Auschwitz II

Hiroshima :: Japan

A bit of a downer, really.

Places: Hiroshima

Coolest thing I did: Saw the trees that not only survived the bomb but are still growing.

Coolest thing I didn´t know: The Hiroshima baseball team is called....the Carp. Seriously. Go Carp!

History is a funny thing. It's hard to know where the truth lies when things are told from people's imperfect memories, and it gets even worse when governments and their money get involved with preserving it. While I know both the Japanese and Germans have been very, very apologetic over their actions during the Second World War (and the Allies less so) it's hard to be objective when walking around the monuments and museums of Hiroshima (all which inevitably have the word Peace in their title somewhere).

The narrative in the Peace Memorial Museum tells the story of a city that built itself up as a military power during Japan's rise as a world power during the first half of the 20th century to a point where during the final stages of WWII it was the southern command of the Japanese army and the point where the defence of Japanese soil would probably be directed from. The war was pretty much lost at this point but (if we are to believe the story we're told by the Allied Powers) Japan was ready to fight to the last man to repel invasion. The bits I found most enlightening were the things you didn't expect to be shown.

Extracts from the diaries and letters from such luminaries as Einstein, Roosevelt, Truman and Oppenheimer tell the story of the Manhattan project and the lead up to the creation of the atomic bomb. We find out the Americans deliberately wanted to see the effects of a nuclear weapon on a functioning population and did not want to give any advantage to the Germans, who they suspected were far advanced in building their own atomic weapons. As a result as early as 1943 it was decided that mainland Japan would be the target of the first atomic weapon and as bombing raids started on Japan itself there would be none to take place over possible atomic bomb targets. The Americans specifically wanted to use this weapon at least once, both to dispassionately observe its effects and to warn all future foes (which would eventually mean their allies, the USSR) of the power they held.

In the end, geography and good weather conspired to pick Hiroshima. The target was a bridge which happens to be two bridges meeting in a T shape (easy to sight visually for the bombardier) and to prove this was a scientific endeavour, two other planes launched recording equipment to collect data. While it's unfair to make comparisons to the Nazis experiments on Jews it does seem to stem from the same mentality.

The impact point (hypercentre) is marked with a small granite memorial you could almost trip over so as to not take away from the A-bomb dome a hundred metres away. A Czech designed government building on the river front survived the blast with it's stone walls and the framework of it's dome intact. This has been kept in the same condition as it was after the blast, as a reminder of what took place. Of all the memorials it's the least contrived and I hope the one that survives all the rest.

As the single biggest geopolitical event since the invention of gunpowder it's hard to predict what would have happened had the Americans warned the Japanese of the existence of atomic weapons, or had they demonstrated the power to them. In the scale of human life lost in WWII 150,000 is a rounding error, but it was the impact of killing them in this way that may have ended the war when it did. It seems the US were indeed hell bent on using it. Would the Japanese have actually fought to the last man, thus extending the numbers of Allied casualties? Would the Soviets have paid as much attention and kept pushing on with conventional warfare in Europe if they suspected the US unwilling to use such a terrible weapon on actual people? Would there have been the relative calm of the Cold War or would we have had another World War by now? No one would disagree that the horror that Hiroshima and Nagasaki endured should never be repeated, but can we be so sure the alternatives would have been no worse?

Nothing in my travels has made me think about what evil people are capable of like this has except for the memorial at Auschwitz. It seems that World War II was indeed humanities Whoa, Whoa, WHOA! moment when we realised that we were plumbing the depths of what humanity could do. While the second half of the 20th century was not all sunshine and lollypops compared with much of the rest of human history it's been relatively peaceful. The biggest problem is we now have so many nuclear weapons we could destory the planet many times over. I don't think that's a problem beyond solving, but places like this need to exist to remind us why we need to solve it.

Shrine me

Hiroshima :: Japan

Being a super tourist in the future.

Places: Kyoto, Nara, Himeji & Hiroshima.

Coolest thing I did: Breathed incense smoke and drank water to make me somehow holy.

Coolest thing I didn´t know: Japanese people don't seem to mix wasabi in their soy with sushi.

While Kyoto is a modern, happening town with all the mod cons you'd expect from a big Japanese city you really only go there to see old stuff. It's bloody well full of old stuff. There's shines for the Shintos, temples for the Buddhists and even a castle if that floats your boat.　The fact that UNESCO have gone mad over classifying everything in sight tells you it should be good stuff. Of the many temples I saw I rate the one covered in gold leaf (the Kinkakuji Temple) and the one with a view over the city (the Kiyomizudera Temple) the best to look at. I also rated walking along the rather grandiosely named Path of Philosophy (even though it was named Path of Philosophy (even though it was, in reality a footpath next to a canal) to the Ginkakuji Temple (which is also called the Silver Pavilion despite them never raising the capital to actually cover it in silver).

While I thought the Temples and Shrines were very nice to look at, I also enjoyed the rituals. For free you can wave incense smoke over you for some reason, and catch water as it dribbles off a roof and drink it. I have no idea why but everyone else was doing it so I did too. The other rituals seemed to involve buying things (bits of paper with stuff written on it, bits of wood with stuff written on it) and trying them to walls/trees/clothes lines. I'm sure the Catholic church would be jealous that some people can get away with selling redemption for cold hard cash without causing a major schism in their church.

My trip into Japanese nightlife was severely curtailed by my reckless need to arrive in a new town on a Saturday afternoon having not booked anything. The only hostel I could get into was well located for the tourist stuff but was like a barracks for tourist stuff but was like a barracks for it's rigidity. At 10.30pm sharp the doors closed and at 6.40am sharp a siren sounded and everyone had to get out of bed. This meant while I went out for dinner every night and sampled a few random bars, I was usually doing my Cinderella act right as things were picking up. Still, after the previous two weeks a few days off wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.

On a totally unrelated note I'd like to nominate the sushi train concept as possibly the best lone eating experience possible. Sit down and the waiter does nothing else except bring your beer. You pick plates of food off the conveyor belt going around in front of you and you're charged by the plate at the end (including a yellow plate for each beer). The chefs work right in front of you so you know it's fresh and they just make whatever they feel like. I tried to not just stick with the white boy stuff of salmon on rice and I tried all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. Still not sure what the bright blue fish was though...

I broke up my stay in Kyoto with a day trip to Nara to see, yep, more shrines and temples. They have this big park where the deer are so populous that they just pretty much ignore cars/buses/people and go about doing as they please. There was an option to buy deer biscuits to feed them but after watching a group of deer chasing some Japanese schoolgirl around after she ran out of them I thought it wise to pass.

The highlight of Nara is the Todai-ji Temple which has a massive bronze Buddha and a couple of smaller gold Buddhas in it. I like it when people make really big sculptures of stuff like that. There were also these huge statues of pig headed guardians that are supposed to scare of thieves. Those were also rather impressive.

While Temples, Shrines and giant statues are all very impressive I found I quite like Japanese gardens. Of these, the best are the Zen gardens, which are kind of like gardens on the cheap. You have sand, rocks and a bonsai or two and then you rake patterns in the sand. It'ｓ a very pleasing aesthetic and all very Zen. Man. I also learned that the minimalist aesthetic of Zen came about because the Japanese were a really poor country so couldn't afford all the trappings of other religions and philosophies. Rather simple explanation, and very cool if it's true. Some yank grad student told me that so it might be rubbish.

Post-Kyoto I caught the Shink (yeah, I'm calling it that now) to Hiroshima with a quick stop over in Himeji for the day. Himeji is a tourist spot because it has something for the boys and something for the girls. Next door to each other is Japan's only surviving castle that hasn't been totally reconstructed out of concrete and a huge Japanese garden next door. The castle is well worth the visit, very imposingly martial. My favourite bit was the annex built for one of the Princesses that went to live there. She married the Diyamo of the castle and they apparently had a really nice marriage, until a rival came along and took the castle and killed her husband. She then married the new Diyamo and just got on with it. Resilient lass.

So I got into Hiroshima this afternoon but I've done nothing but look for an ATM that will take my card. Here's a lesson kids: pretty much no banks in Japan will give you money, except for the post office. I now remember reading the post office is Japan's biggest bank, but I didn't realise until I'd walked Hiroshima end to end that they are also the only ones that take foreign ATM cards. Trick for young players.

The future is full of tiny little people

Kyoto :: Japan

And things come in vending machines.

Places: Furano, Tomamu, Kamui, Asahikawa, Tokyo & Kyoto.

Coolest thing I did: Sat nude in a hot bath in the snow.

Coolest thing I didn´t know: The list is endless...

There was once a bloke called William Gibson who used to write science fiction novels but now writes novels set in the present that relate almost as closely to technology as his old ones did.　His first great claim to fame is to have invented the term "cyberspace" about 15 years before the general population had ever heard of the internet. His other great claim to fame is to have told us that Japan is the future. This may not seem like much of an observation now but it was a big deal in 1980.

If Japan is still the future then the future is filled with tiny little people who are very nice. People like me may have some problems in the future as I may have some problems in the future as I'm pretty much covered in bruises, bumps and scratches from running into things because everything is too small for me to use. This seems to cause the Japanese no end of amusement.

My trip here so far has consisted of three very different parts, two involving big groups of people and one not. The first part was snowboarding in the very northern island of Hokkaido. Unlike the rest of Japan, Hokkaido is quite cold and doesn't have a whole lot of people in it. It also has some moderately high mountains on it, which means you can ski on it too. All credit to my mate Law for organising 20 odd people to come away together and have a ball. We were based in the town of Furano which is nestled at the base of two ski fields with some fairly long runs that were just about perfect for someone of my ability. Add to that some fresh snow early on in the week and that there were no queues for anything, even on the weekend and you have a recipes for some very enjoyable boarding. We also sampled a bigger field called Tomamu, which was better for the elite but a bit of a pain for us amatures, and a smaller one at Kamui. Kamui was wrecked for us by blinding snow above the treeline and pelting rain below it. This was a pity as it seemed rather nice.

The nights consisted of freaking out the proprietors of restaurants by showing up in a massive group in the off season and eating all their food. We saw some very good just in time inventory control, mostly involving getting your dad or brother to come by with more beer or wine. The drinking was a bit harder, as most of the bars were empty but with persistence it was possible to sniff something out. I found by sticking my head in the door and covering my obvious counting of the patrons with a "good evening, how are you doing?" worked. We had some top nights, including Law's birthday karaoke extravaganza, which according to witnesses can only be described as feral. Our rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody may have contributed to that.

Not all the days out involved snow. We did an afternoon to an Onsen (hot bath to you lot) up in the mountains that was all outdoors and all naked. The segregation of the sexes probably helped more people participate and I'm finding I'm getting a bit adicted to just sitting in pools of hot water. This was probably the best one we did as it was in a natural setting at there was massive chunks of snow falling the whole time. It does wonders for the aches and pains of snowboarding too.

We did another day trip to Asahikawa and it's nearby zoo. While I wouldn't be a zoo person I did think the spectacle of them having Emperor Penguins walking past the crowd was pretty cool, as was the tank that let you see polar bears both above and below the water. I did think that keeping African animals like Rhinos and Lions in the snow seemed a bit wrong. The town of Asahikawa was memorable mostly for lots of Japanese girls giggling at us doing pretty much anything (eating with chopsticks, drinking beer, walking...). We also happened into a Panchinco parlor, which is something that has to be heard to believe. It's basically slot machines that take ball bearings as money. When you finish you swap your winnings for prizes, which you then take around the corner to a "pawn shop" to exchange for cash money. The sound of torrents of ball bearings running through hundreds of these machines at once it deafening and something to behold.

I kind of liked all the time we spent on the bus in Hokkaido (and there there was a lot of it) if for nothing else than watching snow covered fields with mountainous backdrops pass by. It's barren but beautiful country.

After a day of travel we made it into Tokyo, city of the future. Having only spent a couple of days there I only have a quick impression of it all but looking out over it from the heights of the Metro Offices it feels a bit shapeless with these wide streets and buildings stretching shapeless with these wide streets and buildings stretching out until they hit the bottom of Mount Fuji. Down on street level you can walk for ages and find nothing but the chance for consumption, and that's what people in the future do best. I spent a day walking from our hotel in Shinjuku to Harajuku, through Aoyama and down to Shibuya seeing nothing but food, advertising and retail. For a country that's been in the economic doldrums for the last 1 been in the economic doldrums for the last 15 years they sure do like to spend.

From street level you are amazed at just how clean and ordered everything is. Yellow lines to divide the footpath, no rubbish anywhere and a subway system that tells you when the train is coming down to the second (I know the Tube does that in London too, but the difference is in Tokyo the estimates are invariably right). What strikes you is despite being the home of automation Japan is a very labour intensive country. All this stuff works so well because they employ so many people to do jobs no one would bother with in the West. When you see a guy in a uniform and white gloves whose only job is to make sure the road is clear when the bus comes around the corner every 15 mins you know that bus isn't going to get held up.

I left my 20s　somewhere in Roppongi. This was careless of me, I know. After a nice group BBQ for dinner the group tied balloons to me and we headed for Roppongi, a red light district that makes Vegas look like Disneyland. The bars we mostly full of white guys in suits and we mostly full of white guys in suits and Brazilian prostitutes so we kind of stood out a bit. It was a huge night and probably not a bad way to see in my 30s. Needless to say the balloons didn't survive the night.

The group departed Japan for their various countries and jobs yesterday so I got on the super fast Shinkanzen train (Bullet train to the peons) to Kyoto. It says something about current politics when all I knew about the place was there was a treaty on carbon emissions signed here. I'll save the tales of looking at shrines and temples until next time, as I've been shrines and temples until next time, as I've been typing on this stupid kanji keyboard for far too long. The place I'm doing this is called a Manga cafe and it's basically a place where nerds hide. My booth has a PC with the internet and games, a playstation 2 and a plasma TV in it. Should I tire of playing games I can read backwards comic books in Japanese (many with covers that would make Larry Flint blush). Should I need more energy I can order food, and should I start to stink I can shower. How long do people spend down here?

More soon. Konichiwa bitches.