17 May ２013

17 May 2013
So Im sitting on a bus heading once again for Osaka-the third time.  Tomorrow Felicia and I will fly from Osaka to Fukuoka.  Felicia is a friend I met in Okinawa through my other buds.  We caught a train up here to Kanazawa in Toyama with the intention of heading to Fukuoka.  Problem is, we came to the wrong Fukuoka.  Fukuoka is in Kysuhu way down in Southern Japan and we are near another Fukuoka in Northern Japan.  I:ll take the blame for that one as I booked the tickets.  Didn:t double check the location when I researched the travel on the iphone.  So now we are two hours North of where we stat\rted but $120 bucks plus a hotel later, we are finally heading in the right direction.  On my left are the Japanese Alps and on my right is the East China Sea.  I desperately wanted to visit the alps but after much debate, we decided it wasn:t in our best interest financially to venture into the mountains for several days in search of adventure.  I have a hankering to look down into an active volcano at Mt. Aso in Kyushu.  I:ll see them next time I:m in Japan.  This may not be a great decision in the end but I don:t really want to spend all the money to buy extra warm clothing.  There is still snow on the mountain peaks after and even here on the ground it:s quite chilly at night.At least this way I get to see them from the bus.

So, allow me to play catch up.  Last time I wrote, I beleive I was planning to visit Miyajima nd Hiroshima.  Let me say, they were incredible.  The hike up and subsequent 360 panorama of Miiayajima was absolutely amazing.  As I reached the top, I discovered there were giant boulders on the peak that stood above all else for miles around.  I therefore, after much failure, managed to scramble up upon the highest one thereby offering an unihibited perspective of the Japanese coast, the deep deep blue sea, and other surrounding islands.  It was like nothing else I had ever laid eyes upon.  I would equate the view to be similar to what I:ve seen in pictures of the Agean sea in Greece.

If the fairly rigorous hike to the summit was in preparation for the beatiful surrounding landscape, the hike down blended exquisitely with the natural beauty of the rivers and shrines that seemed to exist in perfect harmony with one another.  At one shrine deep in the woods high on the mountain, I was able to perform a bit of self meditiation left over from the short period in which I used to practice breathing yoga.  By the end of this meditation, I was so thankful to live on such a wonderful planet with such awestriking majesty.  I was happy to call the Earth my home and to be a part of this nature.  I tried to envision the hundredsw of monks who have trekked upon these very same forest trails for many many years before my very existence.  What a perspective they must have had for this life on their path to enlightenment.  I had even passed one of them cloaked in traditional orange robes on the way down the mountain.  I:m not exactly sure but I believe this place to contain a mixture of followers of both Bhuddism and Shinto.  It was said that many many years ago, a very particular mountain tried very hard to reach heaven from this mountain.  Not in the height sense, but rather by the magnificence of it.  How could such beauty be pure accident.  But then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there many places on this Earth with such beauty before Industrialism changed this planet forever.

Further down the mountain, I came across yet another temple.  This one seemed to be perfectly at peace with the soft river and envy-green maple leaf trees all around it.  The river created a superbly calming atmospher as did these maples-the brightest, most beautiful green I:ve ever seen.  The temple architecture was nearly ass astounding as the many relics and artwork found on its grounds.  At one point during my exploration, I noticed a room that had been carved into a mountainside appearing similar to a hobbit shire.  (Don;t tell the monks!)  I didn;t realize it at the time but it was already past closing time for the temple.  Due to my obliviousness and curiosity, I decided to enter the room in the mountain.  As I slid the door open trying very hard not to make noise, inside I saw three little Hobbitses!!!  No, actually the room was empty thankfully.  But I didn:t realize this until I sat on a bench near the door for a couple of minutes as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.  The only light in the room came from the door and a single flame inundating the air with the smell of incense.  The room was so quiet I feared to take a single breath for fear of disturbing someone or something.  I envisioned a single monk sitting Lotus style somewhere in the room deep in a trance on his path to enlgihtenmnet.  Then I imagined him being shaken awake by the unmistakable, gut-wrenching screech of the door sliding open.  Fortunately, once I was able to make out a bit, I could see I was alone, but there were statues of former monks and curious humanoid creatures all around me.  Traditional paintings of wise old Japanese men from long ago also covered the walls in addition to manuscripts written in purely Kanji (Chinese characters used to write Japanese language).  What an amazing discovery.  I assumed this was some sort of holy place of worship and meditation for these folk so I decided it best I make my leave.  Not without snapping a couple of photos first though!

Once I finally left the temple on Miyajima, I visited the ever-so famous Itsukushima floating Shrine always seen in pictures of Japan.  It mimics a fox head as this is the particular mascot or something of that sort of this particular sect of Shintoism.  There is a lot I miss out on culturally because of the language barrier so if you are interested in checking out any of this information, its only a quick google search away.  Because this blog is primarily personal and garners few views, that research is a bit beyond its scope. The shrine is enormous but its actually not anchored to the sea floor, It floats with the tide but due to its esquisite engineering and balance, it never tips.  I was able to snap several photos \of it which can be seen below.  This was one of the main things I wante dto see in Japan so I:m tahnkful to have had the opportunity.

The next day I decided to explore Hiroshima.  I visited the atomic bomb dome where a buiilding hit by the atomic bomb  dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. in August 1946 has been preserved as it was just after the blast.  A bit eery really..  I also visited the peace memorial museum where I devoured accounts of the blast and interpretations and to my surprise, there was very little propaganda or bias to any of the reporting.  It essentially states that the Japanese began the pacific war by bombing pearl harbour while simultaneously occupying Manchuria then the U.S. did a horrible horrible thing by bombing the city ultimately killing thousands.  I;ll not offer my opinion of justification for any of these events as it:s not my place, but I rather just see the atrocity of the entire scenario.  This was war though and jsut another line of killing in the thousands of years of violent history of mankind.  I will say it was very intersting to see what the Japanese government subjected its citizens and Korean and Chinese immigrants to often forcing labor and comandeering ports, businesses, and homes.  It;s easy to point a finger but the U.S. is no better in that regard.  That:s all I:ll say to that.

After Hiroshima, I booked it to Tokyo to hang with some new and old friends.  I was able to spend a day with an old girlfriend of mine and it was great to see her again since we never really had any closure(Like every relationship I ever had in the military).  Later that night I met up with a couple of guys I met in Okinawa a few weeks ago and we went out for sushi.  This particular sushi place delivers sushi to you directly via a truck that rolls around a track at chest level next to all the tables.  You put your order in on a computer screen then a few minutes later, your plate rolls right to your table where you take the plate and push a button causing the truck/tray to go back to the kitchen.  The only human interaction you have is with other customers and when you go to pay your bill.  With text messaging and modern technology, I can:t help but think restaraunts like this will become more prevalent in the future across the developed world.

Next night, I met an old English teacher friend of mine and one of the dudes from the night before.  After parting ways with the English teacher, Polish guy and I hit the Tokyo nightlife-hard.  I:ve rarely had so much fun in a club as we did that night in Roppongi.  Beatiful women, good beer, and lots of socializing.  It was a blast.  We stayed out until 6 am before separating to take care of our personal stuff.  He to bed with a Protugese gal, and me to the internet cafe to apply for an Indian tourist visa.

The nex tday kind of started to make this trip a bust.  Felicia arrived the day before and I decided to go visit a famous flower garden a couple of hours away from Tokyo.  When we arrived, the flowers werent in full bloom and there really wasnt much to see in the city.  So since then the trip has bascially been nothing but trying to figure out what we wanted to do and taking trains, buses, and planes all over the place en route to one place or another.  We did get to tour Akhihabara and Harajuku in Tokyo(Fe went crazy here because she loves anime.  We also went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka which was a lot of fun.

Now that I:ve come to the end of this, it:s actually been 3 days in the making. The last week has been one disaster after another but today were in a hostel 3 hours away from Mt. Aso in Kumamoto-shi.  It:s a pretty town and were in a terrific hostel with lots of traditional Japanese decor hosted by a super friendly Japanese guy.  He even picked us up at the bus stop at 11 pm last night- 2 hours after normal check in time. It:s raining today so I:m taking a day to catch up on personal business but tomorrow we will catch a bus in the a.m. to Mt. Aso which is an active volcano where you can actually look down into the volcano and see the steaming sulfur.  Excited for that.  We:ll see what we can get into.  Several more plans in the works but they are hindered a bit since Fe is unable to get a rail pass for the bullet train since she is not on a tourist visa.  That was a pretty big hindrance and we almost split ways because of it but hopefully the rest of the trip goes a bit better.  Until next time...!