EATHQUAKE UPDATE: yes there was an earthquake in Japan yesterday but it was not in the area where I am so friends and family please relax!!! Now in with the blog:
June 13
Today after I woke up I went walking with some folks to find a Japanese garden right in the middle of one of the hotels across the street. It was beautiful, and temperature-wise it was so cool. It been a little hot here lately, and it was nice to breathe some fresh air and see some natural beauty.
Today was another day of seminars, and the first one of the day was the most incredible one of the program so far. It was the Peace Education Special Seminar, and it was presented by Tomoko Yanagi, a high school teacher from Hiroshima whose father was a survivor of the atomic bomb, and also by Keijiro Matsushima, himself a hibakusha (A-bomb survivor).
Tomoko-sensei spoke first, sharing her father’s experience as a hibakusha, telling stories of how people blamed themselves for surviving when they felt that they should have died with their families or friends in the blast. She is a cancer survivor, saying that many second generation hibakusha have contracted various cancers although the government says its inconclusive whether the children of blast survivors are more susceptible to cancer than others. She said then almost half of the population of Hiroshima died by the end of 1945 after the A-bomb was dropped. She also recounted a story about a field trip where she took her students to a museum in Korea, and the students learned that the Koreans saw the US atomic bombing of Japan as a good thing thanks to the centuries of invasions and occupations by the Japanese army. She said that her students were shocked by this and felt unforgiven by the Koreans. She looked at the display not as a slight against Japan or its people, but rather as a warning to all of the people in the world against repeating the use of nuclear weapons or engaging in warfare in general.
Tomoko-sensei and Ralph-sensei
After Tomoko-sensei finished, Matsushima-sensei, a retired junior high principal, began to share his experience. He said that people in Hiroshima have a deep anger toward the atomic bomb but not toward America, and that they collectively work toward peace in the world. When the A-bomb was dropped, he was a 16 year old student at a technical college inside of Hiroshima, 2 km from the hypocenter of the blast. He said that he was in math class at the time of the explosion, and he saw two American bombers high in the sky. At this point in the war, American planes usually just did reconnaissance, as there were no more fighters to go after them and no more anti-aircraft ammunition to shoot at them. He though, “Hey, American planes, how beautiful, shining in the sky like ice angels.” When he turned his eyes back to his textbook was the moment of explosion. He described it as a very strong flash, shockwave and heat wave all in a very short moment. At first he thought it was a normal bombing, but a huge noise followed, like hundreds of thunders at the same time, and it became dark and silent. When he got out from under the roof rubble, he went outside and saw so much destruction… he thought that the Americans had managed to drop thousands of bombs with only two planes. He said that he turned and looked toward the center of the city, from where many people were walking. They were burned from head to toe, their skin was sagging and their clothes were blown off. The held their arms out in front of them because they couldn‘t bear the pain of putting them down. He asked himself, “Why are they all so badly burned? Did they drop thousands of firebombs in one moment?” When he began to walk to his mother’s house outside of town, the saw both sides of the river on fire, and bodies flowing down the river from where they drowned from trying to cool off in the water. He was convinced he was in hell. When he got to his mother’s home, she was overjoyed to see him because she had convinced herself that he had died in the mushroom cloud she had seen in the city as she worked in the rice patty that morning.
Matsushima-sensei shared that everyone was trying to develop and use the A-bomb in 1945. He said Japan would have used it on New York if they could have. He wants Americans to have the attitude that the atomic bomb wasn’t a good thing, but it was an inevitable wartime decision and now that we’ve all seen what it can do, we must work to make sure that no one will ever use this weapon again any nation of any people ever again. At the end of the session Dr. Satterwhite shared a thought with us, and I’d like to pass it along to all of you:
If we don’t teach peace, who will?
If we don’t teach peace, it won’t happen.
There was also a lecture on Kabuki and Music, and the guy was pretty funny and it was very informative, but I was too worn out to take notes and the thing was two hours long. But here’s a picture so you can pretend you were there:
It really was a good lecture. When I’m not tired from writing another long blog post maybe I’ll add more details. Let’s say I owe ya one!
In the evening, I went out with some folks who were going to go souvenir shopping. I stopped in at a soccer store and got a really cool Japan National Team scarf. I also found a HUGE 100 yen store in Harajuku called Daiso, and I was able to buy tons of stuff for my classroom project: calligraphy brushes, scrolls, origami paper, a map and a flag of Japan. I meant to go to DisneySea this evening, but like I said, I was still tired from the baseball game the night before. The goal was to ride the Tower of Terror on Friday the 13th. I found out from people I ran into that the Tower was closed for maintenance. Good thing I didn’t go!
There are some interesting signs in the Tokyo Metro. This one has been my favorite so far:
Please get bi-polar at home.
I stopped at McDonald’s for dinner because I wanted to try to McShrimp. It’s actually called the Filet-o-Ebi.
It was awesome!
June 14
Today I got to go to one of Japan’s most enduring symbols, Mount Fuji. I and several other people had booked a tour in advance of coming to Japan, and we were to travel to the Mt. Fuji art and cultural museum, then up to the fifth hiking station on the volcano itself, followed by a cruise on Lake Ashi and a cable car ride up to the top of another volcano. At the end of everything, we were to take a bullet train back to Tokyo. We were picked up at our hotel at 8:00 am, and we were met by a guide named Emi. She was very funny, and told a lot of great stories and gave some scientific and historical information along the way. She introduced herself by saying “My name is Emi, and you can call me Emi-san, or Nakamura-san, or Guide-san if you can’t remember my name, but please don’t call me Miss Guide, because I will do my best to not misguide you!” Everyone laughed… we all thought it was pretty punny, heh-heh.
The trip started out with a traffic jam. Because of this, we were not able to see the museum and had to shorten everything else. On our way up to Mt. Fuji, I could see the volcano in the distance. The summit was obscured by clouds.
Before arriving at Fuji-san, we got to stop for a Japanese lunch, which was very good. I had sashimi, roast duck, wheat gluten, a bayberry, and couple of bowls of rice.
After I finished, I had the chance to go downstairs and get some souvenirs for my family. I’m not going to tell you what I got them because they read this blog! We left soon after and were on our way up to the fifth station of Mount Fuji. The bus driver was driving really close to some cliffs really fast, but I wasn’t that nervous because I felt just awful thanks to altitude sickness. I’ve never had it before, and my family and I even drove around in the Virginia mountains over Thanksgiving, but something about this trip made me so nauseous. I also had a tremendous build-up of sinus pressure that was just painful. Despite this, I really enjoyed the scenic views going up the side of the volcano. We only had 25 minutes up at the station, just enough time to buy souvenirs at the tour-group operated shops.
2,305 m above sea level and not feeling groovy.
As we were leaving, we tried to get a good look at the summit of Fuji-san, but it was still too cloudy. About one minute after beginning the trek down the hill I felt (and heard) my sinuses release the pressure. Immediately my splitting headache was gone, but my altitude sickness would stay with me for the rest of the day until I got to go to bed. Shortly after leaving, we saw the cloud that was blocking the view of the summit begin to leave, so we pulled over and snapped some quick photos.
After this, we were set for another long bus ride to Hakone, where we boarded a boat for a 15 minute ride. We arrived at another resort at about 4:30, and were to get on a cable car so that we could go and spend 5 minutes at the top of the next mountain and then come back down. I really didn’t want to spend any more time on the go, so I opted to stay behind and try to get some drawing and painting done (which is why I booked this tour in the first place.) The group went on without me and I had the chance to walk around the resort and try to find something to draw. I finally found something back at the dock: a building with a Japanese style roof poking out from the tree tops at the very top of a hill. I began to draw, and a few Japanese people came over and looked at what I was drawing and talked to me. It was nice to slow down and connect with people a little bit. Soon my hour was up, and even though I didn’t get my drawing finished, I was happy that I at least got it moving a little. I’ll post it when I do finish. After another long bus ride we arrived at the train station, and were ready to board the Shinkansen. While we were standing on the station, the fastest bullet train blew past us. It was impossible to hear it coming, all of a sudden it was whooshing by and then it was gone. Amazing! We got on the slowest Shinkansen, but it was awesome to ride back to Tokyo in just 30 minutes after having spent nearly five on the bus.
Overall, it was a pretty good day. I enjoyed being able to visit Mount Fuji and I really liked riding the bullet train. But I was happy to get back to the hotel and rest. People weren’t kidding when they said you should rest up before coming on this trip… it has been exhausting!
But it’s also been outstanding. Thanks JFMF! And thank you for reading, my faithful friends!
*** I got an email from my host family in Katori, Chiba! How exciting! I can’t wait to meet them! ***
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