Feudal Himeji and sombre Hiroshima, Japan

Trip Start Aug 21, 2007

Trip End Dec 20, 2007

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Where I stayed

J-Hoppers Hiroshima

(Hiroshima hotels)

Flag of Japan Hiroshima, Japan
Monday, December 3, 2007

To get to Himeji and Hiroshima we hopped aboard one of the famous Shinkansen bullet trains. These reach speeds well over 300 kph and are thus faster than most TGV or ICE trains we're familiar with in Europe. They wobble a little due to the speed, but are otherwise a quicker and more comfortable means of transport than domestic flights. And they're practically always impeccably on time. Typical for Japan, you'll find the conductor and the snack trolley lady bowing every time they enter or exit a carriage. Adorable!

Himeji, former seat of feudal power

Himeji is famous for its feudal castle, the best maintained castle in the whole of Japan. Japanese castles are imposing multi-level wooden structures on a stone base

Female toilet

. They traditionally housed the court of a Shogun. They were guarded by Samurais, the revered warrior class. Himeji castle is a splendid edifice offering insights into defense mechanisms and court life as well as a great view from the top floors. Nearby there is the worthwhile new Koko-en garden representing various styles of Japanese landscape gardening, including a few ponds filled with spectacular koi carp.

Hiroshima, Japan - peace memorial to the world

We then whizzed down to Hiroshima in the south of the Japanese main island Honshu. This large town was of course made famous by the first ever A-bomb, the so-called "little boy", dropped on 8 July 1945 from the American bomber Enola Gay. The explosion completely destroyed the large city and cost over 280 000 lives. The next day the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It then took another 6 days until the Japanese finally surrendered.

Hiroshima has long since been rebuilt and has defined itself as a city of peace. Every nuclear weapon test throughout the cold-war era and beyond was answered by an enraged letter by the mayor of Hiroshima to the respective government (to no avail, of course). Ground zero houses the "A-bomb-dome", ruin of a commercial centre and the peace park. This contains a peace memorial hall for reflection on the disaster and its victims; an informative A-bomb museum outlining the horrors of the bombing in detail and warnings of the threats of nuclear warfare. There's a so-called Cenotaph that contains the names of all victims; an eternal flame that will only be extinguished when the last nuclear warhead on Earth has been dismantled - an unlikely prospect

Japanese beer machine

. There's a monument to the many Korean slave laborers that fell victim to the bomb and a children's monument especially commemorating cancer deaths as a result of the A-bomb. This collects billions of origami paper cranes as symbols of peace from children all over the world.

Hiroshima is primarily a place of contemplation and remembrance. There is not much more to see there, but it's well worth the trip. Public transport is very German as tram lines criss-cross the city; they even have an original street car from partner city Hanover. We stayed at a great hostel (J-hoppers) with a well-stacked beer machine and an interesting crowd of people, some of which really impressed us with their excellent knowledge of Japanese language and culture. It was good to jam around on the hostel's guitars. I was also introduced to Shochu, a barley and potato based distillate that makes up a tasty and very lethal Alco pop when mixed with e.g. soda and lemon. At the hostel we were interviewed and filmed by a local TV crew looking into the increase of tourism in the area. On this note, it was interesting to find that we encountered far less western tourists in Japan than we did in China.

With all our admiration and praise for the Japanese I never did list downsides in Japan. No wonder, because you really have to look hard to find even minor annoyances, everything is so well organized. Two spring to mind, though: One, it's a nation of heavy smokers. Stick your head into a Pachinko gaming parlor and it's a sensual overload to behold: dense smoke and incredibly loud and hectic music are the setting for this uniquely Japanese form of gambling. It consists of bleary-eyed zombies feeding 100s of tiny metal balls into machines

Model of Hiroshima A-Bomb "little boy"

. If they fall into designated slots you get - that's right - more metal balls!! There are ways to manipulate the machine, but we haven't been able to linger long enough in a Pachinko parlor to figure out the intricacies of the game as we were unable to tolerate the noise and stink for longer than a few seconds.

The only other downside I can think of is the utter discrepancy between multiple layer packing of shopping goods on one hand and the virtual non-existence of public waste bins. Everything in Japan is so spotlessly clean that somehow the necessity for waste-disposal appears to be removed from the public conscience. On numerous occasions we've dragged banana peels or bags of waste from a take-away around with us for miles before we were able to deposit them secretly in someone's private trash.

Have I told you about Japanese toilets yet? No? Oh goody! In this country of gadgetry you can't just have a normal toilet (although no-frills squat toilets are still wide-spread). Western-style toilets will be equipped with extra features that would make James Bond's Q go red with embarrassment. There's either a remote-control or a lever attached that's laden with buttons and makes you feel like you're sitting in a fighter plane's ejection seat. Firstly you'll find the seat is heated. Heavenly! I know a few guys including myself that would spend even longer hours of contemplation on a heated bog than we already do. Then there's the anal douche. That's a surprise and a half for the uninitiated and had me jumping towards the ceiling first time I came across it. Thankfully there's a bum dryer, too, so all can be remedied. There's also often a flush noise simulator button to overplay some of those embarrassing noises. And finally: a variety of perfumed scents to choose from. Excellent!