August 27-28, 2009: Kumamoto, Shimabara, Nagasaki, Hiroshima

Kumamoto:
I got a ride and arrived in Kumamoto. I’ve never been to a castle and so I went to the Kumamoto-jo, Kumamoto castle. I walked in and around and was amazed at the beautiful architecture. The buildings don’t look too sturdy but the surrounding stone walls are thick and strong-looking. The castle is opened to the public as a museum with different things on display in each building. Some of the buildings have small holes in the wall close to the floor, which were used by snipers.

I then headed out in search of raw horsemeat, basashi. Yesterday the horses wanted to eat me, today I shall eat them! I found an asian pear for 100 yen, $1 and ate that for lunch because I was so hungry. Then I ate some raw horsemeat, and didn’t think much of it. It looks like any kind of raw meat, but looks very delicate. It doesn’t have much of a taste, more of a texture. It was very chewy, but soft. It tasted like meat (beef) and they served it with ginger and scallions. I don’t think I’ll eat that again. I rather eat whale. It tastes much better.

Shimabara:
I wanted to go to Shimabara from Kumamoto, which is a ferry away. But I had to take the bus for 30 minutes to the ferry and I wasn’t sure what bus to take. I asked a woman for directions at the bus stop and she told me that some of the buses don’t go to the ferry and the next one would be in an hour from then, so she told me to get on the bus with her and she would drive me there. What?! I said ok, and followed her. She looked harmless enough. Watanabe-san was her name and she was 29 years old. She was born and raised in the town, Kumamoto, and has never been to another country. When we got off the bus, I paid only 170 yen, $1.70. If I took the bus to the ferry it would have cost about 400 yen, $4. I followed her, met her mother, and her 3 kids. She had her first kid when she was only 21 years old. Wow. That’s how old I am. She stuffed her 3 adorable kids in the backseat, told them to call me Big Sister Kaoru (Kaoru-oneechan) and drove about 30 minutes to the ferry. She waited until I bought the ticket to get on the ferry (680 yen, $6.80) and walked with me to where I was to get on the ferry. Then they all waited about 10 minutes watching me on the ferry, waving goodbye until it the ferry left. She was so nice. I was so lucky.

When I got to Shimabara I went to see the Nehan-zo. The 56 meter tall Buddha. I expected to see a standing Buddha and so when I got to the Shinto Shrine I was a bit confused. Where was this statue? I walked around and found a Buddha lying on his side. A woman walked in front of it and so I asked her if this was the infamous statue and she said yes and gave me a bit of a description. She explained that there were 3 stances: A standing Buddha, standing but one leg crossed over another Buddha, and a Buddha that is lying down. The last one symbolizes that the Buddha is close to death and knows this within himself. The Buddha was impressive from head to toe. The feet especially were unusually decorated in detail.

I then went to a place to eat some guzoni, Shimabara’s specialty dish. It’s a thick soup with veggies and some chicken and flattened mochi on top. It was pretty good and very filling, I’d get it again. I passed by Shimabara’s castle and hopped on the train to Nagasaki.

Nagaski:
I arrived at my hostel for the night when it was already dark. Some young Japanese people, one girl and two guys, were planning to head to an onsen. The guys were travelling Japan on their motorbikes and the girl was taking local trains for long lengths of time. I felt dirty from sweating all day in the strong sun so I decided to join them. The bus to get there was free and the outdoor onsen provided a nice view of the city. It was cheap because someone brought a coupon and so it was 490 yen for each of us ($4.90).

I also met a girl who was half Japanese and half American and she was raised in Japan. She was 18 years old and travelling alone. I thought it was funny because she seemed like my counterpart, how I would be like if I was raised in Japan. I took a picture and thought she might actually look more American than I do.

I was going back and forth on whether or not I should spend 2 nights in Nagasaki (so that I can spend the entire day there) and then head to Takasaki (Gunma Ken) to see my relatives, or spend half the day in Nagasaki and then head to Hiroshima and spend the night there. I eventually decided to go to Hiroshima as well because I found a cheap hostel (2500 yen, $25 a night). Also, once I get to Hiroshima, I’ll be 3 hours closer to my relatives in Takasaki and so instead of taking 9 hours to Takasaki from Nagasaki, it would take me 6 hours from Hiroshima.

I woke up around 7am the next day, pretty late for me. The first day I wake up past 5am. I left the hostel without even telling them I would leave so early in the morning, and there was no one at the front desk. I hopped on the train to the next town over, Urakami. On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped here. I walked around the site, the Peace Memorial Park (I think that’s what it was called) and saw all the donated statues from Nagasaki’s sister’s city (from countries all over the world). It was an encouraging sight.

I also went to the museum that displayed the horrors of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II. I was horrified by the raw images of dilapidated bodies burned to a crisp and images of young children who were to die soon after they survived the hell. Even now just thinking about it makes me want to cry. I was surrounded by waves of school children that touched and grabbed every item as they learned about their country’s past, and in a daze all I could do was stare past their energetic curiosity to the terrifying images. After about 30 minutes in that depressing hell, I felt like I couldn’t take it. I felt a bit dizzy and the heat from the rage that consumed me was radiating from my face. I wanted to escape. But, surprisingly, my rage was undirected. I was not angry toward the U.S. even though I read their mixed communications amongst each other that led to the fateful decision. It was a mistake with every one to blame (both sides), nonetheless, I’ll say that much. I left after about an hour. I don’t know how I survived.

Hiroshima (Miyajima):
I got on a train from Nagasaki during the day of Aug 28 to Hiroshima. I decided to go straight to Miyajima from the station and head to my hostel later, holding my heavy backpack and a small bag of my 4 days of then, dirty, sweaty clothes.

I took a ferry to get to Miyajima, and with my JR pass I didn’t pay for any transportation. Only the ferry to Miyajima is included in the tourist JR pass. Once I got to Miyajima, I bought black sesame soft cream (ice cream), my favorite flavor. I started walking toward the floating orange torii that I could see from a distance. On my way 2 friendly deer followed me because of my ice cream. Some people laughed and others warned that they jumped. I saw the deer walk into stores, and eat people’s maps. I put my backpack down for a second to take a picture and the deer ate my wet wipes, in the plastic package and everything. Some people seemed a bit scared of the deer, but after my previous experience with the horses and cows that almost ran me over/ate me, I just thought these deer were adorable. I went to the orange shrine on the island and spent my time taking pictures of the orange torii from different angles and deer.

I stayed for a night at the hostel in Hiroshima. The receptionist was such a cool person. Her name was Masako-san. She and I spoke on and off during the night and I was surprised how she was at speaking English. Our conversations jumped from Japanese, to English, to Japanese. She asked if I had facebook and tried desperately to find me, but because I guess I have private settings, she couldn’t find me. I eventually found her, and she left a nice message on my wall.

Most of the people in the hostel in Hiroshima were foreigners (not Japanese) and didn’t seem to take any interest in being social, so I stopped my inquisitive questioning. Out of the other 3 girls in my room, 1 was from Germany, 1 was from Malaysia, and one from Japan. The Japanese girl spoke to me at 5am, complimenting me on my Japanese, saying that when she first walked in she thought I was Japanese (a person from this country) and was surprised at how good my English was when I spoke to the other two people.