Hello everybody!!
After having arrived safely, gotten settled in and experienced my first weeks at Korea University, I really need to finally update this journal and keep wonderful people like you guys informed on what has been going on.
I've thought long and hard about how to keep this up without turning this into a diary and boring you with repetitive events and boring facts about my daily life here. I've decided to write more about issues and special things that surprise, confuse, baffle and excite me here in Korea than my day-to-day class schedule.
On a personal note, I've been sick this last week, which, on the positive side, has given me a chance to experience medical care here and the hype over the H1N1 influenza, or as we like to call it, 'swiney'. But all about that later. Even if I'm not going to be able to update daily, I still would like to keep it chronological.
So... my first thought when entering Korea....
"WOW!! The airport smells like... KOREA!!" (Kimchi, garlic... I'm serious, you can smell it once you step off the plane)
It's funny, but I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that I already knew what Korea smelled like... I just didn't realize it until I smelled it again. Just like when you're sitting next to somebody on the train who's wearing the perfume/cologne of somebody you know. You know immediately whose it is, even though you never consciously registered that that person wore a scent at all.
So what I mean is... it felt familiar. Which was kind of surprising. And I immediately sensed that I was perceiving it differently at the same time. I'd never had this much knowledge of the Korean language before when I visited, so it's like onion peels coming off; I get to experience new sides of the same thing every time I come.
Of course JJ was there to pick us (I traveled with a good friend from my university in Germany who will be staying for one semester) and the sensation of having him with me again kind of blacked out everything else. That and the fact that I was dead tired....
The next couple of days were focused on finding accomodation. I didn't apply for on-campus housing because foreigners were only given the choice of living in a special dormitory for exchange students. I didn't come to Korea to be surrounded by English and I wanted to find out how a typical Korean student would live, so I decided to fly a little earlier and look for accomodation off-campus.
In Korea, real estate is handled very differently and there are very different rules for renting than what I'm used to from Germany. The typical German paradox is buy or rent. Buying an apartment is difficult for most people, so of course a monthly rent is the popular alternative. But in Korea, a monthly rent used to be (actually still is) quite rare and the key deposit is very high (in Germany 3 month's rent is normal). The traditional system is to pay a huge deposit of about 10-40% of the apartment's worth while signing a contract for usually above 3 years in length (but usually 5-20 years). The entire deposit is then returned to the tenants when they move out again at the end of the contract. From my point of view this is like living for free, but the landlord apparently invests that money over the time period of the contract and can earn quite a lot, making it come out even in the end.
"Well, but how would a student do any of that?" you might ask. For students, there are about 4 options. The cheapest is called a 'HaSukChib', a kind of pension room. Usually run by older women, these rooms share bathrooms, showers and a kitchen in the middle of the house, but the owner cooks breakfast and dinner and that is included in the rent. It is the cheapest, but also least private arrangement.
The rest are different takes on the same principle. A 'ChaJuiBang' is a 'HaSukChib' without the owner and the meals included, a 'RoomTel' has showers inside of the room but everything else communal, and a 'OneRoom' is basically a one-room apartment. However, in a 'OneRoom' or the rare 'real' apartment, the key deposit starts(!) at about 5000 dollars, up to 10,000! For just a year of renting the room!
So... with those options, I just decided to move into a 'RoomTel' until I can find something better, preferably a one-room apartment without a key deposit. Hey, I can dream.
As for the 'living for free' thing called 'CheonSe'... I wish they had that in Germany. It's the perfect thing between actually buying a house and paying it off half (or all) your life and spending so much money on rent, practically paying enough to have bought it in the long run anyway.
People move out of their family's homes (not always their parent's, sometimes their grandparent's, etc.) at the latest when they get married. And once you get married you're supposed to move into a new place anyway (unless you're the oldest son, then sometimes the bride will move into the family's home), as it symbolizes your new start together, so parents usually sponsor (if in anyway financially possible) their children's first apartment by paying that very high investment/key deposit needed for 'CheonSe'. Then, once the couple has worked long enough to save up that amount, they'll give it back to their parents (if it wasn't a wedding gift in the first place). So... you get to keep what you earn very quickly, and that's mostly thanks to the parents. (There is another whole entry waiting to be written on Korean parents!) But, in my eyes, it's also a pretty good system.
With the banks tightening down and all of the get-rich-quick great investment plans disappearing however, this form of 'rent' seems to be losing its appeal, at least for the actual home-owners.
Anyway... I'm still living in that 'RoomTel' and on the men's floor even, which means I have to share the communal arrangements with them. I'm already cheating by using the women's toilets upstairs, but I also refuse to cook in the kitchen here - I have to wash the pots BEFORE and after I use them. Ugh!
I hope things like this don't bore you as well... I'll be back with a report on supermarkets and what they say about Korean family structures as soon as I can! :D
Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-09-09 10:08 |
| Subject: | horse crazy!! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  sunshine!! | | Music: | Kairo - Utada Hikaru (ULTRA BLUE album) |
Hi guys!!!
I guess we won't get around to backtracking for a while, so it's a better idea to just tell about what we're doing now.
For those of you who have asked, we just changed our flights because of my (Rosanna) impending semester deadline. Unfortunately, we could only change one flight for sure, which means that I will be arriving at 10:05 am or so on Wednesday, the 13th of September. Janna is waitlisted for that flight, but might not make it. If not, she will be arriving as planned on the 14th at about 9:15 pm. We hope we get to fly together, but since I need to make a trip to Frankfurt on the 14th, we can't make sure.
I will be spending the day in Frankfurt going through all the acceptance paperwork of the college there and checking out appartments, dorms and other places with roofs and a heating system (those are pretty much my only two conditions ^__^).
We're thinking about doing a dinner or something like that the weekend after to celebrate our trip, look at photos and rummage through all the things we brought with us ^_____~. Since some of those things will be coming with my brothers and sister, I can't say everything will be there as planned yet.
Anyway, on to yesterday's events:
Since Clara has started horse-back riding here in the neighborhood, we had been with her to watch a couple of times already. She now has lessons twice a week and is really learning fast. The stables that she rides at are absolutely beautiful, surrounded by acres and acres of fresh meadows that the horses spend most of their time on. Everything is spotless, regardless if it's a day of lessons or not, the owner is a woman, Lauren, and runs everything on her own, with just a little help from riders before and after lessons. It's actually quite amazing, because it's just soooo much work!
Lauren is very nice, but can be very strict and yell around (which makes Clara wary of her), but since I've never met a teacher before who wasn't like that (for the horses and the student's sake), I don't really take it personally like Clara sometimes does.
The last time we were there with Esther, she noticed that I immediately went down to the horses to pet as many of them as I could, and she asked if we would like to ride. Well, what could I say to that?! HELL YEAH!!!! (excuse my language)
So yesterday at 2 pm, Janna and I drove to the stables and were promptly dressed in chaps and a helmet (the riding style is English though), causing Janna to go "Wow, I get to dress up as a cowgirl too?!". Janna went first on a very patient horse and had her very first experience on a horse! She had a great time and did very well posting for the trot. Looked great!!
Then it was my turn, and since I had ridden before, we immediately went into a trot that I had to keep up for about 40 minutes on and off. PUH!! I don't even want to think about how the poor horse felt while I struggled to do 10 things at once and keep my head up and my gaze ahead. Lauren is a tough teacher, but in the end I felt great, and motivated to ride again!!! Alas, I doubt my university in the middle of the city will provide any opportunity to ride, but it's another one of those things to put on the list titled "When I have enough time and money", right under real piano lessons.
The thing is, I even know that I worked hard; I have the extreme muscle soreness to prove it!! Having trouble sitting in front of this computer as a matter of fact. ^_______^
Then the tenor that Esther had 'ordered' for a wine tasting event of her friend Johannes Neckermann arrived in the evening and got to sing a song from one of my favorite operas: La Traviata.
In the meantime, Janna and I were put in charge for the evening, because both Esther and Bernd were going. So we shoved a pizza in the oven, bought some strawberries for dessert and stuck a Bollywood movie in the DVD player. The movie was (like most Bollywood movies) about 3 hours long, so we were still watching when everybody came home. Clara was impressed by the costumes and huge festivals, but soon was saying "What??! Not another song!!". Hihi. "There are about 4 more to come, Clara."
After the kids went to bed (Clara with a slight fever -.-), we had time to talk to the tenor about life as an opera singer, chances for 'young artists' and the danger if you don't make the jump from 'young artist' to a known singer who's hired for big roles.
He in turn wanted to know all about our trip and told us that his mother and her sister had done something similar 40 years ago. WOW!! We can only imagine what a TRUE adventure that must have been - how much different than our trip!
We're slowly winding down and looking forward to home and all the lasting comfort that entails. However, London stands before that and our friend Jovin (that we stayed with in Singapore for 1 and 1/2 weeks) will meet us there and we're excited about the flash tour and interesting conversations.
We'll be leaving tomorrow, Sunday, at about 6:40 pm from New York JFK. Can't wait!!
Lots of love to you all!!
Janna + Rosanna
P.S. Ms. Kathryn, you know I regard all of the Carlson's as my second family, so I never plan to be gone for long when I leave. Janna loved you all so much that she's actually the one going "When are they coming to Germany? Can I come??!". I'm happy that I won't even have that much time to miss you before you're there again! Don't worry - this will be your best birthday ever!! Our love to everyone!!
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Hi guys!
Today we had to get up early *ugh!*, to be able to accompany Ms. Kathryn on a photo shoot she was planning to do. The family we drove out to in Zachary is actually one I know as well. One of the daughters is 18 and pregnant and is going to be a single mom. Her family is extremely supportive of her and especially her mother really provides a lot of comfort I think, in a church community for instance, where she still receives snide comments because of her appearance (she's eight months pregnant now).
Our job was to take photos of the mother-to-be, showing her belly off proudly in the nude. Now for all of the Germans out there - this is a way bigger step for most Americans I think, as people are generally not as comfortable naked and definitely not at her age. All I can say is that she was beautiful. Absolutely stunning. I have always admired her red hair and such, but pregnancy seems to lend an etherreal shine to a woman's face, that also translates extremely well onto film - well, at least taken by Ms. Kathryn.
I can't really imagine being pregnant myself, but it was really nice just to be around her and the older women, who gave advice and told their own birthing stories.
Ms. Kathryn is going to have to do the same thing for me. Not necessarily in the near future, but you know what I mean.
By the time we made it back to the house, Lars had already called and we had discussed a time to meet for bowling that evening. Aunt Janet also invited Janna and I to dinner beforehand, so I was able to take a car and we arrived at around 5 o'clock.
After a big dinner (after a big lunch already in Zachary, my siblings are already observing my weight gain with scrutiny), we left for the bowling alley and bowled with the Carlson family for about an hour.
We decided to move to a more relaxed and private place and drove back to Ms. Kathryn's house to watch a movie with everyone.
It's always so nice and relaxed here, where things like spontanious guitar playing and random fudge brownie baking can happen at any moment!! We love it!
Now my siblings have left and my eyes are slowly starting to droop to the melancholy guitar strumming of Ruston's friends... what a day.
It was wonderful to meet my family again, and I realized how much I really missed them. We fit so well together now, and the spat of bickering in between just provides more room for jokes instead of really insulting anybody. We make such a cool family!
Anyway, this has turned out to be a very 'Rosanna' focused entry.. sorry!!
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-08-18 00:15 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  tired |
Hi guys!!
Just a quick note to inform you all that we've made it all the way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA... a home sweet home of sorts, at least for me.
No matter how much time goes by and how the people I know grow older and change - as I inevetibly do too, of course, the feel of this place never changes. Or maybe Ms. Kathryn's house never changes... ^___^
Whichever it is, it fills me with joy and a homecoming sensation.
Now all I have to do is make sure we get to meet the 1000 people I've told Janna about before our two weeks here are up... *sigh*
So to anybody still (or already) awake at this hour... come visit us if you can!!
We've already got plans for tomorrow though, my siblings Lars, Heidi and Dominik want to spend an evening with the Carlsons in a bowling alley, or watching movies, or anything else for that matter. As long as everyone's together and I'm able to meet them, hug, insult and joke with them again. Man, you gotta hate 'em sometimes, but spend 5 months apart and you really can't wait to see your siblings. Have to enjoy the feeling while it lasts. No seriously, I just wish Jason and Lennart were there as well. ;____;
Good night!
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-24 00:11 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  bouncy | | Music: | Japanese telly ~ ♥ |
Hey guys!
We got a cellphone!!!!
Until Saturday, at least!
090-9910-4388 is our number, but if you add the japanese country code you`ll have to leave the first 0 off...
Denwa shite ne~ ♥
Rosanna + Janna
P.S.: We`re going to Tokyo tomorrow!!!*______*
P.P.S.: AND we`re gonna visit the Studio-Ghibli Museum!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! XD XD XD
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| Date: | 2006-07-19 16:25 |
| Subject: | K*2 - Kinkakuji and Karaoke |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | very tired | | Music: | Pirates of the Caribbean - The Black Pearl |
Hey!
Falling rain was the first thing we heard when we got up the next morning.
We decided to go sightseeing anyway, since our time until we had to be in Shizuoka to meet Mochan is only very short (and running out!!!!).
First stop:
Kyoto Station - opened in 1997, is a very modern building and the inhabitants of Kyoto are split into two groups: the ones who say it gives Kyoto something modern and the ones who say it doesn`t fit with the style of the rest of the surroundings.
Having been there before, I knew that the view from the roof you can easily reach by escalators is very nice, so we wandered around the station for some time and even found a Cafe du Monde!!!
Sanna started squeeing at that and so we grabbed a donut at the next door Mister Donuts and took a bunch of pictures.
From the station we took a bus to the Kinkakuji (lit.: Golden Temple) and arrived there just as the rain was once again pouring down. We made our way on the temple grounds anyway and toured through the gardens, sharing one umbrella and moving only with tiny steps between taking photos.
The temple itself was originally built in 1397 and its restoration was completed in 2003 after it burned down in the 1950s. We were lucky enough to catch a day were the doors on the ground level are opened and we could see the Buddhas that are inside the temple!
Oops, biiiig piccie... 0_0
Thoroughly soaked, as we were by that time, we made our way to the nearest 99yen shop and bought our supper, then headed to an Internetcafe to catch up on entries and returned home to a crowded lobby, where an international bunch of guests was happily chatting away, drinking sake and munching on snacks.
We munched our Udon noodles and finished just in time to participate in a singing contest where everybody wrote his/her name on a piece of paper that is then put into a bowl.
If his/her name was (blindly) picked, he/she had to sing a traditional song from his/her country.
The party got merrier and merrier, led by one of the guests, an old japanese man, who enjoyed himself immensely with all the foreigners...
When the manager of the youth hostel walked in to inform us that the midnight curfew was in five minutes, we couldn't believe that time had flown by so quickly. Our mentor and guide, the old Japanese guy, didn't want to accept it at all. He told us all to come outside, where we could continue our 'discussion', as he said.
So 10 gaijin followed the old man out onto the street, where it was still raining, and formed a collonade of umbrellas, parading down the street like a bunch of white mushrooms in the black night. We didn't know where the old man wanted to go, he didn't say anything, just kept walking. When we passed up several convenience stores and other possible hangouts open 24 hours, we concluded that we were in for more than we bargained for when we were asked if we wanted to 'step outside'.
Sure enough, after about 15 minutes, we ended up in front of a karaoke establishment. Our 'guide' strolled in, informed the clerk that we would need a big room, and suddenly we were all sitting in a separee with a screen and a remote system and a stack of 4 thick books of songs....
After asking around, we figured out what was happening. The price per person was 1000 Yen (about 7 or 8 Euros), a package deal from midnight until 5 o'clock, which includes all you can drink... considering the price and our budget, Janna and I probably wouldn't have joined the group if we had known beforehand... but this way we kind of slipped into it.
Luckily, our guide was a karaoke pro, so we had the whole system figured out in no time. The machine takes a numerical combination for every song and then just places them in the order they were typed in, so soon a veeeery long list of songs was visible on screen. These can be shoved around and played with at will, the technology is quite good and there were four microphones, so generally everybody that knew the song sang, sometimes with a microphone, sometimes without.
This system worked out quite nicely and soon the room was full to the brim with music, voices in varying tones and keys, cigarette smoke and cocktails... we sang everything from classic Japanese drinking songs that our guide chose (although difficult to read on screen - lots of kanji and few furigana) to Disney songs, to Queen (try singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" with 10 people), to "First Love" by Utada Hikaru (who even most of the gaijin seemed to know @_@), to disco hits that we could make complete fun of.
Song followed song followed song, and I still think we must have sung over 100 songs, even though I know it's not possible timewise.
When our voices were almost completely hoarse and the deadline of 5 o'clock was approaching fast, we finally called it a night, payed and left the establishment and the very bewildered and tired employees. The rain outside had only intensified, so we faced a torrential downpour on our way back, but still high from the singing and very awake, we joked and laughed our way down Kyoto's streets in the gray morning light.
We had to sneak in through a back door and quietly lie down as soon as we got back, but we knew we'd be seeing each other soon... everybody has to be out of the hostel by 11 o'clock, lock out time. So with the prospects of a veeeery short night, we sank into bed, exhausted but veeery happy.
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-18 15:32 |
| Subject: | rainy parades |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  blank | | Music: | Dawsons Creek opening song (name??) |
Hi!!
After a veeery short night (we actually thought everybody would go to bed earlier on a work night) and a resounding sense of embarrassment from the family dinner, we snagged some coffee and discussed everything further. We left a book from India for Hina-chan, in exchange for her prized fireworks, and said a sad goodbye to the wonderful family that treated us as one of their own (and spent all of their free time on us) for an entire weekend and piled all of our stuff into Nobuto's car once more. He and Hiro were taking us to the guesthouse they had found for us in Kyoto (an hour's drive by the way). Nobuto even had to phone in late for work before we left Osaka.
Quite surprised when Hiro got out with us at Kyoto station, he insisted on accompanying us to our guesthouse and then taking a train back to Osaka. Even though it was pouring down rain and we really insisted, he was not to be persuaded to get back into the car with Nobuto.
So we took a bus to the guesthouse, had trouble finding it and finally arrived soaking wet with Hiro in tow. He made sure everything was arranged and final before he left us at the guesthouse, promising to help us by sending us links to cheap places to stay in Tokyo as well. He's such a sweetheart, there aren't words to describe his generosity, and most appealingly, it's a natural trait of his, nothing he even puts any effort into. I admire him.
He will be working here until he has enough money saved to survive in Bangkok again until he can find a job there. Working and living in Bangkok is such a relaxed and peaceful life in comparison with a social climb here in Japan that he'd rather move back.
After that fond farewell, we stowed our things and donned our yukatas! That's why we had bought them in the first place after all, and even though it was pouring outside we decided on an all or nothing position. Unfortunately, we had missed the peak day of Gion Matsuri anyway, as that was Sunday, so all that was left on Monday was the big parade. We couldn't imagine it taking place in said weather, but apparently there was no postponing this parade, which has been held for hundreds of years.
So we took our umbrellas and followed the parade, made up of either hand-held or -pulled 10 meter tall floats in a looong procession the Kyoto. Of course, half of the floats were covered in plastic, as they are made up of age-old painted wood and cloth, but we got the general idea. We watched until the end of the parade and then made our way in the general direction of Gion, the geisha and amusement quarter of the city. It wasn't late enough for any to be out and about yet, but the streets of Kyoto carry a certain dignity and atmosphere of the past, so that it's easy to imagine exactly what it must have looked like a century or more ago.
Because of the lower and darker, more traditional buildings and its air of history, Kyoto does not seem like a very lively city, even when there are many people walking about. Osaka seems to be always thriving while Kyoto seems to be quietly sitting, never to be stirred from its quiet repose.
The yukatas were quite wet around the bottom and walking in one is not altogether very comfortable, so we decided not to go around visiting all of the must-see temples yet. Instead we went into a Book Off (a popular store where you can any type of media second hand, it's a chain you can find all through Japan) and bought some Japanese books to practice with.
After making our way into the shopping district, we stumbled upon the premier of "The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest".... in English. How could we resist?!
So, after a refreshing trip to the movies (along with ranting about the movie afterward), we made our way back to the guesthouse, which is PACKED with people from all over the world. We really haven't met any travellers from Europe (except for the sisters) for a while, so it was kind of funny to sit with a group of 10 people of mixed origin in the over-filled dining area for a while. Well, we didn't get away until curfew - again!
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-17 14:33 |
| Subject: | First peek into Kyoto! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  happy | | Music: | Full House (Korean Drama) OST |
Hey!
It was a bit more difficult to get up the next morning, but we made it somehow. ^_~
It was grey and looked as if it was going to rain soon, but we didn`t really mind since it also meant a very welcome break to the heat and humidity of the last days.
Nobuto and Hiro had done our program for that day and since we`d said we`d be fine with anything they picked, we didn`t really know where we were going... but it turned out to be great!!!
Our first stop was another temple, nestled into the mountains - another thing we probably never would`ve seen since you can only go there by car.
Also a mixture between Shinto and Buddhism, it is surrounded by a beautiful garden, but we didn`t get to stay too long since a downpour of rain caught us by surprise.
We made our way back to the car and to the next stop, out of the mountains into Kyoto - the Ryoanji (lit.: Peaceful dragon) temple.
The temple dates from the 1400s and is a World Heritage Site because of its Rock garden that made it famous all around the world.
After looking around inside and taking a walk through the big park area surrounding the temple, we were off again, this time via Arashiyama (lit.: Mountain of Thunderstorms), a mountain at the rim of Kyoto, famous for it`s scenery with a very beautiful bridge, called Togetsukyo Bridge(lit.:"Moon Crossing Bridge").
Luckily the rain had stopped and we could walk around over and on the bridge and just take a look around. It was pretty gray weather though, not like you can see on this piccie which shows the bridge in autumn, autumn and spring being the seasons when it`s a very popular daytrip spot.
We returned to Osaka after that and got home just in time to take dinner with the family - traditional japanese food, including two Ayu (a special fish that only lives in the river the Togetsukyo bridge crosses) Izumi had prepared especially for us!
We said thank you and tuck in, our first real encounter with the Osaka humor - we`d misunderstood that there would be more for everyone on the table, but that had been a joke.
We were very embarrassed - especially since we`d been told that these fish are all but cheap!!!!!! Arrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!
After dinner, we went out with Hina-chan and did our own little Hanabi with little fireworks Hina-chan had gotten as a present.
We went into a small local park just around the corner and lit our fireworks, giggling with Hina-chan over the different colors and funny waves we did with the sticks or just watching Hina-chan run around laughing and enjoying herself - she`s such a cute kid!! XD
Returning home, we sat around and talked for a little while longer and traded Indian music against South American music Nobuto had brought from his 1 1/2 year stay, then were off to bed.
Love to you all!
Rosanna & Janna
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| Date: | 2006-07-16 13:36 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  cheerful | | Music: | Goo Goo Dolls - Iris |
Hey!
After the (admittedly very short but very enjoyable) night, we got up at around 8:30 in the morning.
We were supposed to meet Hiro at late afternoon, but before that, Nobuto and the father of the family in whose we were staying with, announced a sight-seeing tour of Osaka.
The first stop was "Shin Sekai" (lit.: New World), a district of Osaka that, according to our "guides" (^_~) was one of the most dangerous places in Japan at night.
During the first wave of modernisation in Japan after WWII, this district was the amusement district of the city, the place everybody would go to to shop, eat and hang out in Pachinkos and game centres.
But time somehow overran this part of the city and today it almost reminds you of one of the gold digger cities nobody lives in anymore with it`s old shops, hotels and centres.
The picture this part of the city gives is totally different than the rest of Japan and a very interesting thing to see - Japan isn`t just modern and shiny new.
We walked around for a while, getting quite some interested looks - apparently it`s not a part of the city many tourists come to, and then climbed the Hitachi tower, a 130 m tall Eiffel-tower imitation. From the top you have a great view over the whole city and we made our way all around one time, pointing out buildings we knew/had been in.
It was a clear day, so we could spot Osaka castle and even see Kyoto vaguely in the distance.
We had a yummy lunch in a little restaurant in Shin Sekai - yasai tempura (fried vegetables).
The walls in the restaurant were covered in wooden signs that tell you which vegetables, meats and other things are available and you just pick what and how many you want and have it delivered to your table, where you have a biiig jar of soy sauce to dip them into.
The people of Osaka seem to like that kind of food since the restaurant was totally packed with people of all ages.
Stuffed like that, we set out to wander around Shin Sekai some more, then headed　to a temple in the neighbourhood that was an interesting mixture of Shinto and Buddhism - Toriis and red colours, but then again, buddist roofs and little Buddha statues in the main building.
Very confusing, if you get all these different signs at the same time.
The sun was burning down by that time and in combination with the ever-present humidity make a hardly bearable combination, so we decided to make our next stop one of the mountains surrounding Osaka, hoping that it would be cooler there and we`d get a look at the monkeys that inhabit the mountain.
It was indeed much cooler up there (Yay!!!!), and, suddenly feeling much more active, we made our way to a waterfall that is the beginning of the accessible part of a mountain river - popular in summer with families for bathing (there were quite a lot of people there) and in winter used as a meditation spot by monks who will stand in the waterfall for hours, reciting prayers.
We had a cup of green tea in a little cafe with a quite useful invention:
a little part of the water of the river is being led through the cafe and runs through basins beneath the tables, so you can put your feet into nice cool water while you have you cup of tea. Aaaaaaahhhhhh! ^__________^
On our way back into the city, we saw some monkeys by the side of the street, but the rest of them stayed hidden in the forest - it was probably too hot for them to come down.
Back in Osaka, we picked up Hiro from the train station and went shopping together since the dinner for that night was going to be a speciality of Osaka: Takoyaki (fried dough balls with squid inside)!
We sat together and talked until the family returned and we started cooking.
The frier you use resembles a waffle iron, round and with holes for the Takoyaki in it.
We had helped to prepare the dough and cut the squid (very wobbly affair!) and the next few hour were spent with talking, laughing and joking while every fifteen minutes a load of Takoyaki was finished and everybody digged in!
We changed the filling from Squid to chocolate for dessert, something they had never tried either, but seemed to like very much!
Once again very late (was it 2 or 3 am?) we all cleaned up together and snuggled under our blankets on our futons.
Love to you all!!!
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| Date: | 2006-07-15 15:08 |
| Subject: | Japanese hospitality |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  drained | | Music: | In Flames - Only For The Weak |
Hi guys!
Knowing we would have to be back to meet Nobuto at 7 in the evening, and not really having planned anything special, we decided to go out people-watching again and took a train to the Namba Parks building again.
We picked up a snack size okonomiyaki on the side of the road, just couldn't resist the smell, and made our way into the maze of streets. This time we even got lost a couple of times, but there really is no reason to be afraid when there's lots and lots of Asian guys to ask where the next subway station is...
Unfortunately, we got caught in rush hour on the way back to the hostel (and yes, subways have rush hours too, and amazing ones in Japan) and were 10 minutes too late, without even having been able to grab our big luggage yet.
However, it didn't turn out to be a catastrophe (being late in Japan is QUITE impolite) because Nobuto himself was late coming from work as well.
At first, he seemed a little cool, but when he turned on the radio and Swedish music filled the car, we soon came to understand each other well ^____~. He speaks very good English because he travels a lot - kind of a free (or restless) spirit. After having his entire luggage (including his passport and documents) stolen in Ecuador, he decided to stay and learn Spanish while he was there. One and a half years later he had travelled all of South America besides Brazil and spoke fluent Spanish.
He also owned a guesthouse in Bangkok for a year and has many friends from all over the world that he likes to visit. The people from Slovakia from the weekend before were actually gypsies travelling the world with no intention of settling anywhere. They stay as long as the need to work up the money to move on again. Nobuto has quite a lot of stories to tell, and we gladly listened. He's also very Osakan (?) in that it's sometimes very hard to tell if he's joking or not and that he can be very direct.
When we arrived at his friend's house, it turned out that the family was a father, mother, a 4 year-old girl named Hinata (or Hina-chan), a 1 month-old baby, and the grandparents in the house next to them. If we had known about all that (especially the new baby), I don't know if we would've come, but the entire family had gathered outside to greet us and help us carry everything inside. There were typically Japanese rooms (seperated by thick paper screens and sliding panels) in a modern appartment, quite to Janna's and my tastes.
Soon after, Izumi-san (the mother) brought down a huge platter of Sushi, a school friend of Nobuto's and the father's came and everybody was soon gathered around the table, drinking and eating. Most of the conversation was in Japanese because the two other men didn't speak much English, but in typical Osakan manner, communication was NOT a problem. ^____________^
What was amazing was that Hina-chan and the baby were with us the entire time, part of the big party and at around 1 am, much more energetic than we were!
The whole evening just provided us with the wonderful sense of belonging to the family and being part of a group of people we had known for a mere hour. The comraderie had to end though, as we had things to do and see the next day. Apparently, our notion of sleeping there and staying out of our hosts way as much as we could would not be an option. Nobuto had it all planned out and was not thinking of leaving us alone for one little minute.
He even slept with his friend in the second bedroom, in order to be able to start earlier the next day.
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-14 14:31 |
| Subject: | Namba Parks |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  complacent | | Music: | Tori Amos - Northern Lad |
Hi!!
We said goodbye to Hedwig and Selene, who have to move on, around 9. At least, that's when we started. It took us another 40 minutes to really part, under many invitations to meet again on both sides and much planning when we all would be back in Europe and able to travel. We wished them all the best and then rushed to eat breakfast before the lock out of the youth hostel.
We decided to take it easy on Thursday.. and picked a huge mall to visit/stroll around in next. It's called Namba Parks and includes all of the designer names, yet is situated in the vicinity of Shin-Setai, one of the most notorious yakuza hide-outs in all of Japan. Opposites attract...
Namba Parks itself is a great building, with stores and shops on 9 levels, but the main attraction are the gardens built on the roof. They're built like a hanging gardens and are really beautiful. However, the heat prohibited us from doing anything more than taking a quick look.
Although some of the shops are quite interesting, some Asian furniture stores and living accessories etc., (things that we really can't transport or afford), windowshopping does get tiring, so we soon headed out of the mall complex itself and onto the much more interesting streets. And it seemed like all of Osaka had the same idea!
We found a maze of roofed over pedestrian streets that were plastered in glittering lights and tiny shops on several stories. Much more entertaining than Namba Parks! We tried several new things, like a Japanese dough ball with meat inside (ok, I was the one that tried that) and sweet potatoes roasted in caramel (you can not imagine how delicious that is!!).
We also spent some time in a media cafe and were happy to see that our plans were confirmed. Nobuto would pick us up on Friday evening at the youth hostel and take us to the family's house where we would be staying. Apparently, Nobuto is very close friends with them and since their downstairs appartment is empty, he often entertains international guests there. He wrote that a Slovenian couple stayed there just last weekend, so slowly the 4 corners of relations and appartments is starting to make sense. Kinda.
Hiro has to work night shifts and won't be able to join us until Saturday early afternoon. Which should be ok, we'll have to see what Nobuto is like. But if he's a typical Osaka man (Osakian, Osakan??!) it will be a blast.
The humor in Osaka is quite different than everywhere else, and they seem to be amused by our strict adherance to the polite formula we've learned by heart in order not to offend anyone. (Which is very easy to do by the way. Gaijin get a little extra room for mistakes though, thank goodness.) You see, in strict Osaka dialect, there are barely any polite forms of address anymore, the language puts everyone on the same level and thus automatically does away with all the stiffness of everyday conduct.
Besides, where the average Japanese person doesn't even understand irony, the Osaka male can tell a joke with such a straight face that you truly do not know what to expect. Added to the fact that they're avid drinkers, it's no wonder that the people from around Tokyo sometimes refer to them as 'barbaric', of course not in that manner, but you get the point.
Anyway, an uneventful day, but quite relaxing after the day before.
Janna + Rosanna
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Hey!
Well... as you can read by our subject header - Wednesday wasn't so hot.
We headed out for an internet cafe first thing in the morning because we knew we had a lot of entries to catch up on and Janna had found out that she needed a letter of motivation and other formal things for an application - things that were publicized on the website about 1 week ago. July 15th is the deadline, so we really can't figure out how they can expect people to get all of the new things in on time.
Anyway, 5 hours later, Janna had everything she (supposedly) needed and was very close to an emotional breakdown. We decided to take it easy and get something to eat. Everything feels different with food in your stomack. Usually.
However, we had to print out more things, so there went round two in the internet cafe. Altogether we must have spent more than 20 Euros on internet access and Janna spent another 15 Euros on express services so that the letter would get to the university on time... *sigh*
All in all, we were not in a very good mood by the time we got back to the hostel in the evening. The only good thing was that Nobuto, Hirotaka's friend, had written to confirm his invitation for the weekend, adding however, that we would be staying with a befriended family of his - ??
He gave us a time that he would pick us up from the hostel on Friday though, so we'll just have to wait and see. Hirotaka and him seem to have an entire itinerary planned out for us ^____~. We hope not to take up all of their time though, so that we can maybe go to Kyoto for Gion Matsuri on Sunday and Monday. We want to see lots of geisha after all!
The sweet sisters from the Netherlands, Hedwig and Selene, made our evening better again though. We sat together until midnight, drawing and chatting away. Unfortunately, they had to leave the next morning, but not without promises of visiting each other during semester breaks, etc.
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-12 20:25 |
| Subject: | ancient warlords |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  so so | | Music: | Sarah McLachlan - Prayers of St. Francis |
Hi guys!
Well, after a wonderful, albeit limited tour of the castle the night before, we decided to visit it again - with our new friends, the sisters from the Netherlands, Hedwig and Selene.
It was probably a good idea to agree to meet them too - it meant having to get up at 7 o'clock, something we had been trying, but not succeeding to do. You just have soo much more of the day, but Janna's internal alarm clock hasn't been able to coax mine to work (if I have one...).
So we left the hostel at 8 and had a nice breakfast together at a bakery in the train station. It's actually quite a walk from the YMCA youth hostel to the station, but it includes amusing views of the Japanese populace on their way to work or school, or during their morning workout, because the path leads through a public park.
We took a combination of subway and trains back into the city to Osaka castle, or Osaka jo. It's one of the biggest castles in Japan and takes up about a square kilometer of insanely priced land right smack in the middle of the city. It's beautiful from the outside and dates back to the Momoyama period, or the 1580s, when Hideyoshi Toyotomi built it after he succeeded his master, Oda Nobunaga, the first man to unite all of Japan under one rule.
Hideyoshi is a very popular historic figure because he was born a peasant and rose to shogun (practical ruler), in every instance but the title, by his own resourcefulness.
On the downside, he also led a fierce army into Korea and made it all the way to Seoul before weather and Chinese troops stopped him, nevertheless causing the first lasting hostility between the two nations.
All of this and much more can be learnt by going inside the castle's main tower, which was rebuilt as a symbol for Osaka last century after being burnt down twice. (It seems every building of significance was burnt down at least once in Japan.) You take an elevator to the top floor and then spiral your way down through 7 floors of history.
When we made our way out, we bought some fresh green tea ice cream against the rising temperatures. Even though it's cloudy, the humidity soaks everything through, it's terrible for walking around in...
Hedwig and Selene wanted to see something else in the afternoon, so we split up with the promise to meet each other for dinner that evening.
Janna and I made our way off the huge grounds and into the city. We didn't plan to, but in the end walked about 3 kilometers in the general direction of the main station. It was sooo hot that when we encountered a Starbucks along the way, we stopped for a Frapuccino, ignoring the horrendous price.
Along the way, we stumbled across another parade of children in festival uniforms, pulling a float with a group of children playing one huge drum on it. They were again accompanied by a policemen and a group of mothers and strollers almost as long as the parade itself. We followed the procession around 5 blocks and then talked to one of the older gentlemen in charge, who invited us to a beer after the parade. We politely declined and moved on.
We met our friends at the station at 6 and headed into a small restaurant. It's great when everybody is able to order in Japanese ^^. We all seemed to have a lot in common, so the evening went by quite fast.
Back at the hostel, we also met 2 Frenchmen (we didn't meet any French people anywhere else, yet they come to Japan?) and 2 Koreans. We seem to have a great connection with all of the Koreans we meet now and we have a lot to talk about and compare, so we had a nice (looong) chat with those four. The Koreans almost begged to go to Gion Matsuri with us, as they're staying for the festival as well, but we don't know what Hirotaka has planned for us, so we had to decline.
Hirotaka wrote us that he doesn't have enough room himself, but that his friend Nobuto does and that we will be staying with him. The lengths that everybody goes to in the name of hospitality... we're awed.
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-11 11:50 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  impressed | | Music: | BLEACH - D-Techno Life |
Konnichi wa!
After a night with more lying awake than sleeping and more mosquitoes than I ever thought could be in one place at a time, we woke up at around 8 a.m. the next morning and probably scared the first visitors of the day halfway to death with our eyes half swollen shut because of mosquito bites (and the rest of our faces not much better-they poked me (J) in the lips!!!!! >_____<*** Felt like a boxer. *grumbles*)...
Luckily, there were toilets and washing basins in the park, so we washed up and while Sanna packed our stuff, I grabbed a bicycle someone had left in the park and rode over to a 7-Eleven to get us some breakfast.
After some riceballs and orange juice we felt up to another round of hitching and we had just put our bags down and our thumbs out, when a car stopped already.
The driver, a middle-aged man, asked us where we were off to and after hearing that he was on his way to Osaka on Teh Highway (XD!!!), we decided to stick with him and go all the way, because hey, who knows when we would have a chance like this for the next time?
Plus, we could always go to Himeji from Osaka, so we squeezed our bags into his car and off we were.
The friendly man turned out to be Mr. Watanabe, originally from Matsue (opposite from Hiroshima on the other side of Honshu), but working in Osaka for a company that developed water/oil separators that are used both by big companies such as Toyota and by the government ships at big oil disasters-extremely useful!!
He`s married and has two daughters he`s extremely proud of, but unfortunately he has to stay in Osaka most of the time and can only go see them once a month.
As we drove along the highway, he stopped and invited us first to something to drink, then to Udon noodles, refusing our repeated tries to let us pay the bill... we thought that would be all....
We were wrong.
We arrived in Osaka a mere 3 hours later and when he insisted that it was no problem to show us a bit of Osaka by car, we agreed and he showed us some of the backways of Osaka while all the while giving us an introduction to the way the people of Osaka think, and, also very important, how they speak.*
Osaka itself is a modern city - after basically being bombed into the ground in WWII, it was rebuilt again to be the second-biggest city in Japan and the working heart of Japan. But despite being huge, it still has a lot of character and we immediately liked the open atmosphere.
Mr. Watanabe then took us out for a walk in the park area of Osaka castle - originally we`d wanted to go inside since he too loves Japanese castles, but it was going to be closed for the day soon, so we just took pictures in front of it and walked around in the park some more before heading back to the car.
We called in the hostel to tell them that we were coming and to check the curfew - most of the Youth Hostels and Guest Houses in Japan have a curfew, mostly around 11 pm - and then he took us out for Sushi.
Yes, we tried to decline or at least pay and no, he didn`t take no for an answer.
So there we were, sitting in a Sushi restaurant where the little plates with the sushi on them pass you by and you just grab what you want.
While we tried to figure out the Kanji on the little sign cards attatched to the plates, Mr. Watanabe took great pleasure in just grabbing many different kinds of peculiarities and seeing how we reacted. ^___~
Quite an experience!
After that, he took us all the way to the Youth Hostel, solemnly refused all thanks and drove off into the night - but not before bestowing us with a box of postcards of Japans most beautiful traditional castles!
We checked in and were just on our way into the bathroom to take a bath (customary in Japan), when we met two girls from the Netherlands - Hedwig and Selene.
They turned out to be speaking Japanese since they`d both done homestays in Japan - Selene for a year and Hedwig for 5 weeks. How I envied them! ^________~
They had just finished school and had come to Japan to meet their hostfamilies again and do some sightseeing. We immediately got along very well and overstayed the showering time a good two hours, just sitting in the bath tub and talking...
We promised to go sightseeing together the next day and then were off to bed, still amazed by the extent of japanese generosity...
Love to you!!
Rosanna & Janna
--------------------------
* The people of Osaka are famous both for their heavy accent and their very unique humor - you could say that there`s a rivalry between the upper half of Honshu (including Tokyo), called "Kanto" and the lower half of Honshu, called "Kansai".
The Osaka people have a very strong accent (as I said before) and are generally more down-to-earth and direct and seemingly more welcoming than the people of Tokyo who are more withdrawn and polite and seemingly cooler in their behaviour.
People from Kansai say the people from Tokyo are a bit stuck-up and cool, whereas the people from Tokyo think that the Osaka people are a bit rough-and-ready in their behaviour.
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| Date: | 2006-07-10 20:03 |
| Subject: | Sunday driving |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  contemplative | | Music: | The Village soundtrack - orchestral music |
Hey!!
Just as we had planned, we headed out of the youth hostel Sunday morning and made our way down to the street. Conveniently for us, the hostel just happens to be close to an expressway headed in the right direction, so we soon hid our bags behind a tree and stood by the road.
After 5 minutes of eager thumbing, we were picked up by a Hiroshima businessman headed for a Sunday drive into the countryside with his adorable dog. He made room for us and we sat leisurely back, preparing for the long ride to Himeji.
Even though the distances aren't very great in Japan, most Japanese are reluctant to use the expressways, as they're fiercely tolled, and prefer taking 'the scenic route'. Unfortunately this means a speed limit of 60 km/h at the most, so it is truly a time to sit back and enjoy the landscape inching by.
Of course, our driver was out to do just that.
He told us about his time in the Japanese navy, and the time he spent as a translator on several US navy ships. Watanabe now works for his father's company, but obviously enjoyed relating his past and asking us a lot about the German army and navy, unfortunately not something we knew all too much about.
As Japan still has a strong navy (or should I say has again?), he told us all about it as we drove along the coastal region where all of the present day and former naval bases are situated. The biggest one, where he was also trained, is in Kure, a town right on our way. Watanabe gave us the drive-by tour and then spontaniously decided to take us to a museum there.
Does any of you know about the Yamato? It was one of the biggest ships ever built, and until recently, the biggest battleship ever. It took over 100 American fighter planes to gun it down in 1945, but the Japanese are extremely proud of their achievements, so there is a museum in Kure dedicated to the legendary sunken ship.
The exhibits were admittedly quite interesting (we didn't think they would be beforehand) and the ship quite impressive, although it left a sour taste in our mouths after our experiences in Hiroshima.
We had to rush through the museum though, as the temperatures outside had reached a stifling 32 degrees with rising humidity, and we did have a dog in the car, poor thing.
Our driver agreed to take us to Fukuyama, about an hour before Himeji. By the time he dropped us off there, however, it was already 5 and after we had eaten at a small udon restaurant, we decided it would be safer to just catch a ride outside of the city and tent in an open space.
The three 20 year-olds that picked us up were fascinated with us, almost as if we came from another planet. This time we were bombarded with questions and received startled laughs for our answers. Unfortunately, we only rode with them for about 15 minutes, before they dropped us off in a little park right outside of Fukuyama, and close to the road we would have to hitch-hike on again next morning.
Several families with children were still heartily at play when we arrived, and so we watched as they slowly left one by one, until dusk was at hand and we started errecting a tent-like contraption. It was entirely too hot for putting up the tent, as all of the heat gathers within. However, the park was full of mosquitos, so we took our mosquito net and draped it over a bicycle somebody had left. Both of our mats fit under the net and we thought we had it made until we figured out that there were about as many mosquitos inside it as out....
So we spent our worst night so far in a small park outside of Fukuyama... when we woke up the next morning, even our eyelids were swollen shut. *uuugh!!*
Janna + Rosanna
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Hi!!
Well, there's just not much to tell about the 8th...
After having seen pretty much all the SIGHTS that you have to see in Hiroshima, and a little tired of constant sightseeing, we just took it easy and strolled the streets. And those were quite full, it being Saturday.
Sometimes it's just great to sit somewhere, sipping a coffee and watch Japan walk by. The fashion and the faces - there's just so much individuality to see. The cheapest entertainment in the world is people watching.
We did head into an internet cafe sometime in the afternoon, where Janna was just further frustrated by university applications and requirements and we tried to catch up on all the entries we haven't written - turned out to be a futile attempt.
There's no end to our surprise over some of the prices though. It might not be an adequate comparison as it's a European store, but we walked into a ZARA, and I saw the same blouse I'd seen in Germany for 25 Euros marked 45 Euros. Unfortunately, a lot of the shopping was like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit that it can never reach. We're reaching financial boundaries around every turn.
On the bright side, we also have a lot of contact with people here, so we're going to be staying with someone in Osaka, maybe Nara, Shizuoka and Tokyo. We're especially looking forward to meeting Hirotaka again, a guy we met in Bangkok and who we've been keeping close contact with.
The day ended with us buying gifts for our hosts in Osaka (typical sweets from Hiroshima), tired feet and extensive packing.
The plan for Sunday? Hitch-hike to Himeji, where one of the most famous Japanese castles is. The city is small, but it's a good half-way point to Osaka... or so we thought.
Janna + Rosanna
P.S. We also figured out why every sidewalk has a ridged line running through it; unlike Singapore where the opposite was the case, Japan has instated tons of things for handicapped people. The ridges on the sidewalks are for blind people, every park has signs in braille, ramps and elevators are always conveniently placed, and every pedestrian traffic light beeps when it's green. Germany could really learn from the Japanese.
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| Date: | 2006-07-08 18:45 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | bouncy | | Music: | Gravitation - Glaring Dream |
Hey everyone!
We had decided to stay in hiroshima until the 7th of July in any case, since the 7th is `Tanabata`, the day of the Star Festival.
The Legend behind it is that Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Atair), fell in love one day. But they were so enamoured that they neglected their daily tasks (Vega is the heavenly weaver).
As a punishment, they were banned to the sky (where they are today -they`re star constellations), separated by the Milky Way and are only allowed to meet once a year- and only if there are no clouds on the sky.
The festival dates from the Edo-Period (around 1600), when girls would wish for improvement of their weaving skills and boys for clearer handwriting (very socially important at that time!) by writing those wishes on little papers and hanging these on bamboo sticks.
Today, people still write their wishes on papers, but these wishes aren`t limited to weaving or handwriting anymore.
So, if you go see one of the Wishing Bamboos today, you can find everything from health to a new toy or luck in the exams.
The Wishing Bamboo is being put up a few days before the festival and when the day comes, is often put on floats on Rivers - to symbolize the Milky Way - or even burned.
There are also songs only sung on that day and many people wear their Yukatas and stroll over the night markets that are being built just for that night. Especially Sendai has a biiiig festival.
However, as the lady at the reception of the hostel told us, Hiroshima is not a city where Tanabata is celebrated.
We have Bamboos all over the city, but that`s all.
We were a bit disappointed and so we decided to just walk around the city, like we`d done the day before, but we soon split up: Sanna went out to explore Hiroshima further and I went to Miyajima, an island in the bay of Hiroshima.
Miyajima has only one town - Miyajima-cho with app. 2000 habitants who live on a space of app. 30 square kilometres.
The number one attraction it is famous (One of the three most beautiful sights in Japan) for is the Itsukushima Shrine with the no less famous "Floating Torii" (A "Torii" is the wooden entrance gate of a Shinto shrine) - you`ll probably recognise it when you see this picture:
In former times passing through the Torii by boat was the only way of entering the island for commoners who were otherwise not allowed to set foot on the island.
It symbolizes the border between the material and the spiritual as well as marking the beginning of the temple grounds.
Unfortunately the temple was closed when I arrived in the late afternoon, so I strolled around in the closer surroundings. Miyajima-cho is pretty much made up of traditional japanese buildings, and there`s quite a few temples and even a pagoda to look at.
Most of the tourists had already cleared out and I was almost alone wandering around the temples, fascinated by how it makes you feel like you are in another century the moment you don`t see a car coming around a corner or hear the newest pop songs from somewhere.
By the time darkness fell, I was sitting at the beach close to the Torii again and watched as slowly, one by one, the lanterns and some of the landmarks (including the Torii, of course were lit up.
As much as I enjoyed just watching and chatting with the occasional bypassing japanese (who probably wondered what the crazy foreigner was doing at the beach at night), I had to get back.
But the way back took a little longer thtn I thought and it waws already way past the curfew of 22:30, when I was back at the Youth Hostel, so I chose the back door (aka window *cough*) and startled Sanna with my sudden appearance directly behind her. ^_~
We both excitedly told the other what we`d done all day, and only very late headed of to bed, knowing all too well that we had to get up early the next day since we wanted to go on in direction of Oosaka.
Love to you all!!
Rosanna & Janna
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| Date: | 2006-07-07 16:06 |
| Subject: | lazy us |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  busy | | Music: | Sarah McLachlan - Full of Grace |
Hi!!
After having seen a lot of cultural, historical, and morally challenging things the last couple of days, we were ready for a break. Well, break... not really a break, but instead of choosing to go see another temple or something like that the next day, we decided to check out a used book store that stood in the Lonely Planet.
We still had some books left that we bought in India for the long train rides and kind of missed the chance to get rid of them sooner.
A few false turns and confused fellow pedestrians later, we actually found a small bakery first. The staff there was sooo friendly and the price irresistible (105 Yen for everything there, including a fantastic garlic baguette), so we had breakfast there and took a snack along for our search.
The book store happens to be in a tiny back alley somewhere, readily recognizable however, by the huge American flag hanging on the building.
The book store doubles as a language learning center, so there's a constant stream of foreign teachers and lots of Japanese people dieing to learn English, French, Italian and Korean. It also sends people on homestays, so there were a variety of travel books and travel accounts with pictures to look through. Needless to say, we stayed for quite a while and chatted with the owner of the store as well as reading up on learning Japanese and places we have yet to visit.
Then it was time to actually do something - yeah right.
We just strolled through the streets again, enjoying sights, sounds and people. A lady at a kimono shop was really enthusiastic about our interest in her displays and pulled us into her shop to see some truly amazing samples. They truly deserved their price tags starting at 1200 Euro.
We've also been researching mobile phones and cards here, but since phones are so common here, you can't seem to get a card without a phone. Not to mention that the card probably wouldn't work in our cell phones, even if they're compatible with the Japanese signal and the card is from Vodafone. We found out that the cost of a phone and a card or, the alternative, a contract phone that we would have to cancel after a month, both amount to around 100 Euros, decidedly over our budget for the moment.
So we'll just have to survive without a local number.
Okonomiyaki tastes just as good the second time around we soon found out and then headed home.
Back in the hostel, we met a Korean guy, son of a diplomat, who lived in the USA and the UK for quite a while, after which he went to Japan to study, so he speaks all three languages fluently. He was there with two Japanese friends and they were a merry bunch, so we stayed up with them in the common room until 12, when a hostel worker kindly informed us that curfew was actually 10. Hihi.
Janna + Rosanna
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| Date: | 2006-07-06 15:25 |
| Subject: | Hiroshima A-bomb Museum |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  calm | | Music: | Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale |
Hi guys!
Weee~ll... we were quite impressed by everything we saw the day before... until we went to the museum. Impressed turned to depressed in record time.
The thing was, they didn't even have to get very graphic (there's only a very small exhibit about the effects of radiation on the human body) to stress the point, all they had to do was be painstakingly honest and surprisingly, very objective too.
Basically all the museum did was tell the history of Hiroshima from around the turn of the century to present day, of course with special emphasis on the bombing. Hiroshima did increasingly become an important military base over the course of the years of the Sino-Japanese War and during World War I. However, this was only one of the criteria that helped make the decision of where to drop the bomb.
During World War II, as the US was developing a new weapon with incredible potential, the decision to use it in the same war was, of course, close at hand. But it was also clear from the beginning of the talks that Germany would not be bombed, rather Japan was singled out almost immediately. Why? To demonstrate military power to the Soviet Union. One reason for dropping the bomb at all was that the tremendous government funds going into the "Manhattan Project" had to be justified. And then there's the official reason: The Japanese refused the terms offered by the Potsdamer Declaration in late July of 1945.
Hiroshima was one of a few cities singled out for things such as weather conditions, importance to military strategy, and the autonomy and size of the region (important for studying the effects of the bomb). It just stunned us that the bomb was treated as a grand experiment by some people. A second plane was with the carrier solely for the purpose of recording scientific data.
On display are also letters written by the scientists that worked on the "Manhattan Project", begging the President to reconsider the launch of the bomb they themselves had developed, calling it inhumane.
The thing that impressed me most though, were the hundreds of letters written by mayors of Hiroshima over the years since 1945. Whenever a nuclear test is held anywhere in the world, the mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter to the leader of that country, with a plea to destroy any nuclear weapons that country has and to heed the warnings of the people of Hiroshima, never to repeat the evil. The letters have been engraved in metal and there are several walls now covered in them. The most recent ones are dated February 2006, and addressed to President Bush. Well, no surprise there.
The museum also goes on to describe the technology of an atomic bomb and lists the known and estimated numbers of weapons in all of the nuclear nations today. The main ones are of course the US, Great Britain, France and China. However, there is also documentation that the USA is supporting the Indian nuclear programs while denoting Pakistan's, and quite noticeably Iran's plans. Politics, and not ethics or human rights are steering the future of nuclear weapons....
Ever-present is the plea to all countries to abolish war and especially nuclear weapons of any kind. The message is very blatant, but that only seems to make it more important.
Of course the museum also included remnants and objects salvaged from the area right after the bombing, like iron rafters completely bent and twisted, roof tiles that have bubbled surfaces and concrete walls with glass shards fired into them. Oh, and lots of watches that all stopped at exactly 8:15.
Needless to say, we were rather exhausted after leaving the museum and weren't able to really speak. It takes a while to swallow.
We did stumble across a building with three floors of okonomiyaki restaurants though, so we decided to eat something. Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki, which is made in a special way here and is called hiroshima yaki. It's something like a pancake at first, but is then smothered in cabbage and sprouts, spices and an egg before being flipped. When that is good and cooked, a portion of noodles (a choice of udon or soba) is dumped on the top, another spoonful of pancake batter is added and the whole thing is pushed down to a manageable size. Then it's covered in sauce and chives and moved in front of your seat. Everyone sits around the grill, which is basically the whole bar, so your food stays on the grill in front of you and you cut off pieces to put on your plate and eat.
While eating, we saw that North Korea had just tested missiles in the Pacific on the news, which didn't sit very well with our raw nerves.
So we just strolled down the brightly lit shopping lane until we got back to the bus area and headed home.
Janna + Rosanna
P.S. Schleichwerbung!! We just posted a link to the photos that Mi So took of us all in Fukuoka, including our brand new yukata... ^____^
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Hi guys!!
We woke up the next morning to a typical Japanese morning. For everyone else. We had had no choice the night before but to lie down on a patch of grass in a pretty suburban area, so there were houses all around us and the families in them were naturally starting their day.
Which meant that we were in the middle of a lot of curious attention. Not that the Japanese would ever SHOW openly that they were curious. But we did wonder what the main topic of conversation at the breakfast table of the family in the house next to us was ;)). First the mother came out to say goodbye to (probably) her eldest daughter on her way to an early sports club before school, then she came out for her husband, and then with the two younger siblings. Every time she gracefully ignored our unseemly presence next to her front lawn and seemed nonplussed by the bags under our eyes and the uncombed mops of blond something or other peeking out from our sleeping bags. She had no choice but to answer us in kind though, when at last we sat up and shouted a cheery "Ohayou gozaimasu!!" (good morning).
After greeting another group of school children and several senior citizens walking their dogs, we made our way to the convenience store for a breakfast of rice balls (onigiri) and another session of hitch-hiking.
5 minutes later we were cruising into the city in the truck of an electrotechnician on his way to work, behind a car full of his colleagues. His colleagues kept calling him on his cell phone and, judging by the comments on our side of the conversation, were accusing him of not using the obvious opportunity fate had dealed him. Soooo funny.
He dropped us off at the main train station and we got all of the information we needed from the toursit information there. We took a bus to a state-run youth hostel (the cheapest) and were checked in by 10 o'clock. The problem with youth hostels though, is that from 10 to 3 you have to be out of the hostel and there is no entering the rooms, so we had to leave our baggage in a seperate room and go out into town, even though we were a little worse for the wear of the night before.
We soon forgot all our troubles though, as we entered Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park.
When the "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima on the 6th of August, 1945, the heat and force of the explosion levelled everything in a 2 km radius. The rest of the city was burned down by the raging fires caused by temperatures hot enough to make paper catch fire.
The people of Hiroshima put an amazing amount of effort into rebuilding their city and today there is no trace of death and destruction, except for this park on the river islet almost directly under the atomic bomb. It has been transformed into a living reminder and a warning against nuclear action of any kind.
Things we saw on the first day:
The A-Dome
This building with its former glass dome is almost the only building left standing in Hiroshima. The theory is that since the blast came almost directly from above, it left the structure intact. The building was racked by fire of course, so there is nothing left but the stone and steel structure. It's still enough to provide a chilling image of what the surrounding green areas must have looked like just over 60 years ago. It has been reinforced and worked on with funds from all over the world so that it will always look like it did on that day.
It was also made a United Nations World Heritage Site.
Children's Peace Monument
This is probably one of the most popular places to visit in Japan. It has to do with the story behind it. Sadako Sasaki was 2 years old at the time of the bombing and did not show any irregular symptoms - at least not more than anybody else in Hiroshima did the 2 years after the bombing. However, leukemia was discovered in her body at age 12 and she soon began treatment. A Japanese saying states that if you fold 1000 paper cranes, you have one wish. So Sadako began folding cranes. She never made it to 1000, but her classmates and teachers were so touched by her devotion that they finished the job and started collecting money for a monument to all of the children who died in and from the after-effects of the bombing. Completed in 1958, the monument has become a symbol of peace in that thousands of paper cranes are still sent and placed there by people from all over the world daily. When we visited there were chains of cranes from schools in the US, China, Europe, and many single cranes folded by regular visitors. We left 3 cranes (every crane is registered by name and country) and rang the bell of peace hanging in the monument.
The glass cases around the monument were full with colorful cranes when we were there.
While standing in front of this monument, an elderly man walked up to us and spoke to us in English. He said he really wanted to practice it, as it has been a while since he's been to Europe.
We didn't think anything of it until he started telling us about the impact. He was 8 years old when it happened and had a vivid memory of the day. It was etherreal to be standing in front of the monument on a sunny day listening to his tale of destruction and terror.
Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound
I think it's best to let the inscription speak for itself.
Flame of Peace
This flame was lit on August 1, 1964. It's probably the best symbol to show that the people of Hiroshima still feel very very connected with their past. Even today, at a time when most of the citizens were born after the bombing and have no real connection to it (just think of the Germans), all of them seem to feel a deep responsibility to prevent anything similar from happening ever again. They see it as a hereditary task to inform the world of Hiroshima's story and to convince as many people as they can that nuclear weapons should be abolished from the earth. So in 1964, 19 years after the bombing, they errected this Flame of Peace to state their mission and to honor the dead:
"Let all the souls here rest in peace; for we shall not repeat the evil."
This flame will burn until all nuclear weapons on earth have been destroyed.
Memorial Cenotaph
The annual memorial service is held in front of this monument containing the names of all victims of the A-bomb - new ones are added every year as part of the service because they've become victims of the after-effects.
There are many more monuments that we all visited, however the list would be very long and probably still incomplete. Some of them honor the Korean victims, forced to work in labor camps for the war effort, school children recruited for war-related work (many of them on exactly this islet on the morning of the bomb) and shrines to the Japanese goddess of peace and mercy, Kannon.
All in all, it was a first introduction to something everybody KNOWS intellectually, but never truly FEELS. It's not easily described in words, but we think anyone that visits Hiroshima is changed. Even more so by the museum, which we went to visit the next day.
Only later that evening did we realize that we had visited the site of the dropping of the first nuclear bomb on July 4th, Independance Day for the US. Didn't want to analyze that though.
We weren't really in the mood for extensive wandering around after that and were tired anyway, so we headed back to the hostel. It was quite a day.
A nice surprise was the huge bathtub in the showering room though, it being common but not manditory in a public bathing facility. So.... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.....
Janna + Rosanna
P.S. @ Anna: I really had to think of you while we were looking at the Children's Monument. You really should come visit it with me, you know.
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