Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I've always been a history buff. I love history, especially World War II, so being able to go to the country where two of the most monumental things during that war happened is amazing and there was no way that I was going to pass up on the opportunity to visit the site of the atomic bomb droppings. Taji had family who actually died in Nagasaki or as a result, so it was a solemn occasion. We took a train (trains are their main mode of transport if you haven't noticed)  from Tokyo to the airport and flew south to Hiroshima first. This time I wasn't disgruntled about more time on a plane because it was going to be more than worth it. Four hours, a plane ride and many bus transfers later, we were in Hiroshima. This place is a very moving memorial and again, words cannot properly express it so I will post pictures.

This is "Genbaku Domu" or A-bomb dome. The blast from the bomb was directly over this building,  which somehow allowed it to remain standing

I don't know if you heard the story of the girl and a thousand paper cranes, I did in elementary school at least, but this is a monument called the Children's Memorial and it was dedicated to a little girl who got leukemia after the bombing,s who sadly died, but not before she started a mission to fold 1000 paper cranes.

The Cenograph where the names of all the victims are stored along with an eternal flame representing peace. you can see the A-Bomb Dome again in the background as well.

After spending some time in Hiroshima, we boarded another train to start the four hour journey to Nagasaki. Taji was somber and quite during the train ride out of respect for the dead. We arrived at the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. Truly a mouthful and just as moving as it's counterpart in Hiroshima.

This is a page out of the pamphlet we were given

Memorial with more paper cranes on it.

If you can, I recommend you read that. Powerful stuff in there.

Asakusa and the Senoji temple

Asakusa is a district in Tokyo that has reatined the "traditional Tokyo" feel to it. It used to be Tokyo's premier entertainment district. It was home to a rather large red light district, many geisha, and kabuki theatres.

After World War II, it was all destroyed and rebuilt, though the entertainment district never regained it's former popularity, Sensoji Temple, or Asakusa Kannon temple, still keeps tourists, like me a comin', probably because it's Tokyo's oldest temple and that's pretty darn nifty.

Interior View

Harajuku, Here I come.

Harajuku. Oh where to start with that place. Well, it's a prominent fashion district for alternative teenagers. I wanted to see that place right when I first got here, but Taji insisted I hold off until Sunday if I really wanted to see some crazy stuff. I don't know how Harajuku is any other day, but on Sunday, all the cosplayers -people who dress in costume resembling anime characters, punk musicians, etc.- come out, and they dress in some of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen. Personally I think stuff like this is cool:

They're just trying to emulate the music industries look in that country (Visual Kei .I'll post a few music videos at the end of this so you can see what I mean) or they're trying to go for the lolita, cute, porcilin doll-esque look. However some take it too far and you wind up seeing things like this on the streets and trains:

I was told they dress like that to rebel against the tradition ideals of feminine beauty. It just looks scary to me.

The people up there who aren't scary are trying to go for the visual kei/J-rocker look made popular by bands out today much like these:

(The one's you think are girls in the videos, are actually men. Crossplay is very popular too)

In Harajuku there is also a bit of history too. That's right it's not all jsut strangely clothed teenagers. Right inside Harajuku is the Meiji Shrine. It is a shrine that was built in honor of Emperor Meiji, the first modern emperor of Japan, and it is beautiful. The shrine sits on land that is almost like an oasis in the dense city. It's completely forested  with many meandering paths through it so you can take a nice leisurely stroll.

The shrine itself is about a ten minute walk from the gate off the busy road. The sights and sounds of the city are completely cut off by all the trees here. It truly is an oasis.

This is the offering hall. Every New Year's, millions -quite literally- of people come here for the first prayers of the year.

In the northern end of the shrine, is the Treasure House. In this house is stored some of the personal belongings of Emperor and Empress Meiji.

It's hard to believe you go from overly made up teenagers to a beautiful shrine all within the span of a block.

Imperial Palace or Close to It.

Unfortunately for me, I came a month too late to be able to go into the Imperial Palace, but the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace is open to the public, so Taji took me there instead. I still got a picture of the outside gates of the Imperial Palace.

East Gardens are where the castle that used to be here's main defenses were. None of the main buildings remain today, but I still got to see the moats, walls, gates and a few guardhouses. Everything else had been burned in a fire. Below is what remained of one of the castle's towers.

After this we went to Tsukiji Fish Market. There were so many rules to follow there is was ridiculous. "Don't go here" "Don't do this" Oh goodness. It made my head spin. One of the many rules was that only 140 people per day were allowed into the tuna auction and you must apply to get access. Guess who went down to the market at 4:30 AM to make sure we could get into the auction today? Yes, Taji did, bless his heart. So we get in and see tuna from wall to wall lined up on the floor with people parading up and down picking the ones they want to buy most. It was quite the spectacle and I was one of the select few to be able to see it.

Tomorrow I'm off to Harajuku to get a load of all the cosplayers and the lolita people. That should be entertaining.

Holy Snow Sculptures, Batman!

Today's blog will be little of my typing and mostly pictures, because they honestly do a better job of talking than I ever could.
Here's a bit of an introduction for you however. The Sapporo Snow Festival is a week long festival in Sapporo. It's a city on the northern island of Japan, about an hour away from Tokyo by plane. (Yeah. More flying) Taji said the Winter Olympics were held here once. Anyway, they collect all this snow and bring it into the city and sculptors world wide come here and make these fantastical looking works of art out of the collected snow. The entire city is speckled with these sculptures both big and small and it makes it seem like a winter wonderland.

This is the image that greeted me when we first go there. It looks cold, doesn't it? Well, I guarantee you that it was 10 times colder than it looks.

Sculptures near the Tsu-Dome

Hello, Kitty!

Look at this madness!

They're all holding notes. I wish I could read them.

China

Korea

Malaysia

Lithuania (The winner)

Finland (Runner up in the contest)

Inside events were held at the Tsu-Dome. It was good to get out of the cold.

Snowman wine chillers. 

So many people braved the cold!

After being chilled to the bone and thoroughly amazed, we flew back to Tokyo. Tomorrow, Taji is surprising me with a trip somewhere, but for now I'm in search of something to warm me up. Looking at those pictures made me cold again!

Setting Foot in a Foreign Land

I'm here:

in Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku right in the heart of Tokyo and boy am I exhausted. I just woke up from a nap in fact. It's 12 AM here which means it's 4PM back in Colorado. That's a 16 hour time difference folks. I'ts going to take some getting used to since I'm used to waking up when they're going to bed. Enough on that though. Time to tell you about the trip here.


First the flight. It was actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I had everything in order so customs and security were a breeze, so I ended up waiting at the terminal for a while, but my flight was on time (another plus) and there were no babies, screaming or other wise, on the plane (yet another plus). I left Denver International Airport at quarter to 9 and braced myself for the long flight ahead. Thank goodness for my iPod and laptop. It was a 2 hour flight to Seattle/Tacoma International Airport. We had to make a pit stop for fuel and such before trekking across the Pacific Ocean. I took a nap on the plane too, I missed crossing the International Dateline though. I will have to catch it on the way back. My plane was late arriving in Japan. We had head winds so instead of the 4:15 PM, I arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport at nearly 5. It was very crowded and I had trouble navigating around.

Now for the train station fun.
I met up with my guide, Taji Najamoto, a great young man who has more than earned his pay already, and he got us to the train station. I would've much rather have taken one of those lovely buses directly to the hotel, but he insisted on taking me the "authentic" way. So we lugged my luggage a couple of blocks to the train station, rode a train, I can't tell you which train because my Japanese character recognition is sub-par, transfered to another train with an indistinguishable name, and walked to the hotel. That entire exchange took a little over an hour. I checked into my room and crashed. I will probably sleep most of the day tomorrow too. I'll update if I have some time where I'm lucid enough to type. Ja ne! 

Pre-trip Post

I am soon to be embarking on a trip to Japan. That's this little country right here:

Yep, I'm going there in the middle of winter. It will be as cold as can be, but I survived the Colorado freeze, so I think I can handle a few days in Japan, especially since I've packed my warmest winter clothes. 

I will be leaving my house tomorrow at 5AM, a time which does not bode well with the likes of me, but unfortunately my flight leaves at 8:26 AM and I need to, first, get to the airport, and second, get through customs. I'm not looking forward to that, nor am I looking forward to being on a plane for 16 hours. Ultimately, it will all be worth it in my opinion. I've heard great things of Japan, have always wanted to go there and I finally get to.

I'm going to wrap this thing up and get a few winks in before I have to wake up so ungodly early. The next update you'll get will be from Japan!