Hiroshima, BABY!!
Another three day weekend, baby!! This past three day weekend was a trip to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is pretty awesome. I thought of it as kind of like Taipei but not as stink. Everything was pretty clean and I think you could get away with more English than in Taipei. Anyway three day weekend was because of the Autumn Equinox. Last year I believe I was at home because of the crappy weather. But not this year, the weather couldn’t be any better. The weather was hot but with nice trade-ish winds.
Well party in attendance was the couple in C501 Kevin and Val, Helen, and Ms. C606 Amie. The best part was meeting up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh. I haven’t seen Lisa for like 3 months but seeing her picture over and over again for two weeks when we made her a birthday slideshow I realized that I actually miss her a lot. Oh and it’s been at least a year since I saw her. She looks so grown up… I couldn’t really believe it! And even more surprising thing was that she is starting to look more and more like Lisa. The family resemblance is uncanny. Jesse’s boyfriend was also in attendance in Hiroshima. He was pretty cool and easy to talk to, but maybe more on the quiet side. But nothing a few beers couldn’t take care off. But most of time was quiet and just followed Jesse around.
Well on the first day we had some trouble figuring out our cardinal directions but in no time we were on our way to the hotel. That’s one thing I noticed living in Japan, everyone here uses cardinal directions but back home in Hawaii everyone just uses mauka and makai. Anyway when we got to our hotel we found out that the Peace Park and Hiroshima Atomic Bomb museum was roughly pretty close. We were maybe 10 minutes away from the park. Which was a huge relieve because we had originally thought we would have to use public transportation and in a new city that could be pretty tough. Anyway, we went and saw the Children’s Peace Memorial. The memorial about the girl Sadako. Not the girl from the Ring but the girl who was exposed to radiation the A-bomb caused and in her last few months folded all the paper cranes to make a wish. The first time I heard about the memorial was in sophomore Social Studies in High School. We read books about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We even did a project and that’s how I first learned about Sadako. Anyway when they first made the memorial lots of kids from around the world sent cranes to add to the memorial. The museum that we went to after was pretty crazy as well. It was interesting seeming the whole atomic bomb thing from both perspectives. Not many people can say that they’ve been to the Arizona Memorial and the Hiroshima Museum. I felt they did a really good job in portraying a very factual and non-biased view of what happened during World War II. Although I over heard some generic Caucasian guy over 60 years old bitching in the museum. He said, “I’m not going to fall for this so called museum that is trying to make people sorry for having us bomb them…” People like that are entitled to their opinions but come on. Keep conversations like that for private areas, not a memorial museum for the whole incident. Oh I forgot to mention the area where they had the museum is about 200 meters (200 yards) from the place where the actual bomb exploded. The museum was pretty intense in showing the before, during, and after effects of the bomb on Hiroshima. They even had wax figures of civilians walking around a post-apocalyptic scene (Hiroshima) with skin hanging off their hands and arms. That I would have to say was pretty freaky. The latter part of the museum was about the lasting effects of radiation poisoning and the different kind of things that happened to the people of Hiroshima years after the bombing. This was equally gross. One thing I vividly remember is the story of a brother and sister and what they went through. They were not directly hit with the bomb’s heat wave but they did suffer radiation poisoning. Some of the things that happened to them were constant vomiting, diarrhea, hair falling out, purple spots from bleeding under the skin, and crazy keloids. The story talked about the two siblings trying to survive. The girl was 12 or something and the boy 8-ish. They said that the girl eventually got better and fought off the effects of the radiation but the boy died a pretty horrific death. They said he wouldn’t stop vomiting for a months or so and eventually we threw up his own internal organs and died the next day! AHHHHH CRAZY!
Ok, enough of that. After the museum we met up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh and went to look for a place to party. The first stop was an authentic Irish Pub, which was really good. They all this pub food that puts the Hub to shame and the beer was very good. After that we headed towards the nearest Karaoke place which was the Hello Kitty Echo City or something like that. The whole place was in theme to Hello Kitty. So you all can imagine how excited Krystal and Lisa were. Anyway we stayed for about 3 hours singing and drinking. We even played a karaoke game where we passed the microphone around every line and whoever the song stopped on would have to down their drink. The person who lost big was Helen. It just seemed that songs always ended on her. I think she lost around 8 times. So by now everyone is drunk and decide to call it a night. Lucky for us we figured out the way to our hotel by cutting across the Peace Park. And evidently Kevin decided he needed to take a leak right there in the Peace Park! While waiting for him I passed out… in a tree. There were these huge trees that kind of looked like snowmen all lines up. The path in between takes you straight to the museum. But I passed out in it and became the butt of everyone jokes for the rest of the weekend. Horoscope Sagittarius: All your friends are laughing behind your backs… kill them. MUWAHAHAHA
The second day we checked out the Hiroshima Castle and had some Subway. On the way to the castle we passed the Hiroshima Carp Stadium where they were playing the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers are the team for everyone in the Osaka and Kyoto area. Anyway we debated whether or not to and decided that we should get moving. Anyway the second half of the day was going to Miyajima. It’s an island that has a Tori (gate) in the waters off the island. It is one of the top three sights of all of Japan. Being about 30 minutes away we can’t miss that right? Anyway we took a ferry and went to the island. The Tori was pretty cool but the town around was just like a tourist trap. It had a whole bunch of souvenir shops and local tasty treats. Another thing they had were deer. The deer roamed around amongst the tourists to get any kind of food possible. At one point Josh bought corn on the cob and was harassed by a deer for 15 minutes. Anyway the deer there looked pretty mangy and dirty. They smelled nasty and didn’t want to go near one. Anyway we saw the famous sight and made our way back to Hiroshima. That night instead of getting pissed drunk we decided to chill and bring the booze to our rooms. There we played some drinking games and called an early night.
Sunday was a pretty relaxed day where we got to eat authentic pizza from an Italian cook and check out the shops in the area. I got a chance to go into a few toy stores and some video game places. Then we were off to train station heading for home. It was supposed to be a smooth travel but at the gate we seem to have over looked something. The return ticket that the lady got for us was marked for a different day. That meant we didn’t have any seats. It was a long 2 hours back to Kyoto and we were not going to stand. We tried to fix the situation but the best we could do was get seats in the smoking car. Actually the seats weren’t that bad but the fact that the lady screwed us over before we eve left pissed us off. But we made it home safe and sound and added another tick to the places we’ve been in Japan.
It was nice to Lisa again, and it won’t be long until my family comes to visit. Actually they are due to land in Kansai International Airport on Friday. That only means only one thing… clean, clean, clean.
Break it Down!
Well party in attendance was the couple in C501 Kevin and Val, Helen, and Ms. C606 Amie. The best part was meeting up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh. I haven’t seen Lisa for like 3 months but seeing her picture over and over again for two weeks when we made her a birthday slideshow I realized that I actually miss her a lot. Oh and it’s been at least a year since I saw her. She looks so grown up… I couldn’t really believe it! And even more surprising thing was that she is starting to look more and more like Lisa. The family resemblance is uncanny. Jesse’s boyfriend was also in attendance in Hiroshima. He was pretty cool and easy to talk to, but maybe more on the quiet side. But nothing a few beers couldn’t take care off. But most of time was quiet and just followed Jesse around.
Well on the first day we had some trouble figuring out our cardinal directions but in no time we were on our way to the hotel. That’s one thing I noticed living in Japan, everyone here uses cardinal directions but back home in Hawaii everyone just uses mauka and makai. Anyway when we got to our hotel we found out that the Peace Park and Hiroshima Atomic Bomb museum was roughly pretty close. We were maybe 10 minutes away from the park. Which was a huge relieve because we had originally thought we would have to use public transportation and in a new city that could be pretty tough. Anyway, we went and saw the Children’s Peace Memorial. The memorial about the girl Sadako. Not the girl from the Ring but the girl who was exposed to radiation the A-bomb caused and in her last few months folded all the paper cranes to make a wish. The first time I heard about the memorial was in sophomore Social Studies in High School. We read books about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We even did a project and that’s how I first learned about Sadako. Anyway when they first made the memorial lots of kids from around the world sent cranes to add to the memorial. The museum that we went to after was pretty crazy as well. It was interesting seeming the whole atomic bomb thing from both perspectives. Not many people can say that they’ve been to the Arizona Memorial and the Hiroshima Museum. I felt they did a really good job in portraying a very factual and non-biased view of what happened during World War II. Although I over heard some generic Caucasian guy over 60 years old bitching in the museum. He said, “I’m not going to fall for this so called museum that is trying to make people sorry for having us bomb them…” People like that are entitled to their opinions but come on. Keep conversations like that for private areas, not a memorial museum for the whole incident. Oh I forgot to mention the area where they had the museum is about 200 meters (200 yards) from the place where the actual bomb exploded. The museum was pretty intense in showing the before, during, and after effects of the bomb on Hiroshima. They even had wax figures of civilians walking around a post-apocalyptic scene (Hiroshima) with skin hanging off their hands and arms. That I would have to say was pretty freaky. The latter part of the museum was about the lasting effects of radiation poisoning and the different kind of things that happened to the people of Hiroshima years after the bombing. This was equally gross. One thing I vividly remember is the story of a brother and sister and what they went through. They were not directly hit with the bomb’s heat wave but they did suffer radiation poisoning. Some of the things that happened to them were constant vomiting, diarrhea, hair falling out, purple spots from bleeding under the skin, and crazy keloids. The story talked about the two siblings trying to survive. The girl was 12 or something and the boy 8-ish. They said that the girl eventually got better and fought off the effects of the radiation but the boy died a pretty horrific death. They said he wouldn’t stop vomiting for a months or so and eventually we threw up his own internal organs and died the next day! AHHHHH CRAZY!
Ok, enough of that. After the museum we met up with Lisa, Jesse, and Josh and went to look for a place to party. The first stop was an authentic Irish Pub, which was really good. They all this pub food that puts the Hub to shame and the beer was very good. After that we headed towards the nearest Karaoke place which was the Hello Kitty Echo City or something like that. The whole place was in theme to Hello Kitty. So you all can imagine how excited Krystal and Lisa were. Anyway we stayed for about 3 hours singing and drinking. We even played a karaoke game where we passed the microphone around every line and whoever the song stopped on would have to down their drink. The person who lost big was Helen. It just seemed that songs always ended on her. I think she lost around 8 times. So by now everyone is drunk and decide to call it a night. Lucky for us we figured out the way to our hotel by cutting across the Peace Park. And evidently Kevin decided he needed to take a leak right there in the Peace Park! While waiting for him I passed out… in a tree. There were these huge trees that kind of looked like snowmen all lines up. The path in between takes you straight to the museum. But I passed out in it and became the butt of everyone jokes for the rest of the weekend. Horoscope Sagittarius: All your friends are laughing behind your backs… kill them. MUWAHAHAHA
The second day we checked out the Hiroshima Castle and had some Subway. On the way to the castle we passed the Hiroshima Carp Stadium where they were playing the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers are the team for everyone in the Osaka and Kyoto area. Anyway we debated whether or not to and decided that we should get moving. Anyway the second half of the day was going to Miyajima. It’s an island that has a Tori (gate) in the waters off the island. It is one of the top three sights of all of Japan. Being about 30 minutes away we can’t miss that right? Anyway we took a ferry and went to the island. The Tori was pretty cool but the town around was just like a tourist trap. It had a whole bunch of souvenir shops and local tasty treats. Another thing they had were deer. The deer roamed around amongst the tourists to get any kind of food possible. At one point Josh bought corn on the cob and was harassed by a deer for 15 minutes. Anyway the deer there looked pretty mangy and dirty. They smelled nasty and didn’t want to go near one. Anyway we saw the famous sight and made our way back to Hiroshima. That night instead of getting pissed drunk we decided to chill and bring the booze to our rooms. There we played some drinking games and called an early night.
Sunday was a pretty relaxed day where we got to eat authentic pizza from an Italian cook and check out the shops in the area. I got a chance to go into a few toy stores and some video game places. Then we were off to train station heading for home. It was supposed to be a smooth travel but at the gate we seem to have over looked something. The return ticket that the lady got for us was marked for a different day. That meant we didn’t have any seats. It was a long 2 hours back to Kyoto and we were not going to stand. We tried to fix the situation but the best we could do was get seats in the smoking car. Actually the seats weren’t that bad but the fact that the lady screwed us over before we eve left pissed us off. But we made it home safe and sound and added another tick to the places we’ve been in Japan.
It was nice to Lisa again, and it won’t be long until my family comes to visit. Actually they are due to land in Kansai International Airport on Friday. That only means only one thing… clean, clean, clean.
Break it Down!
posted by Chris at 3:56 AM
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