It was an absolutely beautiful time of year to visit Japan. The cherry blossoms are absolutely stunning, and I’m really glad I got to see them in full bloom. Strolling through the Japanese gardens in the middle of Tokyo was incredibly relaxing, and one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Hiroshima was unbelievable to me. I felt like such a guilt loving white liberal, but I just wanted to give everyone who looked over 65 a hug and say I’m sorry…

Japan seems to be a dichotomy between a technologically advanced society and it’s ancient religious context. In the West, Buddhism isn’t really thought of as a religion – more of a philosophy, but in Japan both Shintoism and Buddhism are most definitely religions with deep rooted traditions.

The Japanese people are either very friendly, or very polite & well-mannered. Even when we were the only foreigners in the “authentic” temples (ie, used for worship), I didn’t feel uncomfortable. The only time I felt uncomfortable was in Yokosuka – the Japanese are very resistant to having a nuclear powered aircraft carrier (or even, a navy base) in their cities. The official military talk is that the US provides a defense for Japan against North Korea & China, but I don’t really believe that is anything but PR.

Seeing all the Buddhism stuff was really neat, too. I didn’t do zazen in any official capacity while I was there, but I just felt centered having spent so much time in the shrines & temples. (Although Hiroshima felt just as spiritual as anyplace else we went.)

One thing that really surprised me was how touristy the shrines & temples were. Almost all of the shrines & temples had a small entrance fee (approx $1-4), and there were places to buy postcards and trinkets at each temple & shrine we stopped at. Several even had food vendors on the premises. It seems kinda of weird, but on the other hand I guess money is what has allowed these places to stay open and kept up for literally thousands of years. (Also, I’m not familiar with the concept of tithing being present in Buddhism or Shintoism).

I would definitely like to visit again (with Emily this time!), and stay for a longer period of time. There is so much to see and do, and we barely got started!

Yokosuka was an interesting place, but not one I’d like to visit again. As soon as we left the train station (backpacks in tow; we couldn’t find a locker big enough to put them in) we noticed a definite change in the attitude of the Japanese. All over the rest of Japan, we were perceived as tourists and the people had been very friendly and accommodating. In Yokosuka, we were perceived as Americans; only visiting this place because of the American war machine. I can’t blame them – I would be resentful too. Yokosuka was definitely a much dirtier, grimier town than anywhere else we’d been in Japan, and the Americans were responsible for stationing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in this town, approximately 825 km from where the Americans were responsible for devastating the city of Hiroshima with a nuclear bomb.

David met us at the entryway to the Naval Base and got us hooked up with visitor passes. (The little guard guys were not at all excited about the size of our backpacks). We left our backpacks in David’s car, and then went on a tour of the USS George Washington. It is certainly an impressive war machine and kinda cool to visit (although I wouldn’t want to live there).

on the flight deck

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We woke up relatively early & went to Fushimi Inari Taisha – an Inari shrine with thousands of torii lining paths to the inner shrine. The gates are painted every ten years, and are sponsored by businesses who write prayers for good fortune on the gates. (It is also the only shrine we went to that did not charge an entry fee). It wasn’t completely crowded with tourists, and I think it was my favorite spot in Kyoto.
the torii…

prayers…

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By now I have no idea what day it is or what time it is anywhere other than the place that I am at. I did laundry in the morning, and drank 5 cups of coffee before breakfast. (The laundry room had two coffee vending machines – one for hot coffee, the other for cold coffee). We had breakfast at McDonalds (I know, I know. I feel bad about it but we were hungry!). I did not eat the breakfast “McHotDog Classic” (a hotdog with ketchup & scrambled eggs) but I did try the potato, bacon, and cheese pie (tasted like deep fried potato soup).

We set off for a walking trail that someone at the Kyoto tourism center told us about. We first ended up at the Myoshin-ji Buddhist temple complex. We wandered through the complex and came upon a service in progress – lots of chanting and incense. We didn’t go in but stood a ways away and watched for a little while.

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Took the train to Kyoto. Whitney & I were staying two nights, but David had 5 hours to tour Kyoto before leaving for Yokosuka, so we took a whirlwind tour of some of the highlights. (First, though, we stuffed all of our backpacks into the lockers at the train station. A feat!)

The first place we stopped as Kiyomiza Temple (Kiyomizu-dera) – a very pretty Buddhist temple with lots of cherry blossoms and PEOPLE EVERYWHERE and incense and things for sale and great views of Kyoto.

One of the busiest places in the temple was a waterfall where three channels of water fall into a pond. There was a long line of people in queue for a chance to catch the water in a metal ladle and drink it. I had no idea what the significance of this was until I looked it up, but it is said that drinking from the three channels of water will confer health, wisdom, and/or longevity.

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Whitney woke up bright and early and got us to the Tsukiji Fish Market sort of on time. The fish market is a very busy place, with motorized & human-propelled carts going every which way at very high speeds, and it is a little overwhelming but you know you better stay alert because otherwise you’re going to get run over by a cart and it is going to suck.

We saw thousands of stalls selling all manner of marine life (in various states of fresh -> frozen). Tuna, sea urchin, squid, snapper, shrimp, eel, etc. It was raining and that helped keep the fish goo from getting on our clothes.

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After a very long flight, we made it to Japan. I’ve never been on a flight that long before, and it turned out to be pretty awesome. Basically I ate, slept, watched movies, and read on my nook…pretty relaxing, even if it was in a very small space. I had joked with my brother about carrying a sign with our names on it, but he scoffed and said “I’ll be the tallest guy there”. Turns out he was right. We took the Narita express to Tokyo (ooh! pretty! and fast!), and made it to Ikebukuro, where our hotel (the b ikebukuro) was.

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