September 17, 2007 0020

In about 8 hours, we’re scheduled to arrive at Qingdao, China. Thought I'd pen my thoughts about Japan before new things about China enter my brain and I confuse both countries.

Ive never been so tired in my life. The day after we got back on the ship from Japan, I had a 800 am class, a 920 class, a 1215 class and a 1330 class. And I had only missed the 920 one. But I could barely stay awake through the rest of them.

So...Japan was intense.. and even before I am fully recovered, BAM, we’re in China. Thus is the hard life of this student...hehe.

So let me continue my Japan Story. Day 2, after having no sleep on Day 1, I caught the 830 train to Hiroshima from Tokyo, solo. At first, I thought I knew the way to the Tokyo train station. But after walking in circles, turns out, I didn’t! This really nice Japanese salaryman in his shirt and tie gave me directions and walked with me to the train station and we caught the same train. He spoke no English, but could see that he was trying really hard to communicate. So I got off at my stop and hurried to my transfer train to Shin-Osaka. From there, I was to take another train to Hiroshima. The whole journey would take 5hrs..

So my first time on a bullet train. The inside looks exactly like in an airplane, with comfy air plane seats and fold over tables and stewardess pushing carts that you could buy food from. The trains arrive and leave right on time, so transportation there is very reliable. Had my first Japanese take-away breakfast (bian dang) on the train today. Yummy but a tad expensive.

On the train to Hiroshima, sat beside this Australian old dude. He had been in Japan for weeks now and he was traveling to the pier to take a ferry to South Korea. (I never knew you could do that) Nice fella, I gave him my English newspapers before I got off.

Finally I arrived at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Funny how we didn’t really learn much about the atomic bombs that destroyed Japan and ended the war. We all know about the effects of the bomb, how the radiation of the bomb had caused deformities in unborn children, how thousands of people were literally burned alive. But seeing the videos and exhibits there and reading about everything in great detail, my heart sank.

Minutes after the bomb went off, thousands of people died instantly from burns and even more were walking on the streets with melted and exposed flesh, thirsty, homeless. This quote really stuck in my head “ Hiroshima was hell on Earth. Those that were lucky enough to be alive...wished they were dead.” Some suffered a long and painful death. Days after the bomb went off, there were still people vomiting out internal organs.

I think what shocked me the most was how the decision was made to drop the bomb. I don’t know if many people know this but the bomb was actually made as a defense weapon against Germany when scientists thought Hitler had something similar up his sleeves, ready to set off anytime and take over the world. However, Germany surrendered even before the US could use the Atomic bomb. And by then, billions of taxpayers money had been pumped into the Manhatten Project (making of the atomic bomb) So the Government felt pressure to use the Atomic bomb to justify the immense investment made. And mind you, before dropping it on Hiroshima, there had been no trial test made on the A-bomb at all, so it was almost like a freak experiment. Despite recommendations by the scientists that the US government should issue a warning and allow time for Japan to surrender before they drop the bombs, no warning was ever issued. It was a cruel attack on civilians, that in my opinion, involved to a certain extent - revenge. (Pearl Harbour) I don’t think anyone even expected 1/10 of the eventual outcome of destruction caused by the atomic bomb. What’s worse was the reason why the second bomb was dropped in Nagasaki. Basically, the Soviet Union wanted in on the war against Japan before Japan surrendered so that when Japan does surrender, it would get a piece of the pie of countries under the Japanese Occupation. Its amazing how the stupidity of a few people can cause so much pain and harm to so many people. With great power comes great responsibility. I definitely walked out of the museum that day with a heavier heart.

I then caught the train back to Kyoto where I was to meet Kiya and Tara. Because my phone did not work in Japan, I was a little nervous about not being able to meet them. But as luck would have it, minutes after walking out of the station and as I was going down the escalator, I heard my name “Sheryl!” It was Tara! Boy was I relieved. Then we spent a good 2-3 hrs trying to look for accommodation for the night. Everyone was tired and hungry, morale was low...Despite being so so so tired, I tried so hard to lighten the atmosphere. But we all had a place to sleep in the end so all was good.

The next day, Day 3, first thing I did was settle our accommodation for the night in Kobe. Enough of walking around looking for a roof for the night. With that done, we went to the train station and I dumped 60% of stuff in my bag in the locker so I didn’t have to lug everything around.

The rest of the day in Kyoto, we went to 2 beautiful temples, followed by the Geisha district. Geisha district was interesting...looked just like the set of the movie -Memoirs of a Geisha. We saw real Geishas walking really fast with heads down on the street with tones of tourists following behind them like paparazzi. We felt bad for them so we didn’t take pictures. Following that, we caught a traditional Japanese show with the tea ceremony, puppet show, Geisha Dance and flower arrangement. After a hearty traditional Japanese meal, we left for the train to Kobe, where we had a HOTEL ROOM waiting! Boy was I looking forward to that.

We ran into a little bit of trouble getting to the hotel. While booking the hotel, I noted everything else but the name. Sensing that we were lost, these Japanese ladies at the train station offered help and even called the hotel to ask for directions for us. Japanese courtesy is amazing. The Japanese people are so helpful. It is unlike anywhere else in the world.

So fast forward to the next day, I met up with some Japanese students from Kansai University. I was really excited to get to know some Japanese people better..because the whole time we were in Japan, the only friends I made were foreigners from the hostels.

After sight-seeing in the day, we went Karaoke in the evening. I swear the Japanese Karaoke place has a wider selection of English songs than Singapore has. We need to improve on that.

Then they took me to this really nice place by the harbor for dinner. It looked somewhat like Clarke Quay with little pushcart stalls and restaurants. We had Japanese pizza for dinner and then all of us took little neoprint photo stickers for remembrance.

My host for the night, Rie, lives alone. Her family is from Nagasaki but she goes to school in Osaka. She had spent 3 months in England on an exchange programme before, so her English was pretty good. The house was small, but it had everything you need. Rie was really sweet. I was complaining to her how I didnt have a place to put my Japanese coins cos I gave away my elephant coin pouch and that night after I came out of the shower, she presented me with a pretty purse and said with a cheeky smile, "used only once..."
She also went out of her way and called her friends to find a money changer for me. And in the morning, she even cooked a hearty Japanese breakfast of miso soup, rice and Japanese beans for the both of us.

Before you know it, it was time to get back on the boat. Before we parted, they gave me a present they bought secretly form the gift shop at the castle we visited. And I wrote them a Singapore postcard.

Japanese people are the most polite and helpful people I've met. When you ask for directions on the street, you get an escort to your destination. When you are their guest, you not only get food and accomodation, you get presents too. Really glad I met my new found friends...

So that marked the end of my Japan adventure. Several pointers to take away – make sure that I do not spend so much time on transport that I don’t see anything in the cities, make sure I have a place to stay 1 day in advance, make sure I take it easy on the trips because I have classes the first day back, make sure I be a sponge and soak everything in, make sure that I ask people who know the answers a lot of questions. Oh..I have a business idea from Japan - ***secret..