Japanese Villages

Our backpacking trip is beginning to end:  we are finally in our last destination before beginning the flights home.  

We also know this because, as pretty as they are, we don't want to see anymore temples for awhile.

Indoor firepit with fish "grilling"

One of my favorite things we have done so far was "for our anniversary" (the only way to convince Liban it was worth the money).  We stayed in a traditional Gassho-style ryokan for a night.  (Interpretation:  a traditional home in a village with a thatched roof, sliding screen doors that turn open spaces into individual rooms, an open fire pit in the middle of the living room floor for warmth, and a family that still lives there.)  The village of Ainokura itself is being preserved by locals for both their homes as well as tourism, and there are about 20 houses in the village, 12 of them in the Gassho-style.  We'd visited other places with similar homes, but not with the remoteness, quietness, or tourist-less-ness, so it was quite a treat.  We literally spent most of the day sitting on benches and looking at the mountains, the village below us, and waterfalls.  The other part of the day we spent eating and getting to know the other guests in the ryokan.  It was lovely.

Then we went to Kanazawa, where we relaxed on a mostly-empty beach and drooled over the antique, totally unaffordable Kutani pottery.  We toured the neighborhood where all the samurai used to live and saw one of the remaining houses with sketched paper screens and a backyard garden to die for.  My favorite activity was probably touring the Myouryuji Temple.  Temples were often used as a protection for palaces and a dwelling in addition to being a place of worship.  In this temple, we got to see hidden staircases and secret passageways as well as techniques samurai used to both hide and attack.  I'd post pictures, except that we were not allowed to take any!

I want a backyard garden like this, please.

After all that, we came to Tokyo on the overnight bus and arrived early this morning.  There is an disaster training center that has an earthquake simulator, so we went there.  Because our tour group consisted of mainly 60+ year old Japanese men, Liban and I were chosen to be the "models" of how to follow instructions.  Never mind that the instructions were given in only Japanese!  They had us sit at a table and when we felt the ground shake to move under the table and hang onto the legs.  So we did, and it wasn't so bad.  Then she told us she was turning it up, and we experienced what a 7.0 earthquake would be like.  It was a lot more movement than I expected. Then she said, "now wait, BIG earthquake now" and demonstrated a 9.0.  I could hang onto the table but my knees were sliding back and forth about 6 inches with every shake and I felt like I had no control.  It was crazy, and coming from a part of the US where we hardly ever have earthquakes, I now have a much greater appreciation of them and understanding of the destruction they can cause.

Going to the National Museum of Modern Art was really interesting, too.  I'm familiar with many styles and mediums in modern art, but I haven't seen those styles done by Japanese artists using Japanese subjects.  That was cool, and I don't know why American art museums don't show this progression within their "Asian art" section that usually consists of calligraphy and watercolor bamboo/samurai paintings. 

Finally, we ended our evening by having dinner with Yumi.  Yumi is one of my sister's best friends from college, and she spent a lot of weekends at our house.  It's been 8 years since I saw her last, and it was so good to catch up, introduce her to Liban, invite her to India, and have a delicious seafood dinner.  

Backpacking In Japan

Backpacking through South Korea was kind of a dream.  I got to see friends and students I hadn't seen in years, and overall, I just fell in love with the country, the scenery, the affordability, and the food. (Minus that octopus).  

And then came Japan.  I'd dreamed about coming to Japan as a kid, but I haven't written about it much because there were times when I wondered if I would like it at all.  THAT is something I don't like feeling because it makes me feel super snobby and seems like I don't appreciate this opportunity to travel, and, yes, I realize most of the world will be headed to work in the morning and not to a little ancient village just for the fun of it.  So, if the above statement offends you because you are doing horrible charting processes at the hospital or changing the 15th diaper of the day, I'm sorry, and please forgive these run-on sentences and feelings.

But, thankfully, it turns out I do like Japan; I just do not like Osaka!  Osaka felt kind of like NYC, which is a "one and done" place to visit for me. It's crowded, it's expensive, and the things to do there are mostly city-things like shopping and looking out from the highest floor of buildings.  Hordes and hordes of people were in all markets, shopping centers, and metro stations.  For some reason, this doesn't faze me at all when I"m in India, but in Japan, it puts me on sensory overload and I pull Liban's hand and give him the "get me away from here now" look.  Thankfully, there were some quieter neighborhoods, and I quite enjoyed those; and of course, there was sushi.   Some of the other highlights were the aquarium where we got to see whale sharks and ginormous sting rays and Liban's first ride on a Ferris wheel.

Nearby Osaka is Nara, a small town with a couple cool temples and a really, really big Buddha.  There are also "semi-wild" deer all over town that you can feed and pet with a little caution.  Now, it's not a petting zoo, and they are still deer and so once or twice we saw them fighting over the food or territory, but it was still cool to see them roaming everywhere.  I couldn't help but wonder what all the Midwest hunters would think in a place like Nara!

Kyoto is a little city about 30 minutes away, but we are the geniuses that got on a train we didn't have a pass for, were not allowed to exit the train station, and had to turn back around and get on the correct train.  So when we finally got there, at least we had fun exploring.  The temples and shrines in Kyoto are gorgeous and unique compared to other areas. It's one of the more traditional towns, and so a lot of tourists were wearing kimonos (traditional dress) while they wandered about the old parts of town.  But then at the end of the day, we walked around the old town in search of some geisha and were able to see two briefly.  That made me giddy, but Liban just doesn't think they were as great as the bullet trains.

Near Hiroshima is Miyajima Island, with its famous Itsukushima Shrine.  It is surrounded by dry land during low tide and by water during high tide, which is supposed to give it a floating effect.

And then we went to Gifu, where there are beautiful mountains and an amazing view from a castle.  The town is known for its traditional cormorant fishing.  PETA would hate it, and I'm not really sure how humane it is, but basically, the fisherman go upstream and tie small ropes around cormorant ducks' necks, then toss them in the water.  The ducks swim and pull the boat towards the fish. I don't really understand the rest of it, but I do know that having a ball of fire as a lantern on the front of a little canoe makes it a fascinating thing to watch!

Now, we are in Takayama, another little city in the mountains.  There's not much to write about here as we've just been roaming around enjoying the old traditional houses and views.  Overall, we are just glad that there are maps and signs around town in both English and Japanese because Gifu's did not. . . . and we tend to be a happier couple when there are English signs!

Hiroshima

Hiroshima was at the top of my list of what I wanted to do in Japan.  I felt that as an American, if given an opportunity, I needed to go.  I can't really explain that eloquently, but it's a mixture of wanting to learn, wanting to simply see it in person, and needing to understand the impact that my country has on the rest of the world.  And maybe the latter is so that I understand my significance and responsibility as a citizen a little bit better. So today we took the bullet train to Hiroshima.  

I read historical fiction all the time as a kid and at an early age could tell you about Egypt, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, and Holocaust--but Hiroshima never came up in those books. Japanese internment camps did rarely, but more frequently Pearl Harbor and the Nazis.  In high school and junior high, our science classes watched a 1980's-quality bore-fest documentary about the making of the atomic bomb about the time that we studied atoms.  (But more commonly whenever we had a substitute teacher).  We learned in history that the US had used atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII and retaliate for Pearl Harbor.  It always included a picture or video of the practice bombs so we could understand the mushroom cloud effects, but then we moved onto the next event or topic without much more discussion.

Today I gained a new perspective.  Being in Hiroshima, I felt extremely uneducated about our own history, and so for that reason, I'm going to share some of what I experienced and learned.

We took the old timey streetcar to the "A-Bomb Dome", which is one of the few remaining buildings from 1945.  There were several tourists and even groups, but it was quiet and respectful.  The building is only partially standing because of some physics equation in how the bomb exploded almost directly above and how that didn't allow the vacuum it created knock it down.  Physics makes minimal sense to me, so google that if you want more info.

Knowing that, in this building, hundreds of people died instantly was very sobering.  It was sobering knowing that all of the area surrounding us was flattened instantaneously while the fireball burned mothers, fathers, and children at 300,000 degrees F.  For the first time in my life, I felt very, very uncomfortable for being an American.

The sidewalks were literally lifted up and moved to the side,
and the rubble made it difficult to escape, so survivors swam across the river.
One survivor's story said it wasn't long before the entire river
was full of bloated bodies.

The museum was graphic.  1945, in history books, feels so far away to my 25 year old self, but it's really not--and the details showed that, making it somehow both more graphic and personal.  It was not just "a victim's" school uniform or survivor's card, it recorded the name and age of the person, where they were, and what they were doing at the moment of death or injury. Photos of victims with 90-100% of their bodies burned, 4 foot tall dioramas of melted skin hanging off people's bodies as they tried to locate their family or homes in the rubble, the tricycle and partly melted helmet a 3 year old was riding in front of his house.  I have dissected human bodies in gross anatomy, and yet there were several times I had to turn my eyes away. 

I learned that the Japanese press was prohibited from reporting about the bomb and that maybe half the victims survived in utter pain for 1-4 days before dying. 12 American prisoners of war were killed as well as thousands of Koreans and Chinese who were brought to Japan to assist with the labor shortage. I learned that ink letters and numbers could literally be burned off a page, leaving holes in their shapes, that a crate of glass bottles could fuse together into one mass, watches stopped at the exact second of the explosion.  I learned thousands of the corpses were brought to America for research purposes, to study the bomb's effects on the human body (despicable, I think, but at least they were returned to Japan 20 years later).   And, I learned America almost accidentally dropped a bomb on itself not one, but three times afterwards.  (Which is a little terrifying!)

Because our high school history books only briefly mention an utterly devastating event in human history, I am extremely grateful we were able to go today and learn and gain perspective.  I am also grateful to be an American and have the freedom to learn (and write) about both the positive and negative sides of our country's past.  

Origami cranes on the children's memorial,
signifying hope & wishes for peace

Here is an in-utero survivor's story, with lots of interesting info I didn't know (with a little propaganda on the side, if you're into that).

Chaba Changes

The past few days, we've been hearing about Typhoon Chaba heading towards Japan.  Jeju, the island on our itinerary, was slightly north of the storm's path--until last night, when it changed directions for the most part and hit Jeju.  So, we got to the airport around 5:30 or so this morning to discover that our flight was, in fact, canceled. . . . and the only notification of cancellation was a paper sign on the check-in desk.  (I think they forgot that the internet exists.)

As a result, half our day was spent listening to the torrential rain and powerful wind against the airport windows.  And the other half has been sitting inside napping and watching Korean music videos.

I'm a little bummed because we had plans to meet 4 more of my English tutoring students for dinner tonight, and also because the island looks like this:

But while it's sad I had to steal these images from google, the good news is that most of our things were fully refunded and that we have 2 more days in Busan before heading to Japan!  

For a minute here, I'm going to be a little "advertisey", so ignore this if you wish!  

Many people have been shocked when we told them we were traveling for a month.  We definitely saved & set aside money for this trip, but we've been mostly using Airbnb, which helps us save us a ton.  For example, today we needed to make a last minute cheap reservation with our flight cancellation.  So we compared several places and are now staying in a fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment that we have all to ourselves, with both wi-fi and a washing machine for $25/night.  There are hostels, private rooms, entire apartments, entire homes, and even hotel rooms on the website, so it's easy to pick whatever suits you!  If this sounds appealing to you, click here to sign up and get $35 off your first stay.

I saw Soa!!

This is Soa.  She's awesome.

I met her when we both lived at CCH, and she quickly became he is one of my best friends. She moved back to Korea 5 years ago, and although we've sent mail and have communicated via facebook, I've missed her LOTS.  I've absolutely LOVED being able to talk with her about our trip, knowing that "SOON" I'd get to see her.

So, after 5 very long years, I FINALLY got to see her again!  

We had a delightful time, eating some of the best food we've had so far.

And she showed us all around her province, taking us far from the foreign-tourist track.  We biked and walked around swamps.

 

We started to climb mountains, then gave up and returned very slowly down what Liban calls "75 degree slopes."

We explored random little villages with gems like this:

And then we went to her hometown to attend the Jinju Lantern Festival.  I think I was thinking that the festival would be traditional-style lanterns, here and there, around the palace grounds.  I was so, so wrong.  Apparently, it's the 3rd largest festival in South Korea and thousands of people were there.  Forever-long tunnels were lined with lights, traditional lanterns, and even lanterns made by students.  (A little obvious because there were at least 10 Spongebobs and 5 minions).   The park grounds were covered with lanterns that spun around, had moving limbs, and had seats and bounced like rocking horses. Some were building-sized, some were on boats, and a lot of them were on floats in the middle of the river.  They had Da Vinci's Last Supper, Beauty and the Beast, and T-Rex, all in lantern form, in addition to those depicting various traditional roles (child playing traditional game, kim-chi-maker, palace guard, enemy climbing the palace wall--just the basics).

I also convinced Liban to take this ultra-cheesy photo with me.  He fought, but gave in.

We also got to fall a little bit in love with her parents, who are some of the sweetest people.  I've heard all about Soa's family for years, but it was an absolute treasure to get to meet them and see another part of her life.

Soa:  Thank you for hosting us, driving us, exploring with us, and being an amazing friend!  I can't wait til you venture to India!