The Travel Chronicles - China/Japan/Korea 2008

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Hiroshima - Stories of the past

1st Row from left: 1. What it looked like after the blast. 2. Steel windows some kilometres away bent by the shockwaves. 3. Reenactment of wax figurines. Burnt, with melted skins dangling from their faces, arms.. from the searing heat.
2nd row from left: 1 & 2. The watch that stopped at 815am. The instant it detonated. Clothing on victims, that were torn by the blast.
3rd row from left: 1. The red ball above the model of Hiroshima city shows the fire ball that resulted from detonation. 2 &3. Clothing remains.

1st row from left: 1. Charred rice in the lunch box. Found by a mother under her son's burnt unrecognizable body. Only recognizable thing was his lunch box. 2. Water bottle. 3. The size of the bomb, Little Boy. 4 metres only - destroyed 350,000 lives.. Almost 140,000 died instantly. The rest over time.. From cancer, leukemia, internal organs damage..

2nd row from left: 1. Sandal left by a dead 13 yr old girl. Her body wasn't found. but 2 months later, her mother found the sandal hand-made by herself from her kimono. 2. Finger nails and skin left behind by a son. The mother had kept them, wanting to show them to the father who had not returned from the war. 3. Hair remains of a 13 yr old girl who died on Aug 7th morning. The hair is singed in some areas.

3rd row from left: 1. A hat burnt and torn. unknown. 2. A bicycle belonging to a young boy who was killed in the blast. His dad buried it with him in their yard as he was afraid he was too young and would be lonely. 3. Torn clothing remains.

Images of victims.

2nd row 1st photo from left: A lady in Kimono burnt by the thermal rays. The dark pigment areas of her kimono absorbed the most heat thereby scarring her with the imprints.

3rd row 2nd photo from left: Melted and twisted steel structures.

3rd row 3rd photo: Roof tiles melted and joined together..

Stuart

Hiroshima, A-Bomb Dome

Photos say it. The A-Bomb Dome. Few structures withstood the intense heat, shockwaves and blast of thermal energy like it did. Partially collapsed but the main outline is there.

The A-Bomb was did not hit the ground. It detonated 600m in the air. Thus, the area hit is magnified. 160m away from this dome was the hypocentre of the blast. The force came from above and that was prob. why the building could stay intact.

The metal stairs and dome skeleton melted partially and is slanted if you look closely enough.

Radioactive waves, Gamma, could pass through all the walls in all buildings.. Thus, almost everything within the 2km radius were destroyed. Some vaporised. Some charred black. Some blasted away by the tremendous shockwaves.

2+ km away, a man was thrown and bounced around the walls of his house from the shockwaves. Imagine that.

The fire ball, 280m wide, from the nuclear fission of only 50kg of Uranium, produced a searing 1 million degrees hot core. A City destroyed in an instant. Count to 10 and it's over. Hundreds of thousands of lives, dreams, family, thousands of buildings, forests, plants, animals, history.. In less time than it takes youto take a lift up to your home. That was 63yrs back. The nuclear bombs of present will easily wipe out the entire Asia in the same time taken.

On the ground beneath it, temperatures reached 3000 to 4000 degrees in an instant.

It's impossible for us to imagine exactly how it could have been. The waters, canals, seas could have been boiling.

The Cenotaph where annually on August 6, there would be a ceremony where many thousands around the world would attend.. To remember this date and remind everyone not to repeat history.

Beneath the Cenotaph is buried a list of people who have died from the bombing.

That's at the Army Cemetrary.. looking down at the city from above... gives us sad thoughts of how the burning charred Hiroshima would have looked like.

The hills, trees and plants where we are standing will probably have been razed to the ground too.

I took 2 shots of the sky above Hiroshima as i was imagining how those killed would have done so too, as they looked up seconds before the blast and saw the bomb coming down at them from 10,000 feet above. They wouldn't have expected that their lives were ending soon.

No warning was given on the potential damage of this then-new technology, nucleur fission. Everything was top secret till the instant people were killed and Hiroshima destroyed.

Benny and i had a debate whether the Americans should have warned about the capability of their new weapon first before massacring many innocents. We reached no conclusion.. America definitely couldn't sabotage their own pilots and war efforts by informing the enemy.. But this was at the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands.. many innocent civilians. What do you think?

Stuart reflecting..

Hiroshima 15 June

We arrived in Hiroshima today and alighted at the train station after a 12 hour bus journey from last evening at 830pm.

There were tram cars still in use and it was a 1st time for both of us on tram rides. Seen them but never had the chance to take one. Neway, it was comfy and costed a flat 150yen (S$1.90) to anywhere. We took it to Dobashi station and walked to our new lodging at J-Hoppers, a nice backpackers inn.

Ben and i decided to rent bikes to continue our Team George-I-Go tradition from China while Marco and Jackie were still around..

Midway thru, it began raining but we were undeterred and cycled wif our brollies to visit further located shrines, castles, army cemetary and an observatory on a hill.

1st stop was the Peace Memorial Park, a sprawling area that holds the annual remembrance ceremony for those who perished from the Atomic bomb. It was August 6th 1945.
Bottom right hand corner, that's the Eternal flame that keeps burning until the day the last nuclear weapon is destroyed. Behind it is the Peace memorial Museum.

The memorial for all children who were died from the Atomic bomb. Atop is the statue of a young girl,

holding up a paper crane which symbolises their dreams for peace.

Anyone can fold and bring their own paper cranes and add them to the shelters around the statue.. And many have done so.

On the eastern side of Hiroshima, we came to some old streets that was called a promenade of history. What we saw there were several shrines and some old residential buildings. Probably not that historical too considering almost everything was flattened just 63 years ago.
We moved southwards to Hiyajima Park afterwards, where we visited a old Army Cemetary with a fantastic view of the city, a Radiation Effects research foundation (juz outside thou) and an observatory which ironically didn't have as good a view as the cemetary had. Looking down towards the now rebuilt city, images of the flattened, charred cityscape which we saw at the museum came to my mind. It was sad recollecting what i saw.

At J-Hoppers... So far, a very nice place.. That's our lounge area. And our rooms are supposed to be shared dorms. However, they ran out of dorms and very nicely allowed us to stay in the private traditional ryokan style rooms for the same price! And even extended the same price for another night's stay in this room! Very good first day here.... Staff are all friendly and speak english so its a breeze to communicate. Rooms are clean, the crowd mix are mainly friendly young and backpacking travellers so the ambience is correct. The owner is a globe-trotting motorcyclist too i read!

And lastly, that is the Hiroshima Castle.. It was already dark when we got there at 745-8pm. It was really small compared to Osaka Castle. As quoted from our travel book "Rough Guides", if you've seen other castles, don't bother comin' to this one. I second that.

Stuart in the lounge... while Benny probably is sprouting Japanese in his dreams in our tatami ryokan room.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Post clubbing at Atom..... down and out.

It's 1030am now. We've juz had 2 hours of sleep (during which there was an earthquake measuring 6.0 somewhere else in Japan..) Ben felt the room shaking but i was too fatigued to feel anything. Anyway, that's so common it's part of their lives here. no biggie. Had to check out of our rooms by 10am.. So the plan is to juz relax in the hostel's lounge and leave for Shinjuku's bus terminal around 4-5pm. Ben's asleep right above.. be my turn later after i find a place to stay in Hiroshima..

We went to Roppongi Hills and clubbed at Shibuya's Atom last nite.. And... i saw my favourite star in Roppongi!!! Unbelievably unbelievable.. but yes! Right in front of us.. Less than 3 umbrellas length away.

What a night! i'm not much of a clubber but Tokyo's clubbing scene and people are wonderful!Highly interactive as we made plenty of friends on the dance floor.. Initially the plan was to visit some club along Roppongi Hills as that seemed to be the more happening place.. however, after scouring the area for a good atmosphere club, we decided it was too touristy (Too many foreign travellers) and headed back to Shibuya again.. where we were shopping during the earlier part of the day. And our club of choice was Atom, as there were rave reviews of how this place attracts a more local young crowd.

The walk from Roppongi Hills to Shibuya took about half an hour and around 12 mid night we arrived. Based on our mental notes of the map provided on Atom's website (http://www.clubatom.com/), we spent the next 30 min trying to find the place. Almost giving up hopes of clubbing at the last instant; my tummy was rumbling and i thought that we might as well settle for food and chill the night away while waitin' for the 1st densha (train) at 5am. A guy ran past us towards a small side road that we've not searched and dropped his handphone in front of me.. I handed it back to him and told Ben.. "Maybe is fate. let's follow him and try one last time.. " SURE Enough.. within a minute... we found a still vibrant thriving scene at 1238am!

There wasn't any signboards that said "ATOM" but several young early drunks lining the pavements outside was a good sign. And the nail in the coffin was when a flyer distributor gave us a booklet for the club.. Written on it was "Club Atom". HAPPY! finalllyyyy... Entrance was 3000yen (S$40) with 1 free drink. very mild stuff. Additional drinks were 500 yen (S$6.50).. So it was. Until 5am when the deejay stopped spinnin' and returned for an encore... The crowd never died out.. full house till the last second.

We stepped out of Atom into bright daylight (Sunrise at 430am). it's a SUPERB place to visit.. to experience the local clubbin' culture.. Their friendliness, the mood, and their dress sense. Any friends visiting Tokyo - Atom is a must go.

There's no photos here unfortunately as we didn't bring our cam along. But we'll describe it in more detail when we see u pals/gals...

Stuart stoned, not by drinks but by insufficient snooze.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Tsukiji Part 2

Eels, live and slaughtered in front of us.. Squids, Very good priced Tuna sashimis 800yen is approx. S$10 only for that amount! And then the scallops in the bottom left are only 1000yen (SS$13) for easily a week's supply! Those crabs in the transparent plastic boxes are alive. Ben thinks they are soft shell crabs but i don't think so.. don't knw what they are..

Octopus, scallops again, sea urchins (which i didn't like coz of the stinky taste), lobsters, grilled eels at super duper prices, and fish flakes for sale. those used as toppings for takoyaki.

Our breakfast was at a sushi joint juz outside the fish market.. prices were pretty reasonable for such quality and attention by the sushi chef. In the middle photo from left: Fattiest Tuna (A delicacy probably costing much more than the S$6.50 i paid for it), Bonito (Damn good!), Scallops, Salmon, Japanese tiger prawn!
Benny had: Tuna, Crab flakes (REAL snow crab meat!!), Tamago (HUGE piece), Salmon, hotate (cooked and raw ones), and octopus and a bonito!
Costed me (2600yen.. approx. S$34) but well worth it.
Ben's portion costs: 1300yen... approx. S$17.

After the meal, we went browsing the streets of Tsukiji market.. Lots of dried foodstuff, vegies and fruits on sale.. Interestingly, we found the Wasabi plant that is grounded in authentic wasabi. Many of those we have in sushi restaurants are not 100% genuine as wasabi plant is very expensive. Thus, usually it's a flavouring that we are eating.
This shop specialises in sushi knives.. We saw a couple of such shops there... And their craftsmen will sharpen each knife only when a customer purchases them, to guarantee quality paper sliceable knives.

Stuarttttttt

Tsukiji Fish Market!! A dream come true.. Freshest Tuna sashimi, Scallops, Sea Urchins, Ebi, Sea bream, Salmon Roe, Alaskan snow crabs, whatever we can find in a sushi restaurant is here! Tokyo's supply of seafood comes from this place..
Finally we could wake up at 445am for this... After 2 unsuccessful attempts. It's all benny's fault haha.. Above, there's the auctioning of tuna which are cut at their tails to expose the quality. As read somewhere, they do reallly resemble Steel Torpedoes. And their skin's very tough. Tuna supply probably isn't sufficient from just the local fishermen so many of them are imported from the US too. That explains some frozen fishes we saw. By right, the auction was out of bounds to tourists and we got chased out once by a staff. But with alittle persistence, and knowing where to stand, slowly they left us alone. If you're going, do not use flash.. And move on after a few minutes..

Each fish is auctioned in less than a minute.. Buyers raise their hands to increase their bids if they find the fish worth fighting for. Many many expert fish-readers around as they could tell from the flesh colour and grains whether it was quality-enough for their restaurants. This carried on from 530am till around 7am. Food dyes (In red) were used to demarcate those sold and to whom. Many fish-porters were zipping around on their mini-vehicle sending the purchases to their lorries outside.

From our calculations, eating a seafood feast daily for every meal will cost less than SGD$10/meal. And every meal will have scallops, prawns, tuna sashimi and Salmon roe.... Amazing eh! Great idea if you're intending to work here.. Visit the market once a week for yr week's supply of meals.

Swordfish and Tuna being cut up by the masters of the trade.. With their huge samurai-like knives. And then chopped into smaller pieces for packaging.

Stuart

A fruitful 9th June part 2

Different segments of the parade. Children were supposed to hold on to the ropes together and pull the carriage with the huge shrine on it.

Some blessings being cast about by the priest. Locals were trying to grab those little pieces of paper from the air.
The convoy escorting the portable shrines (Mikoshi) on their shoulders have to tilt them from side to side vigorously as part of the event. Easy as it may seem initially, after awhile we could tell that it was very tiring as many well-built males were seen asking for substitutions.. And every 15-20 metres they moved, they had to do this sideways thing several times. Tough.

Finally in the evening, we went to a baseball game. From left: Joseph, Benny, Tom and Simon. Joseph was persuaded to join us as he had planned to visit Akihabara, but couldn't resist the novelty of watching a baseball game. It was our first baseball game too!

The stadium is in Gaiennmae Station. Per entry was 1500yen. Approx. S$20.

Stuart

A fruitful 9th June.

The day started with us heading Northwards from Hoteiya to Kita-Senju, for a festival where the locals carry portable shrines and streets are closed to vehicles for the huge parade. It seems to be a major event here as there were loads of people around.

At the shrine, we found plenty food and Ben & i shared a Okonomiyaki and another potato balls sauteed with butter, mayo, pepper, parsley and salt. The potato balls especially were very good stuff! didn't capture that as we instantly gobbled them down after buyin'!

Then we followed a small team of Uncles doing their thing for the parade.. The portable shrine is slightly smaller than the usual though.

Fortunately we didn't leave early as the main parade was moving around when we were at the shrine. We thought that was all we could see but luckily we roamed around and followed where the crowd was heading to.. And there we got it! The main geist of the festival.

Kind and friendly folks gamely posed for photos and invited us to sound the drums too!

More coming up!

Stuart