Land of the Rising Sun Part 2

In Part 1 of my post about my trip to Japan, I talked about how much I enjoyed Koyasan and learning about the Buddhist monks. But because I didn't have all of my photos yet (due to not having internet at my house for the past week (still no internet)), I made do with what I had on my iPhone. But here's a photo of the morning fire ritual performed by the monks:

After Koyasan we headed to Hiroshima. As many of you know, Hiroshima is the first place where the nuclear bomb was dropped by the Americans during World War II on August 6, 1945. The epicenter of the bomb was over the Genbaku Dome, so while the area around the dome was completely flattened, the epicenter wound up being the "safest" part of the blast since most of the building remained. The remainder of the dome, now dubbed A-Bomb Dome, is a UNESCO heritage site and is now the center of Peace Park, which is a memorial to the victims of the nuclear bomb and a reminder of the horrors of nuclear war.

While visiting the A-Bomb Dome, one of the other Americans on the trip (there were only three of us) turned to me and asked if I felt guilty witnessing the effects of the nuclear bomb.  And I said, "Not even a little bit." Less than three weeks before I'd been in Borneo and visited some of the World War II memorials that were erected due to the horrors that befell the communities conquered by the Japanese. The Sandakan Death March is perhaps the grimmest reminder of what the Japanese did to prisoners of war - because the Japanese did not believe in surrender and felt that one was morally weak if he surrendered, and because the Japanese had not signed onto the Geneva Convention and therefore owed no duties to prisoners of war, the conditions in the camps for capture Aussie and British soldiers was abhorrent. When the Japanese began losing the war, they needed to get rid of the 2500 prisoners in the Sandakan camp, so they set them off on a death march across Borneo. By the end, only 6 survived and it's only because they escaped. The atrocities the Japanese committed during the war were no less severe than the Germans; they just managed to kill less people and less methodically than the Germans.

Additionally, I truly believe that the nuclear bombs were the best option the American military had at the time. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 people died as a result of the nuclear bombs (both those who died as a result of the bombing and those who later suffered radiation sickness) and the US believed that far more people would have died in a land invasion of Japan. Furthermore, for a culture that doesn't believe in surrender, it had to take something truly debilitating for Japan to surrender and the nuclear bombs were our best option. So no, I don't feel any residual American guilt for the bombings.

In addition to the sobering history of Hiroshima, we also visited Miyajima Island. The itinerary said there'd be monkeys on the island, which is pretty much all I cared about, but it turns out that there's wild deer all over the island. They wander into stores, try to steal food from humans and don't particularly mind being pet. While they weren't as exciting as monkeys, it was still nice to get a little bit of nature and be that close to wild animals.

We then took the bullet train to Kyoto for a couple of days of serious sightseeing. Kyoto was formerly the capital of imperial Japan for more than 1000 years, so there was definitely a lot to see. The main Shinto shrine complex we visited was the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine. Shinto is the main religion of Japan and has literally thousands of deities - animals, trees, plants, ancestors, etc. As best I could tell, supplicants visit the shrines (which are meant for specific deities), give an offering of food or money, ring some bells, clap their hands and, at least in the case of the Fushimi Inari Shrine, climb a thousand steps. The Fushimi Inari shrine's deity is the fox and the shrine is supposed to grant good luck in agriculture and business. What the shrine is really known for is its 10,000 toriis (the vermillion shrine gates). What no one told me was that you had to climb a freaking mountain of stairs to get to the top of the shrine - my FitBit said I climbed 80 flights of stairs and burned enough calories to eat an entire cow. It also didn't help that Kyoto was about 90 degrees with 90% humidity, so I swear I've never sweat so much in my entire life. It was cool to walk through all the torii gates, but I'm not sure it was worth the pain, sweat and tears to get all the way up there.

The vermillion torii gates

On the way back down from the shrine there's Japanese writing on the torii gates. I like to think they say things like: "Good job, you made it!" "Eat all the cake!" "Achievement unlocked: go stuff your face!"

Kinkakuji Temple (also in Kyoto)

Fushima Inari pretty much wore me out for Kyoto and the rest of it is sort of a blur of temples and castles. Japanese castles aren't nearly as cool as European ones - all the rooms look the same, everyone sits on the floor and the only decadence is in the paper wall murals. So yeah, I got "templed-out" pretty quickly.

The other real highlight of the trip for me was Hakone. I really want to go in the winter when the snow monkeys play in the hot springs, but I was hoping at least to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, so we didn't get to see Mt. Fuji, though we did get to see the hot springs. The sulphur in the springs can make black boiled eggs, which the locals say can add seven years to your life.

Black sulphur boiled eggs - tasted like a normal boiled egg to me

I could definitely see going back to Hakone in the winter (and not just to see monkeys). 

And finally, Tokyo. I did not expect to like Tokyo and…I didn't. It was just a really big, really crowded city. I felt like I spent hours on the subway going to and fro everywhere. I thought Harajuku Street (where all the anime and cosplay kids hang out) would be much wilder and there wasn't really much I wanted to see in Tokyo. By my second day there I was completely bored - I even sat down in a Starbucks for an hour and read a book (to be fair, I sprained my quad muscle on the Fushari Inari hike from hell, so I was in a lot of pain when standing or walking). 

Determined to find something interesting to do in Tokyo, I wandered over to the War Memorial, which wound up being my favorite thing in Tokyo. As I mentioned earlier, in Shinto there are thousands of deities and the Yasukuni shrine was dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives in defense of their country and who, through their sacrifice, became deities. So if you ever thought people would have to be crazy to be kamikaze pilots, keep in mind that if a Japanese soldier lost his life in combat, he could become a deity and be worshipped forever more. Might be enough to get young boys to sign up. 

In addition to the shrine there was also a war museum (Yushukan), which was primarily devoted to World War II. The guide book warned me that many people found Yushukan really controversial as a result of their depiction of WWII, but I found the spin on the war fascinating. The museum detailed how Japan was forced to invade the neighboring countries and how America's actions gave Japan absolutely no choice. And after fighting valiantly and trying to give the poor people of Southeast Asia freedom from colonialism, the Japanese finally lost the Greater East Asian War. Yup, they don't call it World War II, they call it the Greater East Asian War (much like the South still calls the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression). So all in all, Yushukan kinda saved Tokyo for me, though it's also where I fell asleep on a bench in the museum for about an hour or so. 

In Part 1 I described all the reasons why I didn't really want to go to Japan, but it turns out I really enjoyed the country and learning more about the culture. I'd like to go back in winter and see everything covered in snow and also check out some of the more rural areas (and maybe spend some time at a mountain monastery). 

Koi feasting