Hiroshima

I went to the big city this weekend. The big city hereabouts is Hiroshima. It's the biggest city in Chugoku, often translated as Western Honshu. Until I got here I looked at a map and saw a country that stretched from north to south. But the Japanese see their land, particulary Honshu, as stretching east to west. Kenko a while back speaks of "rude easterners". Nowadays the rural people include those of Chugoku. I live in Iwakuni, 100,000 souls, "rural Japan". Chugoku also means China. In fact, the first two characters Chu and Go are the ones used today by China herself as her name, Jung Guo. So, I live in the "China" part of Japan!

Anyway, Hiroshima. I figured, why did the good Lord put me here, in this part of Japan? Instead of seeing the great cities of the east, I ought start with the smaller cities and the countryside of the west. It was my birthday weekend, all my afternoon and late morning kids were on sports trips Friday, so I took 4 hrs leave and packed and took the train to Hiroshima.

I'd already been there once. Took the train up, ate in the train station, took the train back. Sort of a training wheels trip. It takes about 45 minutes for a local and 30 minutes for an express train. Coming into Hiroshima from the south, you see Miyajima, the shrine island, and you can even see the O-torii from the train. Then you see all the skyscraper apartments, the spread of the city across the hills, and you realize, this is a big city. A million people. Then you start crossing the rivers. I love the rivers, and Hiroshima has a dozen or so. Big, beautiful rivers. You come to the station. You take one of the 7 tram routes into the city. I got off at Chuden-mae, my stop, and immediately passersby asked me where I was headed, the SunRoute hotel, and gave me directions. My hotel was right on the Ota river (Motayasu branch) next to a bridge that crossed to the Peace Park. Checked in at the rate arranged by the base travel agency. My room seventh floor. Overlooking the river, and the bridge to the Peace Park. I could see the fountain and the museum from my window. Directly below, one on each bank, were houseboats used as restaurants. Beautiful views! The city was so manifestly at peace. There was greenery on both sides the river, everything was bright and clean.

Tired as I was, having not slept well the night before, I headed for the Peace Park. I refreshed with ice cream from the Peace Museum lounge, then visited the cenotaph, which directs your vision to the A-bomb dome. It's a terrible name for a building; I even prefer the previous name, Industrial Promotion Hall. Next I headed past some lovely cypress and a pool and a flame to the dome itself. Everywhere was park and greenery and the lovely river, a city on a Friday pursuing its private business, and I could not conjure dire emotions. 1945 did not come alive for me. Never again, I agree. It almost seemed like Paris, the many bridges, all the people out strolling, not the visitors to the memorial alone but the citizens of the city, leading their lives. I took many pictures of the dome. Somehow geographically it lies at the center of that part of town. I kept using it as the center of my tour just as it lay at the center of the attack so long ago. In fact, it sits next to the T-bridge, which was supposedly the aiming point for the American bomber that August day. The bomb did not destroy the bridge, which lasted after repairs till I think 1983. Then the current bridge was built. Everything is beautiful about the dome. There are groves and shrines and a green sward and the river. You could not say the damage was done by a certain kind of bomb. It looks pretty bad. But it could have been a terrorist bomb or fire bombing or even a terrible fire. It seemed very at peace to me that Friday afternoon.

I won't go into the Hiroshima politics. Certainly I think we should never use them again. I should mention in preparation for coming to Hiroshima I read Ogura's Letters from the End of the World, and what I got out of the book was incredibly hope and peace - that so many survived, that the green came back within a year, Ogura lived to almost a hundred. It's not that I ignore what happened. All my life I've known about it. But now Hiroshima is at peace. May she remain so. And may we the living do what we must do to ensure it.

I wanted to see the "jo", that is, the castle. The tour book suggests skipping it if you've seen the great ones to the east, but I hadn't seen any, so I walked up river, then across a magnificent field, then Hiroshima-jo. The pictures tell all. Back across the great field Chuo-koen (next to very high rise apartments), down the river green sward, to my hotel. At the end of Chuo-koen I came to a walled Chinese garden not mentioned in the tourbook, by the river. I went in. I was so relieved to be alone in the midst of this beautiful garden. I felt that I was in a retreat. This is how to live, one can step out of the world and let it drop away sometimes. That night I ate in the Kanaka Oyster Restaurant on the river below. Eleven courses, every one oysters. Mmmmmm! The best might have been the first, raw oysters. Big, fat, juicy, tasty oysters, one of Hiroshima's specialities. The other being noodles and veges etc. layered in thin pancakes. Also nice. The waitress, a young woman, was Chinese, from Harbin, studying economics at university here. Harbin is cold, she said. Cost of meal, don't ask. As a friend said, you can spend a lot of money in Japan. The only other table there was of four men, I don't know whether they were a work group or not, but they laughed and caroused and got up and switched about and took pictures of each other, and sat back down and laughed some more. I was struck at how democratic they were - each got to speak and was reverentially listened to. And so to bed.

The next morning I caught the first Peace Park ferry, one bridge up from my hotel, 5 minute walk, to Miyajima. Fortyfive minutes, down the river, out the port, into the Inland Sea, all those islands in mist, to Miyajima. I walked along a shopping street first, rather than rushing to the shrine. Then I came to what amounts to an inlet. The tide was out, and many people were down on the flats about the shrine, some with full panoply of tripod and fancy camera. Well, I took my pictures, too, even if there's already a million pictures of the shrine that are better than mine. I paid my ¥300 and entered the shrine. Now I know what color vermillion is, orange. There is of course a stage upon which sacred No is performed, and there are places where people leave their wishes to be fulfilled, either on white paper which they tie about a line, or wooden paddles which are strung to a wall. I made the mistake of walking over a beautiful vermillion and wood bridge too late realizing I had taken the exit. In fact, I thought I was still in the shrine, walking amidst beautiful gates and temples. I was of course looking for "genuine" chotchke's to send to family - my family is savvy about these things, having lived in East Asia and around the world, so I couldn't just buy anything, even if it were genuine. I bought some little things from a woman at a booth. Are these Shinto? I asked. No, Buddhist. But I thought this was a Shinto Shrine, I said. That's the shrine, she pointed at the vermillion edifice, this is a temple. I looked around, realizing the architecture was indeed more thatchy. Then I looked a little closer and saw in each room of the temple the wonderful expensive things and mostly fierce images of the buddha. One Japanese man tossed a coin in the slats and rubbed the bald head of the effigy there. I did the same. It turns out that there are many temples on Miyajima, including the head temple of one sect of Japanese Buddhism, which is charged with adminstering the Shinto shrine! It really is true that Buddhism and Shinto are hand in hand. Oh, and there are sacred deer everywhere, little deer, "mangy deer" according to a friend. I saw one begin eating a woman's blouse. The deer are like the proverbial bears at Yellowstone, pests accustomed to nip at humans for food.

I wandered back slowly in the sweltering heat through a shopping street - it was an arcade, I guess, with cloth roof, some twenty feet wide, souvenir shops of various sorts on both sides. I bought some little somethings. I came across a much-visited 1050 yen store - everything cost 1050 yen. The fronts of the stores were wide open, one would enter enticed by the frigid air conditioning. There were oysters roasted at store front, and many shops making fish rolls, which didn't look good at that hour, but maybe when I return. Who was at the shrine? Overwhelmingly Japanese. Families and young women, usually in pairs. I glimpsed the 5-story pagoda. I was foot-sore and still tired, I knew I'd be back to Miyajima, so I took the ferry back to Peace Park. From A-bomb dome, I wandered again across the great field to the jo, in search for a famous Chinese garden, Shukkeien. I walked and walked, it came on to rain, first I thought a passing shower, but it rained the rest of the day. I got soaked. I must allow myself to do a better job of using trams and buses in traveling, instead of dogging it out. I way passed Shukkeien, it was raining hard, I came to a river and crossed and recrossed, knowing I'd gone too far, wandered down along it returning heading for a mass of woods which I thought must be Shukkeien. Finally I arrived at this modern building, lounge and art library, and restaurant, and cafe, and you name it, and air conditioning! It was still raining steadily outside, and I was soaked. I sat, then I went out the back into the garden and the rain. One thing the rain would likely have done, lower the incidence of people! The garden was made to appear wild groves, with paths, lakes, hills, one side along the river, little dark red crabs everywhere, little houses, which you weren't allowed into (come on, it's raining!), and a deck on the water with a roof, and I found atop a little hillock a circular bench with a round roof which I had all to myself, and so gladly sat out of the rain and using my towel - you see people carrying their hand towels with them - to wipe the sweat which pours out of you - and to dry oneself in the rain! I took some pictures. It rained harder. Finally a woman came skipping around with blue umbrellas, we were rescued - yes, there were others wandering around in the rain. I walked home. Ate in the hotel's Italian restaurant. Amusing cross of Italian and Japanese. Mother next to me most embarrassed that her baby was crying, finally fed him/her from the breast, American man next to her being as tactfully non-observant as possible.

I came home early Sunday on the train. Guess what? Round trip tickets are only good for two days. This was the third day. Extra 740¥. Live and learn. Took a taxi to my rooms in the TLF, temporary quarters. I had walked to the train station the first day. Once was enough. I could have caught the bus, but then I'd still have to walk from the road to my quarters, a mile, dragging my suitcase.

Was I done for the weekend? Oh, no! I forgot to mention after getting back from Miyajima I went to Sogo's, the great department store. I never shopped in the States. Somehow now it seems like my duty. First to the top floor where were many restaurants, each with its plastic food offerings out front. I looked at every one, some twenty, was intrigued by the buffet style of one. Sat on chairs outside playing musical chairs awaiting my turn. Afterwards I walked the entire department store, just looking. Some wonderful craft things on one floor that the Japanese were crammed about. It was a Japanese holiday, and I think the Jappanese were buying gifts to give upon returning home or some time. Pricey items, pottery, fabrics, slippers, food boxes, etc. Then I went across the street to DeoDeo, the electronic store, to fondle cameras, see which ones fit in my hand. An Irish couple looking for a starter SLR, and completely unsure what to buy. So I launched into a Nikon sales pitch. I thought their choice was between the D40, D40x, and the D80. I don't know the Canon's. Sales girl thanked me profusely. When I left, the couple were still pinging between the D40, D40x, and the D80. You can't go wrong with any of them! I said in goodbye. That's a relief, said the fellow. Good luck, sez I. Thanks, we need it, rejoined fellow, beard, thirtyish.

At Sogo's I found a bookstore! I want maps. I found bilingual maps of Iwakuni, my town, Hiroshima, and Kyoto! Cheap. Japan is not as expensive as people say. Okay, you can spend a forturne. But I ordered the Shohunsha Japan Road Atlas from Omni Maps in the states for 44.95 plus shipping. At Sogo's it was ¥2395! Half as much! I wanted to cry. Armed with maps, I drove off base this afternoon, the afternoon of my return, turned left on 188, and drove 30km south, to Yanai, past the bridge to Oshima. The tour book says this coast is blighted with industry, but for much of the drive we were right on the water, my car and I, right on the sea, that is, looking out at the myriad lumpy shapes (okay, my description of the islands is not "sublime" like Donald Richey's) covered in dark trees, half-lost in mist, no houses at all or only a thin strip of houses along the highway - this is the national route - not the expressway which costs serious money - but the expressway doesn't go along the sea - it's so wonderful to be driving here, the day coming to an end, and the houses only a couple of feet off the highway. Yanai lies at the southernmost point of Honshu. It's true there is some major industry after a while, and the whole of Yanai smelled of "cabbage". I passed a Kleenex - Scottie plant a bit north of there. But it's also the Inland Sea. Somewhere out there are Shikoku and Kyushu.

The reason for the road trip was to prepare me to go south next. The good Lord put me in Yamaguchi Prefecture so I want to explore it. I want to go to Yamaguchi, Tsuwano, and Hagi. Or shall I go to Ehime, Matsuyama, and Shikoku next via ferry or bridge? I felt so good coming back from the big city, and now as it grew dark I approached Iwakuni and saw the sushi place - two easy hiragana - and stopped. My first solo eating out in town. I've been eating at the base club. It's gotten old. It's a fishbowl here, everyone knows everyone, the food is okay but I've eaten it! The sushi place was chockablock with people waiting, all Japanese, with an American man with his Japanese family the only exception, the place one of those circulating counter types with the sushi placed on the conveyor belt, but on a big scale, a hundred people in the room.

I went off base too to start looking for a house. Also I want to acclimate bit by bit to being in Japan. I'm so in love with being here. I want to learn the language - still working on recognizing the hiragana. I want to get out and see the country. In a way it's nice to start small with the West, before working up to the capitols up east. I want to see the Japan Sea coast - the San-in coast. I've wanted to ever since reading Snow Country by Kawabata. And for those of you in my line of spirituality, the islands half-lost in mist reminded me of Lemuria. It must be that Japan has some of that energy, especially the inland sea.