March 29, 2007

Sayonnara Japan

OSAKA, JAPAN - Kyoto is a must see for anybody travelling to Japan. It`s the cultural centre of all that is Japanese. I took heed and made sure to include it on my whirlwind tour of Japan and now I can safely offer my opinion - and my photos.　

It`s this way during most of my travels; the places I think will inspire me never do, and the places I don`t expect anything from end up blowing my mind. Kyoto will live in my memory as a classic example of this phenomenon. It`s sort of like fast food tourism.

I thought I was in a prime spot to feel inspired with Zen Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and all the mystique of the Samurai. Instead what I ended up doing was peeking around tourist buses and jockeying for position at the designated photo spots.

Don`t get me wrong, it`s beautiful and the history is astounding. It seemed that everybody (including myself) was there because the guide books said we needed to be. We all spent more time bumping into tourists, than soaking in the sights.

At each attraction it was the same; pay the admission, snap the photo and buy the knick-knack before rushing off to the next world heritage temple. Almost without exception, I felt cheated each time I lined up to pay admission. In the end I went my own way and surely missed some incredible temples. The truth is though, that I already only vaguely remember the ones I did see.

I`m in the giant port city of Osaka tonight and will be boarding a ferry bound for Shanghai, China tomorrow morning. The trip is meant to take 48 hours.

I`ve been amazed with what I`ve seen here in Japan. It will stand out in my mind for years to come.

March 27, 2007

Sleepless in Tokyo

KYOTO, JAPAN - A weekend in Tokyo is like a weekend trip to the future. Like some ultra cool sci-fi vacation. The fashions, the lights, the gadgets and the controlled chaos of it all blew me away. I`d known going in, that it was the biggest city in the entire world. What I didn`t imagine was how apparent it would seem.

After travelling North from Hiroshima I stopped in Nagoya to meet up with Caroline before zooming into the city, on the Shinkansen at 300km/hr, for a Saturday night out in Tokyo. I didn`t realize it then then but it was to be the start of my first ever full weekend without sleep. Tokyo truly is a city that doesn`t sleep - It does, however take an occasional nap at MacDonalds (see here, here and here).

The neon nights blend in seamlessly, almost imperceptibly with daylight hours. It seemed perfectly natural to party all night before stopping in at in Tsujiki to witness the dawn auctions in a fish market more bustling than most cities in the world. After the freshest possible sushi meal, it`s only natural to want to take advantage of the sunny spring weather and wander some of the cities parks, and shopping districts taking in the blossoming cherry trees and the chaotic daily life of Tokyo-ites. Of course a day of exploring the city it perfectly topped off with a drink or two on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt with the galaxy of lights shining below.

After our first all nighter, we were so completely blown away by it all that there was no choice but to keep going. At every hour of the day and night, there was something fantastic for us to be doing. With so little time, we were forced to catch our zzzzz`s for a couple hours each morning at our hostel and sometimes on the Metro as we missed our stops.

For the next several months, I`m sure I`ll be starting a lot of my stories with: "This one time in Tokyo..." I don`t know what I was expecting, but It`s a futuristic metropolis that has something for everyone. I will definitely travel back later in life.

I`m currently in the old Capitol of Kyoto for a dose of traditional Japanese culture. The extreme opposite of the lights chaos of Tokyo. There are 17 world heritage sites and more than 2000 temples and Shinto shrines to see. I suspect that the two days I`ve allowed myself won`t be nearly enough.

Also, I got a few emails asking about the earthquake. It was off the Northwest coast. We didn`t feel anything in Tokyo.

**If you measure cities by their actual municipal boundaries Tokyo isn`t the biggest. The municipal boundaries don`t mean much for me though, Tokyo feels like the biggest of all the places I`ve been.

March 23, 2007

Hiroshima

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - On August 6th, 1945 at 8:15am, the city of Hiroshima was waking up to what most expected would be another day of business as usual. It's citizens could not have imagined that less than a minute later the city would be 90% destroyed and in flames. 70,000 people would be dead, some of them completely vaporized; literally just a shadow on a doorstep. By december of that year the death toll would stand at 140,000. Up until that point the citizenry had been spared the Allied bombing that the rest of Japan had recently suffered. They couldn't know that this omission was intentional so as to ensure that the effects of the bomb could be accurately observed.

In the centre of the city of Hiroshima stands this building (pictured). It is the only ruin left it stood 160m away from the hypocentre and was 'spared' mostly because the bomb exploded almost directly above it. Aside from the Memorial Park nearby there is almost no physical evidence of the destruction that occurred here more than 50 years ago. It's a bustling, modern, Japanese city that is completely devoted to peace and the the destruction of all the worlds nuclear arms. The A-bomb museum here drives this concept home with sledgehammer force.

I've been in Japan now for a few days, I've spent most of my time wandering and exploring the cities of Fukuoka and Hiroshima, both modern marvels. Tonight I'll be getting on another bullet train to the city of Nagoya to meet up with Caroline before heading into Tokyo for what I hope to be an exciting Saturday night. Though the trains are fast, I'd better get going if I want to arrive in the city with enough time...