Bitesize Japan

Lots to do in Japan but we aren't really staying anywhere long enough to see all of it. Instead we are getting a flavour of what it has to offer and where we will come to when we return...

Around Kyoto
You could seriously just live in Kyoto and still not visit every park, museum, temple or shrine. We took Jo and Nate's advice and headed out of town a bit to Inari-jinja (Inari Temple and shrine).

Temples and shrines in Japan can be large sprawling affairs over a whole hill. Investigating one can be more like hiking than just popping in to your local church. Inari-jinja has loads of red gates covering the pathways to the top of the hill, with shrines and graveyards along the way. You get to the top and see views of Kyoto and also down to the main temple area.



As we have some new momentum, we then hopped back on the train and headed to Nara.

Nara is the type of place you could spend 2 days in. Or in our case, an afternoon. There are some massive temples, a great shrine, an awesome park and... loads of mental, sacred deer. Wandering among the many many tourists. It was like Bambi on crack. The deer were nudging you, pushing past you, trying to get food... imagine this mixed with groups of school children, coach loads of Japanese OAPs, and the odd bemused Western tourist. Fantastic. Oh, the temples were awesome too but less amusing than the crowds.





Himejii
The long and short is we went to see a castle. It was peeing it down. We met fellow travellers Matt and Nickiy, coming out of the castle. They looked very wet, very cold and pretty miserable. Turns out all the indoors bits are under renovation. So we all went for lunch together instead and when we return to Japan, we'll visit the castle.



We did get a photo of Matt and Nickiy outside a model of the castle :-)

Hiroshima
We weren't sure what to expect of the first city that had a nuclear bomb dropped on it. It surprised us that it is a thriving, bustly city, with beautiful wide avenues and lots of bridges and rivers. As you would expect, no old buildings. Though they have rebuilt their castle.

One building survived the Atom Bomb, and is now a Peace Memorial.



There is also a Peace Park and a museum about the run up to the A-bomb being dropped and its effects. The museum was pretty sobering but thought provoking:

• our history tells us that we HAD to drop the a-bombs on Japan or they wouldn't have surrendered. The museum presented documents and a narrative suggesting that the US and UK wanted to use the bomb to show their might to the Soviet Union. Therefore the demand for surrender sent to Japan was deliberately made unpalatable to the Japanese (ie it did not state that the emperor system could continue). There is more on this, but that's it in a nutshell. No doubt some of you will have some opinions on this...!
• Hiroshima rose up again quickly after the a-bomb, and rebuilt the city
• Since the 1950s, when the US left and so they could more freely tell people about the effects of the A-Bomb, the city has modelled itself as an ambassador for world peace and calls for total nuclear disarmament (not totally surprising but interesting none the less).
• It has lots of programmes and rallies and efforts to achieve this
• There is a MASSIVE emphasis in the city on how Peace can and should be achieved in the world.

Near Hiroshima is the island of Miya jima. This island has the classic red temple gate in the sea, that is used for a lot of iconic Japan images.

Again, think Temple complex covering a whole hill. In fact, think 4 hour hike to the shrine on the summit or do what we did and get a cable car to the top and walk back down. Again...somewhere you could spend a day or 2 exploring...

Of course, we also went to Hiroshima Castle and we HAD to just do it...

Turns out Samurai armour wasn't really built with 6 footers in mind. No trousers to fit him and that tunic should be down to his knees...

Nagasaki

So, we liked one city that had been atom bombed so we went to the other one...okay, bad taste! In fact, Nagasaki is as far west and south as we will come in Japan and is a long way from Tokyo (on train at least). We are here because it is a buzzy, laid back, but lovely city. We've dubbed it the Japanese Bristol - really pleasant, chilled out, lots of great things to see but not one great big "look at me" type attraction.

Originally the city was the ONLY place in Japan for centuries where foreigners were allowed. This has led to a large China Town, a reputation for great food influenced by different cuisines and, for some reason, a lot of cake shops :-) It is a port city with a river system. We've spent a pleasant sunny day strolling by the river, going up the hillside to look at temples and shrines, visiting the dock area, and just well, doing what we'd do back home. Very very pleasant.

The big shame, is that, like everywhere we've been, there is so much more to explore just a train or bus journey away... next time...