Sorry 'bout the lack of updates folks (for those of you who are following this blog). I started one about the winter vacation, copied the text then deleted it only to find I couldn't seem to paste what I'd copied. Argh! So I'm starting from scratch again.
My winter holiday began on Dec.23, or the Emperor's Birthday which a national holiday here. On Christmas Eve Will and I set out on the road in our little, yet trusty kei car to Kure (a 30 min train ride from Hiroshima). No, I didn't choose Kure for the hell of it, I have friends who live there. What would've been a 3 hour drive back in Canada took almost 6 here. For one thing, the car can't go over 80km/h comfortably for more than 10 minutes and for another traffic is slllooooww. At one point we gave up the non-toll, but non-moving, highway in favor of the zippiness of the rather pricey expressway.
Once in Kure, we met up with my friends, ate dinner, exchanged presents, slept and woke up bright and early to meet another friend in Hiroshima. Once altogether, we had a healthy McDonald's breakfast then set off for Peace Memorial Park, the site of the A-bomb dome. This structure survived the point-blank blast though a lot of the walls were seared off. It was strange to be looking at a building destroyed the way it was. Basically parts of it just melted away.
The A-bomb dome is located in Peace Memorial Park which also houses the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This museum details the creation of Hiroshima as a city as well as the creation of "Little Boy" better known as the atomic bomb. Hiroshima was one of four possible target sites, all candidates being more or less intact unlike other air-raid ravaged cities. Why choose a city that's intact? To observe the effects of course. Kind of like a deadly, huge-scale science experiment. Other sections of the museum showed pictures of the after-effects on humans and objects. A particularly affecting picture shows a watch, frozen at 8:15, the time the atomic bomb detonated above Hiroshima. I won't go into details about the pictures of human suffering. All I can say is there was worse shown in the War Crimes Museum in Ho Chi Minh.
The rest of Hiroshima was walking and taking in a few gardens and one rather mundane castle. (I think I've seen too many Asian castles). The next day we spent in Kure relaxing before taking off for Himeji, famous for its enormous castle, which even this jaded viewer enjoyed.
Himeji Castle is big, even as castles go. One of our first stops was Princess Sen's Quarters. This Princess was first married at 7 to a guy who off and committed suicide. She then met and married the love of her life, Honda Tadatoki and lived in Himeji Castle.
Although the rooms were large and the Princess pretty much had use of the entire building, I couldn't help thinking that, with the bars on the windows and soldiers keeping watch at intermittent posts, it would've been more like living in a glorified prison. The main tower was interesting. Six stories tall and each successive story is smaller than the one beneath it. The bottom floor's walls contained many pegs meant to hold swords and other weapons. The top floor housed a shrine that was moved into the castle after the building took over its former spot.
In order to go into the castle, you had to take off your shoes, put on slippers, then carry your shoes around in a white plastic bag. I think some of the grandeur of the castle was lost on me because I was focusing more on the increasing numbness of my feet. I recommend visiting Himeji in the springtime when the temperature is more agreeable.
Alright, I'm running out of steam. Stay tuned for my take on Kyoto...
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