quite a bit, and Fullmetal Alchemist (one of them had read it and we shared a bond by miming the characters, which got a huge laugh when we got to Armstrong and his 'muscles'). We even spoke about k-pop! It was a great evening, and once again, I felt incredibly lucky to be involved. 

So now I have a few days in Himeji to enjoy (even though the actual Himeji Castle is currently undergoing major reconstruction - it's 2 years into a 5 year project), so I'll be taking it easy and enjoying a bit of the Japanese sun! 

Peace of Hiroshima

Craig is leaving today. We’re on our way back to Tokyo right now. In fact, by the time I post this blog, he’ll be on the plane back to Australia. I’m going to miss my travel buddy. It’s been a lot of fun, exploring this new country together. Now I guess I’ll be doing it solo.

Hiroshima was pretty incredible. It felt a little odd though, like it was harder to settle in to than Osaka and Tokyo for some reason. The Hiroshima streets feature the tram as their main form of public transport in the city, which was a bit different. Apparently, Hiroshima have a particular fondness for trams since they managed to get their tram system up and running again only three days after the Atomic Bomb was dropped on them. They now buy old trams from other provinces once they’re done with them, and use them on their own tram lines. So when we arrived, we caught the tram to our new accommodation. This place was a pretty cheap private room in a hostel, but it ended up having the most spacious room out of any we’ve stayed in. It was a pretty good room for the price we payed!

Our hotel was just around the corner from Peace Park, so the morning after we arrived, we did the Peace Park / Peace Museum trip. The whole day was very sad and confronting, but still a good day. There are many memorials and statues around the Park dedicated to different people and calls for peace. While you walk around, the sound of the Peace Bell resounds through the park, as people walk up and ring it, a long, low toll. We each took a turn too, the pitch of the bell sounding steading and very peaceful. The Children’s Memorial (for children that were killed by the Atomic Bomb) featured several children over the statue, and a golden ‘paper crane’ attached to a bell. The crane has become a symbol of peace and Hiroshima’s children after the case of Sadako, who was a young girl exposed at the age of 2 to the bomb, and who then developed leukaemia and died ten years later. As she was in hospital, she made a goal to fold a thousand paper cranes, as she had heard doing so would grant your wish, and her wish was to live. Even though she folded well over a thousand, she still died after less than a year. 

The Memorial structure, through which you can also see the flame and the A-Dome

The Children's Memorial, surrounded by thousands of donated cranes

 Some of the cranes on display

 Gravemarkers before the mound covering where thousands of unidentified persons' ashes rest

Craig striking the Peace Bell

The A-Dome was pretty amazing to behold. The skeletal structure of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall still stands as it did after the bomb dropped on it, being one of the few buildings kept as a reminder of the damage caused by the bomb. There isn’t much left, and it has a rather haunting presence, standing on the edge of the river, right next to the T-shaped Aioi Bridge, which apparently was the target of the bomb drop (the actual hypocentre was about 160m away).

 View of the A-Dome from across the river

 Standing before the A-Dome

We took quite a while to get through the Peace Museum, as there was so much to read and think about. The museum went through all facets of the bombing – what Hiroshima was like before the attack, how Hiroshima was chosen (including correspondence between Einstein and the US President at the time), how nuclear fission works and what happened when the bomb dropped, and then the damage and effect on not only human lives but Japan’s stance in the war. The Atomic Bomb was kept completely secret, and no warning was given about the bomb attack before it happened (usually they would give a warning and conditions in order to prevent the attack). By doing this, the US were able to both defeat Japan and prevent giving power to the Soviet Union, retaining the greatest amount of power that they could. 

 A watch which stopped at the time of the bombing: 8:15am

 A model showing Hiroshima before the bombing

 

Not much remained afterwards

Seeing the torn and stained rags of clothes, shoes and belongings worn by those during the attack, reading the stories of young children fleeing the bomb, burned beyond comprehension and struggling to reach safety before dying only a few days later, seeing models and photos of people with skin melting off or charred black… was quite horrific to see. The whole museum is an amazing collection of the terror and devastation caused by that day’s events, and yet is difficult to comprehend and truly appreciate, even as you move through halls filled with photographs, recollections and videos. Simply staring at the tattered remains of a school girl’s handmade school shirt only leaves it up to your imagination to consider her ordeal, but it is impossible to really know. 

WARNING: some of the following imagery may upset some people.

A photo taken by Yoshito Matsushige on the day of the bombing

A man's body showing charred flesh

A replica of what the view from a destroyed building would have been like

A model of children with burns and skin melting off

The remains of a schoolgirl's handmade shirt

 An almost-four year old's tricycle and helmet. The father buried them with his son for many years before moving his ashes and donating the tricycle

We returned to the A-Dome in the evening to see if it was lit up, and it ended up looking even more haunting than it did during the day. Even though it was raining pretty heavily at the time, I was glad we returned to see it!

 

We had a small problem with Hiroshima in that we hadn’t successfully found the nightlife district, so our first couple of nights consisted of walking around in slight confusion, trying to find something to eat. We still managed it, but it was only on the third night that we found it and managed a good meal and evening amongst the lights! 

On our last day in Hiroshima we went to Miyajima Island, home to lots of wild deer. They were everywhere, walking between shops and sleeping on the side walk. We visited the gigantic torii gate sitting on the beach, but it was low-tide when we went, so we were able to walk right up to the gate. It stands at about 16 meters tall, and apparently each of the supporting columns is about 10m in circumference. It really is huge, and when the tide is in, it looks like it is floating on the water. It stands next to the Itsukushima Shrine, which also looks like it is designed to ‘float’ on the water. It was rather lovely to walk through, with bright orange wood, delicate lanterns and many, many little crabs scuttling about on the sand. 

 

Standing well in front of the 16m tall torii gate

Itsukushima Shrine

 The torii gate with some people around it, showing the scale

One of my favourite places on the island was actually the Daishoin Temple, situated on the side of a forest-covered mountain and full of little statues hiding amongst the thick greenery, peering out cheekily. It was located right next to a rushing river and waterfall, filling the temple an amazing haze of noise. The temple had many little shrines dotted over the hillside, each featuring something different. There were many halls or areas filled with a great many statues of a certain kind, and even a ‘cave’ which was lit by hundreds of lanterns by which you could dimly see the figurines lining the edges. Japan is filled with many places that feel almost ‘magical’, where you can imagine sprites and spirits playing among the moss and trees, and this was one of those places.

There were 400 of these statues, all with differnet faces and bodies, lining a moss-covered staircase

 

Many of these little guys could be found hiding in the bushes

 Some raccoon dogs greet us

There were literally thousands of these statues lining a shrine

 Inside a worshipping room

 Lanterns hanging from "The Cave"

A wild deer on the street!

 Miyajima Island, covered in forest and wonder

The morning we were leaving Hiroshima for Kyoto, I somehow managed to injure my neck and upper back. Just as I was getting ready, I turned my neck to the side and it went CRUNCH, thus rendering my shoulders, neck and upper back in great pain and difficult to move. I was very hesitant about my ability to cart huge bags around and get to Kyoto, but somehow we still managed it. Craig was a huge help and helped me carry my gigantic suitcase up and down quite a few staircases in train stations, and even just getting in and out of the tram, which was a couple of very large steps. Needless to say, I was quite sore and ready for a lie-down (which was still uncomfortable) when we reached our new hotel. 

I will continue later to describe our time in Kyoto! See you later. :)