A Japanese History Lesson

1^st – 14^th June 2016

I was originally only going to be in Japan for two weeks but for timing reasons with my next trip I decided to spend a month here. That turned out to be a very good decision as it meant I got to do a whole bunch of things that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

First night in Japan - a throw back to Australia

I flew into Osaka where I would be based for the first week. It is quite central with a few tourist spots close by so I was able to do a few day trips. I didn’t need to rush around so I didn’t see much on the first night. I got chatting to an Australian girl for a while. We got onto the topic of State of Origin and she pointed out that I was missing the first match. I quickly went to the shop to buy myself a beer (Asahi) and watched the second half on my laptop.

I was actually in the shop for quite a while looking for something to cook. There are no English labels in Japan so most of the time I didn’t know what I was buying. All the supermarkets do great ready meals though so that’s mostly what I ate in Japan.

Osaka Castle

Big moat

The ravens are coming

A few spider webs

I made my plans for the week and then I head out to explore the city of Osaka with the first stop being the castle. Osaka Castle, with its big moat and surrounding park, takes up quite a large area so it took a little while to walk around.

Small Japanese garden

Some big battle

The city of Osaka

The castle itself is pretty impressive. It’s not the original structure. It’s not even the third or fourth rebuild as I found out inside the castle where there is a small museum telling you the history of the area. There wasn’t much in the way of English signage so it was a little hard to follow but I got the gist. I went up to the top floor where there’s a great view over Osaka.

More castle

First of many temples

There’s a small temple inside the park which I went over to have a look at. It was the first of many MANY temples I would be seeing in Japan.

The posh bit

I think it was the Courthouse

I walked over to where there is a row of very important buildings. I can’t remember what was what but they were all very grand looking.

So many signs!

Streets with roofs

Famous running man

Commercial District

Interesting pillars

Then I went down to one of the shopping districts that’s not too far away from where was staying. There’s a ridiculous amount of shops here and an even more ridiculous amount of people. There’s so much noise too in the alleys with the enclosed roofs. There’s a few arcades on every street and they are deafening inside. It’s like being in a nightclub, you really have to shout to be heard over the racket. Everything here is loud, bright and flashy.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The next day was one of my favourite in all Japan. I spent the day at Universal Studios Japan in which there is a Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I was incredibly excited and had an epic day. It was so good that I’m going to give it its own separate entry.

Vending machines

Vending machines are a big thing in Japan. They are everywhere. On every corner of every street. It’s a wonder they don’t get broken into but then the crime rate in Japan is so low. A murder here is a huge deal. They definitely stick to the rules do the Japanese. Even when it comes to crossing the road. They’ll stand there and wait for the green man even if there is no cars in sight.

Nara

The first of my day trips out of Osaka was to Nara which was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 and has several historic sights worth visiting.

Big shrine

Don't burn it down

The first place I visited was a shrine which was founded well over a thousand years ago. Since then it has burned down five times! I found it quite amusing when I saw the no smoking sign infront of it. They clearly don’t want it to burn down a sixth time.

A deer!

Deer selfie

Cool Pic

One of the main attractions to Nara is the deer which roam freely around the streets. I thought this might be an exaggeration or that I would be lucky to spot one but they are literally everywhere. There’s hundreds of them, especially at the tourist spots. They will walk over to you and bow. This means they want you to feed them which everyone was doing. They’ve made a special cracker so they don’t get fat from being fed all day long.

Just chillin

I saw one girl in a school uniform feed one cracker to a deer and then tried to walk away with the rest of the bag. The deer then followed her around in circles as she screamed and tried to get away from it. I couldn’t help laughing.

Big gate

Big scary thing

Huge wooden temple

I walked past about a thousand deer to a huge temple. It’s the largest wooden structure in the world. This version of the temple was built over 300 years ago after the previous was burnt down in a war. It’s actually only two-thirds of the size of the original structure so that one would really have been massive.

Big Buddha

The original temple

Version 2

Inside there was huge Buddha, a few shines and a couple of models of the original temple complex. I spent a little time wandering around inside here. It was one huge room.

More of the park

Another temple

Many lanterns

I went over to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine which is another World Heritage Site in the vast park next to Nara. It was a bit expensive to go into so I didn’t. There are so many temples in Japan that I could afford to be a bit selective with the ones I pay for. I choose instead to have a look at the 2000 lanterns that line the path leading to the temple.

Not electric

I wandered around the park for a bit longer taking in the scenery and watching the deer before heading back to the city

Kobe

No idea which way

Double waterfall

Another day and another day trip. This time I went to the coastal city of Kobe where I accidentally ended up on a three hour hike. I walked up the hill behind the train station to see some waterfalls and the view over the city.

For the lazy people

Nice bridge

Trekking through the woods

The plan was to keep walking up to the cable car station (instead of paying for it) but I ended up walking along a ridge in the wrong direction. I found a faded and peeling map along the track and found a route back through the forest. It was a nice walk even if it was a bit random.

Another temple

Very nice

Lots of orange in Japan

I walked back into the city and headed towards the harbour. I came across a shrine which was painted a very bright orange.

Free lookout

Kobe city

There’s a government building in Kobe that has a free observation deck. I love a freebie so that was my next stop. There was a good view of the city but I can see why it’s free. You couldn’t charge for that.

Destructing from the 95 earthquake

Down at the harbour I came across I came across this memorial. It’s the destruction caused by an earthquake in 1995 that they have left untouched as a reminder of the devastation it caused. There were a few plaques and pictures next to it showing the damage in caused.

Kobe Tower

I wandered around the harbour for a little while. There’s a big tower and a futuristic boat that looked a bit like Thunderbird 2. Then I went back to Osaka. It had been a big day of walking.

Kyoto

Traditional Lanterns

Traditional Dress

After a week in and around Osaka it was time to move on to the nearby city of Kyoto which was the capital city for over 1 thousand years. The Gion district of the city is now famous for its Geisha’s. I spotted a man getting a picture taken with a couple of people in Kimono dress as they were walking down the street. They weren't real Geishas but as they are so many shops around that let you hire the clothes for the day there were quite a few people dressed like this. You are only really able to spot a real Geisha at dusk as they are heading out to meet clients and I don't think they'd stop for selfies!

Gion district

Traditional Japanese houses

Another temple

This area of the city had a lot of old traditional buildings. There was no mistaking I was in Japan. I was very different to Osaka. You can really feel the history here.

View of the city

Kyoto Tower

Kyoto was another city full of temples. I choose to visit only a few of them. The first one was up on a hill which gave a brilliant view of Kyoto Tower and the rest of the city. It was extremely busy at this temple. You had to watch out for your eyes with so many selfie sticks and peace signs being thrown about. I was surprised to see that almost all tourists were from Japan (or possibly just Asian). There weren’t all that many westerners and even fewer backpackers.

Thousand Armed Kannon

Sneaky pictures

I went back down the hill and past Sanjusangen-do, also known as the Hall of the Lotus King. The main feature here is the one thousand life size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon. You aren’t supposed to take pictures of these but I was a little rebellious and used my long zoom on a gap in the window. 124 of these statues are almost a thousand years old but the rest were remade in the 13^th century after a fire destroyed the original temple. They had a huge issue with fires the Japanese!

Distinctly Japanese

Foxes are said to be messengers

Lots of Torii gates

I went back up the hill to Fushimi Inari-taisha, yet another temple. The defining feature of this one was the Torii path. This is a path up to the top of the mountain lined with thousands of these brilliant orange gates. I had to go quite far up to find a quite enough spot to take pictures without a tourist in it. Even then I would have to wait a while.

Looking very cool

More gates

Top of the hill

Which way!?

The shrines went on and on and with a few different paths leading off the main one. It was quite a magical place to walk around once away from the bulk of the tourists.

My ticket could say anything

Kinkaku-ji - The Golden Temple

Another day, another temple. Kyoto is famous for its temples. Thankfully there wasn’t that many more temples to see after Kyoto which is good because I was getting a little bored of them. This golden temple, Kinkaku-ji, was still impressive with its beautiful gardens surrounding it.

Make a wish

There was a kind of wishing well just off the path where people were attempting to get there coin in the bowl to make a wish. I had a go but the problem is the smallest coin (1 Yen) was made more of plastic than of metal so it was too light to fly straight. Scam!

Beautiful gardens

Traditional tea house

Temple or shrine?

I continued to walk through the gardens which contained a traditional Japanese tea house and a shrine. I don’t know the difference between and shrine and a temple. I probably should have found that out.

On the outskirts of the city

Random house on the hill

I had bought a bus ticket for this second day of temple fun as all the sights I wanted to see were on the outskirts of the city. I got on another bus from the golden temple and made my way over to another suburb next to a river. I had come to visit the bamboo garden but thought I would go in the back way to avoid the tourists and hopefully get that wow factor moment.

Wow!

Very large bamboo

Bamboo forest

I definitely got on it. The top end of the garden was nowhere near as busy as the bottom so I was able to marvel at the stunning beauty and tranquillity of this place. It’s actually quite small but I was impressive none the less.

Peaceful part of the city

I joined the locals down by the river where I ate my lunch whilst waiting for the next bus. I really liked this area of Kyoto. It was like its own small town and everyone was out in the sun socialising. There was definitely village vibes and I love the smaller places.

Night time in the Gion district

A Geisha house

After going for a run along the river (the last one I found the motivation to do on my travels) I went over to the Gion district again to see it by night with all the lanterns on. I tried to spot a real Geisha but they must have all snook out. They probably know the best way to avoid the tourists.

The bullet train!

The next day was the first time I would be using my two week rail pass that can get me anywhere in Japan. The most exciting part about this was that I got to use the famous Shinkansen (bullet train). They look super cool. They have their own separate track and are able to get up to very high speeds but what surprised me the most was how smooth they are. If you shut your eyes you could almost convince yourself that you weren’t moving. When you go around a corner it banks like you were on a plane. I think that’s the best way to describe the feeling, like you’re on a plane.

Making things go wonky

I tried to get a video of the world going by on this super speedy train but the camera on my phone couldn’t cope and everything went lopsided.

New fancy looking hostel

My destination was Hiroshima but I stayed outside of the city as it was cheaper and I also had a rail pass. The hostel I stayed in was huge but there was barely anyone it in. I did run into two people I had been chatting to in Osaka about a week previous and it wouldn’t be the last time I ran into them either!

Hiroshima Castle

After getting up at 4am for a very disappointing football match I went into the very wet city of Hiroshima. The rain kind of set the mood for the day learning about a dark and gloomy past. I have learnt a lot about what the Japanese did to this part of the world during the war and it wouldn’t be a stretch to use the word ‘evil’. Now I was here to discover the consequences of their actions.

That famous building

At 8.15am on the 6^th August the world’s first atomic bombing occurred just metres above this now famous building. As it was so close to the hypocentre the building missed the worst of the blast and the 4000 degree heat waves that destroyed the majority of the city. It’s now been left as a memorial to the utter devastation it caused.

Hiroshima Memorial Park

Model of the explosion

Debris

I went into the museum nearby which shows the destruction and aftermath of the bomb. There was a section of wall that had shards of glass embed into it. This bit of wall was facing away from the explosion so this was caused by the huge suction of air after the initial explosion.

Radiation

Melted roof tiles

There were examples of melted roof tiles caused by the extreme heat and a map showing how much radiation the people below received. There was also examples of clothing that had been ripped apart, burnt and blasted. It was extremely sad to see that so many innocent people died in this way.

The queue to see Obama's message

He visited in May

Made some paper birds

I was shocked to see the amount of people queueing to view the hand written message left by President Barrack Obama when he visited in May. It clearly was a hugely significant event in Japan as he’s the first president to visit the memorial. I remember there were was an interest to see if he would apologise and which now led me to my own personal debate, should he?

Miserable day

I’ve recently discovered the war crimes and atrocities the Americans conducted in South East Asia so I certainly don’t sympathise with them. I have also seen the awful things that the Japanese inflicted on the Pacific so was the bomb the best way to end the war? There’s arguments for cost, loss and life and efficiency. People say the Japanese would have surrendered anyway but would that have been just locking the lion in a cage only for it to potentially escape later. The lion needed to be put down. But so many innocent people died.

I remain indecisive but one thing I think is obvious is that the second bombing in Nagasaki three days later was unnecessary. The point had already been made.

The threat of nuclear war

As I was leaving I saw a map that showed the number of nuclear bombs there are in the world and it’s quite scary. Especially when you consider that these bombs are many thousand times more powerful than the one that landed on Hiroshima.

The memorial

After I left the museum I went over to the memorial. For right or wrong, many people died here and they should be remembered.

Days after the bomb

Some survivors in the picture

There was a 360 degree picture from the centre of Hiroshima just days after the explosion. I spotted a couple of people hugging in the picture. What must have been going through their minds at that point?

Thoroughly soaked and now slightly depressed I decided to call it a day and returned to the hostel.

Catching the ferry

On my final day in Hiroshima I took a ferry over to a nearby island to visit the Itsukushima Shrine famous for its ‘floating’ torii gate.

The floating gate

The temple

Bridge with a very steep entrance

It’s a nice little place but a bit full of tourists. There's a small town next to it which solely consists of gift shops. I probably wouldn’t have bothered but the ferry was included in the with the rail pass. The ferry had at least been fun.

This was the last temple that I really explored in Japan and in Asia. It definitely represents Japan’s rich history with its Empire back in the day. I learnt a lot about Japanese history, the good and the bad. With all its different eras and its more recent war history. It’s certainly an interesting country. My next destination would reveal more about its Geological history.