Our next installment of Japan brought us to Kyoto. Kyoto is not only know for the environmental accord to reduce CO2 emissions to curb global warming (just in case you didn't know Mr. Harper and Bush) but also as one of the ancient capitals of imperial Japan. Luckily, the Allies took this place off the short list for the A-bomb as it is a very beautiful and laid-back city at the foot of the mountains! For that reason, Kyoto is home to 2000 plus Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines (our total of visited temples and shrines over three days: one intentially and one coincidentally as it was the site of a market we visited). There are many wooden homes here and the residential streets are very narrow and cozy, evoking images of old Japan. We learned that because of all the wood structures, they do not have fireworks in Kyoto. One of the funniest things we heard was that Kyoto is considered the country!? It's a city of 1.5 milliion people but they consider it the country. Ah...Japan, you make me laugh sometimes.

Our first day in Kyoto was like most travel days into a new city. Again, we came on the uber-fast shinkansen train (we really need one of these in Canada!) and found our way to our guesthouse. The cutesy guesthouse only has 8 beds and is in a 70-year old Japanese house. What did I do first? I hit my head on the doorframe walking in! We settled in a tried to make a plan to visit the city. A month earlier, I had sought out the advice of my step~brother who had been here before. He wasn't too helpful as he told me "Everything is good in Kyoto". Turns out he's right, but he didn't really help us make decisions about the must sees of this city. In the end, we ended up walking through the old imperial park grounds that had the emperor's former residence (that is before it moved to Tokyo) and then onto the centre of the city. We walked around the beautiful downtown along a canal and then along Pontocho street which is were geishas can still be found entertaining gentlemen. We think that we spotted a few apprentices as they weren't fully decked out but were still in kimonos. In the end, all we did was walk around trying to get the vibe of the place.

For our second day in Kyoto, we left the city. We are milking our railpass for all its worth and we went to Himeji about halfway between here and Hiroshima. Himeji is the home to Japan's most beautiful and largest castle. (see http://www.himeji-castle.gr.jp/index/English/) Arriving in Himeji, we borrowed bicycles from the tourism office to peddle around town quickly. We visited the castle and its grounds. This took essentially the whole day. When entering the castle, we had to take our shoes off and walk around in slippers~very cozy! From the top floor, we had a wonderful view of the surrounding city and the mountains around us. We picnicketed in a park that had a flea market and a circus in it. At one point, two elephants (and their trainers) walked past us and each reached out for our bag of peanuts and our sandwiches. We quickly pulled them away because we didn't want them to get punished but we would have gladly shared with them. Returning to Kyoto, we explored the ultramodern train station with its skywalk 11 stories above the main concourse. But the biggest highlight was spotting the Astroboy statue! Oh the memories of watching Astroboy reruns on CKND Channel 12 in Winnipeg (although we didn't have cable so it was blurry channel 9).

Today was an overly ambitious day, but very pleasant though. My first stop was the Manga Museum (Japanese comics) where I learned the history of manga. They had a huge library of manga to read but sadly it was all in Japanese although that doesn't come as a surprise. I felt like Chris Farley in this sketch (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/237653/chris_farley_japanese_gameshow/) -"I don' t speak Japanese!" It was impressive the huge amounts of people, young and old, men and women, who visit the museum to read through the volumes of magazines there. Michaela started her busy day and a traditional craft museum. I think my choice was better especially when I was done and got to bask in the sun while drinking coffee.

We then went for a nice relaxing bike ride up along the river to the market and to the Kinkakuji temple (aka the Golden temple - see http://www.shokoku-ji.or.jp/english/e_kinkakuji/). We also stopped in at the Nishijin textile centre (you can google that one if you want) to see a kimono fashion show. After the show, Michaela learned how to weave her own piece of cloth. Afterwards, we peddled to an onsen, Japanese bathhouse. Michaela was disappointed that the baths weren't co-ed, but the visit was quite pleasant. The baths were extremely hot and we lasted not even 30 minutes. I luckily found the outdoor bath which was nice and relaxing. Sadly, we didn't know any of the bathhouse etiquette (Japan is big on etiquette with everything) so we made fools of ourselves.

All in all, we are loving Japan. We find the Japanese like Canadians-very polite and respectful. This is welcomed after our experiences in the rest of Asia. Of course, we are making the most of our last few days of travelling before returning home. The idea of going home really hit when my work emailed me inquiring if I am going to return. The things that we have seen and done over the past 10 and a half months all seem like dreams now whereas even last month everything felt like our reality.

j & m

A-bombs and so much more

After a wickedly fast train ride from Osaka to Hiroshima, we found our (excellent!) hostel quickly and dumped our bags (hostel link: http://hiroshimahostel.jp/). We were off quite soon afterward, as the majority of the atomic bomb memorials are very close by. We decided to take a look at all of the cenotaphs, statues, etc. during the nice light of the setting sun. Hiroshima has a series of rivers running through it and they have taken one island and turned it into Peace Memorial Park. It was basically the entertainment/nighlife district of Hiroshima until the bomb hit. The entire island was decimated; the bomb dropped a mere 500 metres from the island.

They have left a building, now known as the A-Bomb Dome, standing as it was just after the bomb hit. Very little of it remains, but it's amazing that anything is there at all! You can still see some of the steel from of the dome. The copper roofing was completely melted by the heat of the fireball (which reached an internal temperature of one million degrees celcius, the air at ground level hit 3 to 4000 degrees). We walked around that site and marvelled at the destruction that humans are able (and willing) to cause.

We also saw the cenotaph where they have a register of all the known victims of the bomb. Every year they open it up and add the names of the people who have died in the past year. There's also a memorial for a little girl named Sadako, who died of leukemia. While she was in the hospital she decided to fold 1000 paper cranes, because they believe that if you fold that many that you will be granted one wish. Some reports say she folded the full 1000, others say she didn't make it. Either way, she died and her classmates asked to have a memorial put up for her. Now they get millions of folded cranes donated every year. They have them housed in little houses all around the sculpture. It's a really touching memorial.

Many other memorials and statues exist and we pretty much saw them all, I think. This morning we got up in time to hear the bells chime at 8:15 (the time the bomb exploded). They chime as a hope and prayer for peace. The park is filled with wonderful symbols, such as the chimes. There is also a Flame of Peace that will be extinguished once the world has been cleansed of all nuclear bombs. Let's hope we see the day when it's put out.

After the bells, we headed to the Peace Memorial Museum, knowing that it wasn't going to be a very uplifting experience. One of the neatest things in the museum is a clock that counts the number of days since the attack. It also counts the number of days since the last nuclear test (at least, the last known one). The smaller the interval between the tests, the faster certain of its mechanisms turn. So, the more real the threat of nuclear war is, the faster these things turn. Once they turn too quickly, the clock will self-destruct. A very intersting concept. Check it out: http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/top_e.html

As expected, the museum was full of depressing photos and stats. Don't get me wrong, it was all very interesting. A lot of the time all you could do was shake your head at the idea of it all. And to think that world leaders are still considering using nukes in this day and age! It was shocking to see the photos of Hiroshima right after the blast. Total obliteration. One of the most touching stories was of a little boy who died and his father couldn't bear the thought of burying him all by himself in the family plot. Instead, they buried him with his tricycle in the backyard. Something like 50 years later they exhumed his body, buried him in the proper place and donated the tricycle to the museum. So sad.

We saw pieces of walls that had the shadow of the person standing in front of it when the blast hit. We saw pieces of glass removed from peoples' bodies 20 years after the attack! Imagine! The scenes and the stories kept coming--there was no end to the suffering. And there still isn't, really. We still don't fully know the effects of radiation and what other health problems will arise for the hibakushi (A-Bomb survivors). They don't believe that it affects genetics, but they can't be 100% sure.

Anyhow, it was fascinating and we really enjoyed it (as much as you can really "enjoy" something like that!). This afternoon we went for a hike up to a pagoda. We walked through a bunch of red gates that were built into the windy path up the side of a big hill and through the trees. It was gorgeous and we loved the different shrines taht we came across. Lots of good photo ops. Too bad that our batteries keep running dry and our charger doesn't work on the Japanese voltages! arg.

We're really loving Japan. It will be difficult to leave. Good thing we have such an exciting place to head to after this!
:) m&j

Our nephews are brilliant. Check out Sevy and Dion's pirate video on CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/theoutlet

It's called "No fighting on the deck".

I like to think that the pirate thing was inspired by their Maritime-born auntie :)

Konichiwa!

We are settling into Japan and the cold quite well, we think. It's great how efficient, clean, and vendor-free this country is! We're really enjoying it so far. It helps that we're staying with a friend of a friend who has been a great hostess (and has let us sleep in her super-comfy bed). Rona grew up in Winnipeg but has lived in Japan on and off for the past 5 years or so. She knows her stuff. She didn't even hesitate when I asked her if she knew where I could buy yarn!

On our first day we took a stroll through some shops in Osaka. We went to this one department store called "Loft". It was quite an experience. There was a greeter at the door, but this was no ordinary Walmart greeter, oh no. This is Japan. The woman was wearing a rabbit head and dancing away. And it wasn't a cute, cartoony rabbit head either. It was very realistic and disturbing.

We gawked at the crazy stuff on the shelves and roared at the outrageous prices. $30 (CAD) for a water bottle! It had cute cats on it and, as Rona pointed out, you got a whole lot of cutueness for $30. But still!! We found cool patterned sheets, but they won't fit North American size beds
:( Lots of interesting kitchen utensils in odd animal shapes and stuff like that.

After Loft, we walked around outside to get to a place to eat and saw a girl at an arcade playing DDR Super Nova! DDR, for those of you who don't know, is Dance Dance Revolution. It's an arcade game that tells you dance moves and you have to do your best to follow them. It's HUGE here and this particular one was on the street so that tons of people could watch. The girl was good, but I have to say that she lacked a bit of passion. It was still fun to watch though.

Next came our first non-sushi Japanese food experience. We weren't even sure if they ate anything else in Japan ;) We ate okonomi-yaki. What is that, you ask? Well, let me tell you. They have a gril in the middle of the table and they bring a bowl full of cabbage and meat, with a raw egg cracked on top. The nice waitress lady mixes the whole thing together and turns it out onto the grill, making a pancake-type blob. (Geez, my English is so great!) They cook it up for you, add some mayo on top and some BBQ-type sauce, and away you go. It was really good--both Joel and I were pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday we attempted to go to the Human Rights Museum. It took us a while to figure out how to buy a ticket. All of the machines are Japanese only and there are no people that you can actually buy tickets from. Luckily, a white girl walked up jsut as we were getting ready to spy on people buying tickets and she helped us out. We got on our train and I read up on what was in the museum we were going to visit. And then I read that it's closed on Mondays. oops. We walked around the neighbourhood anyway and bought a beer from a vending machine. That was our excitement.

Tomorrow we're off to Hiroshima for a few days. It'll be our first ride on the bullet trains and we're pumped. The same journey we're taking tomorrow would take us probably 10+ hours in China and it will take us less than 2 hours here. Hooray for development!!

We'll post photos as soon as we can figure out how to get the blogger site in English instead of Japanese!
:) m & j

Our last few days in Bangkok haven't been the most productive. We saw two more movies which puts us at 4 movies in 7 days in Bangkok over three visits. It's not that Bangkok isn't interesting, it's that we crave English media. Basically, we tied up loose ends and got ourselves somewhat organized for Japan. We picked up our suits (and we look damn good!). We bought our railpasses and booked our hostels. We finally made it to the Grand Palace (the opulent former home of the king of Thailand) after 3 failed attempts. We have really taken advantage of all the wonderful foods and drinks that can be bought from street vendors here. We've been in SE Asia that little is new to us now. Although, we did see an elephant on the street the other day. That's not too common anymore since they banned elephants in the city only 5 years ago. The king is absolutely revered here and so we had to get our king memento: we burned a copy of his jazz music (burning it as opposed to buying it seemed the more Asian thing to do).

We are off to Japan now! We haven't even arrived yet and we've already spent a 1000$ there on trains and accomodation. We'll be pretty quiet over the next 2 weeks as it will be pricey. February 15th and then it's home for us.

Sala hantle (take care)

j & m