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Well, I apologize for not mentioning it in the last update, but after midterms on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a four day weekend. In Japan, it is common for a college to have a festival after Midterms, in November. So we had a school holiday on that Thursday, and then a National Holiday on Friday. It was Culture Day, and Alex Pagnani and I decided that there would be no better way to get a chunk of Japan's culture than to head to.. Hiroshima. On Wednesday night, after Midterms were over, we got on an overnight bus which took us to Hiroshima. In case you aren't familiar with Japan's geography, Nagoya is on the Eastern coast. Hiroshima is on the Western coast, and a wee bit more south. Anyway, before I went to meet Alex, I went to the ATM. I get to the ATM and realize that I completely forgot my ATM number for my Japanese account. So what do I do? I try the numbers I thought I might have put. None work, and eventually it kicks my card out and tells me that I can't use it anymore. So I high tail it to Sakae and withdraw the max. I can, which is only $200. I run in to Chris Pyfer, and he lends me another $100. Well the bus tickets are more than we expected..$150-ish round trip. We get on the bus at 11:00pm, and sleep the whole way to Hiroshima. We arrive around 7am, and eventually find a bus to take us around. The weather was crummy for the first hour, but after that, the weekend was beautiful. The first day, Thursday, we spent in and around the Peace Memorial Park. Now all I knew about Hiroshima was that the US dropped an atomic bomb on it in World War II. Alex and I walked through the museum there, and I found it nearly impossible to hold back the tears. There were all kinds of artifacts of the bombing, pictures, stories, etc. The story goes: In 1945, after the Germans surrendered, the Japanese kept the fight up. On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; the first nuclear weapon to be used in war. Within the span of approximately a day, several hundred thousand people were dead. From one bomb. Three days later, the U.S. repeated this action on Nagasaki. The Japanese had no idea what happened. The Asahi Newspaper the next day had a headline that read something like "U.S. Drops New Bomb on Hiroshima; Details Unknown" It was only a day or so later that some hospital workers found that the x-ray film near the bomb site had been exposed. That's how they knew that it was atomic. We walked through the museum, seeing clothing that was instantly shriveled and tattered. We saw portions of walls that had glass shards driven into them by the blast. The massive fireball which erupted from the bomb destroyed all kinds of buildings around it. We saw walls that had the shadow of a person burnt into it. The wall was scorched white by the explosion, and the person disintegrated, leaving nothing but his outline on the wall. We heard the story of a child in school suddenly covered with bricks and wood and metal, looking for his friends in the rubble. Nuclear weapons are not simply powerful bombs. They do something other kinds of weapons cannot do. They can cause people to simply not be. The radiation blast can cause people to melt. It can physically affect people for generations after it happens. Over 200,000 people died because of that one bomb. Whole families simply ceased to exist because of this. The radiation from the blast is evident in survivors and their children. Ever since the war, the mayor of Hiroshima and all subsequent mayors have written letters of protest against every nation that performs a nuclear weapons test. We read many of these letters, posted at the museum. One fact startled me.. the US has performed at least 4 nuclear weapons tests so far this year. It occurs to me that I never truly thought about nuclear weapons hard enough or knew enough to consider the consequences. This really opened my eyes. That night, Alex and I walked around the area, and found a hotel. It cost about $35 a night, so I quickly found myself running out of cash. We watched "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" with the Japanese guy that looks just like Regis. The next day, we headed to Miyajima. This is a tiny island just a short ferry away from Hiroshima. This island is famous for many things: 1. It's got great oysters. 2. Tons of deer, roaming free on the island. 3. It has that red shrine thing that looks like it's floating in the water. The weather was great, and we spent the whole day there. We fed the deer, saw a coupla museum things and shrines, and stumbled upon an aquarium. At the aquarium, we watched them feed the pirahnas, saw all the crazy fish, heard Japanese people walk past the octopus and comment on how tasty it looked, and saw a sea lion show. But the coolest part by far was that Alex and I both got to pet a penguin. Real live penguins. And we pet them! Probably the crowning achievement of my life. Well after walking around the island and stuff, I realized that I had, oh.. $14. And the hotel that night was going to cost me at least $35. So Alex lends me what he can, and we go back to the hotel. We end up stopping at a grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and some strawberry jam for next morning's breakfast. Saturday morning, Alex and I both had $11 to stretch for lunch and dinner that day. Since we had no money, and had already done the two major things we had planned on, we spent Saturday hanging around. We went to the station around 3 in the afternoon and hung around until the bus left at 9:45pm. Again, an overnight bus. We get back in town around 6:30ish, and I get home around eight o'clock. My parents are awake, and my host mom makes me a quick breakfast. I hurry up and go to sleep, until 3pm. On the bus ride, Alex let me listen to his CD player.. he had a Liz Phair CD he brought, and made me check it out. Interesting. If anyone knows Liz Phair music, they know what I'm talking about. (it was her first album..see songs 10, 14 and 15) Well I enjoyed the weekend. A very interesting experience, and I certainly recommend it to anyone. But take lots of money, because not being able to buy a drink on a hot day because you forgot your ATM number kinda stinks. This week, I received a check from an extremely kind relative in the states. I took it to the bank on Tuesday to have it cashed, and an hour later, after tons of paperwork and stuff, they told me that it would be a month before it would be deposited. It has to clear. And that they would charge me a fee of more than 25% of the total of the check. This weekend, we are having an American food party.. I finally found chips and salsa, so I am taking those. A bag of Tostitos chips costs 500 yen! Well, I am off.. time is short, and I have way too many things to do! Peace, kids.. and get out of the hamper. Chas Chas Previous Post Next Post Top of the Page Back to Main