Hiroshima

We woke early and drove to the Hakata train station. The high speed trains in Japan are called the Shinkansen. The particular Shinkansen we rode today traveled from Hakata (Fukuoka) to Tokyo.

Tokyo is about 5 hours or more on the train, but we only rode it for an hour to Hiroshima. That hour ride is 9100 yen (about $85) one way - pretty damn expensive. The train ride is surprisingly really smooth and the seats are also comfortable. If only California had a high speed rail like this from San Diego to San Francisco. Think of the cut down on traffic, accidents, gas, and constant freeway widening. Someone who lives in SD could be to work in LA in an hour or so. Forget it, that's a topic for another blog. Back to Hiroshima...

We arrived at the Hiroshima train station and hopped in a 10 minute taxi ride to the Peace Memorial Museum. At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945, this site fell victim to the world's first atomic bombing. I never knew this but the bomb never landed on the ground in Hiroshima, it did in Nagasaki however. The bomb actually detinated about 300 feet above the ground (cant remember the distance). The bomb created a fireball that produced winds over 440 meters per second (985 mph) and a temperature of a 5,000 degrees Celsius. In the words of Tommy Boy, "that's going to leave a mark."

There isn't a bias in the museum blaming the United States for taking the lives of 140,000 people and injuring another 210,000 on this first bombing. There are parts of the exhibit showing the reasoning for the US doing this. The first part of the exhibit shows how the Japanese were fucking with every country and starting a lot of unnecessary wars. There is a letter in the museum from Albert Einstein, who worked on the bomb, where he advises President Truman NOT to use it, but he obviously ignores a man a million times smarter than him. There are collections of clothes, lunchboxes, purses, hair, and wrist and pocket watches (all stopped at exactly 8:15) from the bodies. The museum asked not to take photos, so I didn't. Like I said the museum points no fingers, but it does have a very clear message: Never again!

The United States actually do not have the most nuclear warheads in their possession, very close though. It's Russia who has the most, further proving my recent theory that the Russians are out the get us again. I think they're pissed we've interfered with everything good they've had going on. We may or may not have beat them in the space race to the moon (might be fake). We embarrassed them in hockey at the 1980 Olympics. The How about Afghanistan? We armed Afghanistan so that they could defeat the Russians. Then Afghanistan turned around and declared war on us with our own weapons. Haha. Again, that's a whole other blog. My point: careful of the Russians.

The museum is a excellent place advocating peace in the world and the end of nuclear warhead production. It was said that it would take 75 years to regrown plants, but as you can see in the pictures there's green everywhere.

People outside stand out there promoting peace and giving free hugs to everyone - pretty moving.





The bombed structure is one of only a few buildings in Hiroshima that were left standing after the bombing and is the only one still there today.



I took this picture on the T-bridge, which was the target for the bomb - see the dome to the left and how it close it was to the fireball.

After touring the exhibits, we walked into downtown Hiroshima.

Tomorrow my parents go back home and DJ goes on a trip to Sapporo for a couple games. I'm staying in Fukuoka to wander alone for 3 days. This should be interesting.

Softbank Hawks vs. Seibu Lions

DJ had to be at the stadium at 10 AM to practice for the game so my parents and I just lounged around the apartment for awhile. The mall is across the street from the stadium so we went over there early to get some food and check out some Japanese mall rats. What I found was a mall MONKEY!

This monkey was doing acrobatic tricks and was pretty entertaining. Jane Goodall and that dude from Escape to Chimp Eden would throw a fit.

On to the game. The Stadium is beautiful. It has a jumbo-tron scoreboard that is like a gigantic plasma TV, it's crystal clear! I watched batting practice in an empty stadium. The only people walking among the seats were the employees picking up trash and mopping the floor. I don't think a mop has ever touched the floor of Dodger Stadium. After the employees were done, they met with their managers and recited their greetings and "thank you"s (or "arrigato"s) that they must say to all patrons of the stadium. Yeah, I recorded it...

(I took this video discreetly on my still camera so it's not very good)

The stadium began to fill with fans of all ages, and I mean all ages. I saw dudes that looked like they were 130 years old. Everyone is dressed head-to-toe in Softbank Hawks apparel; I wore a hat. In right field are the crazier fans. Drums, trumpets and giant flags all draw your attention to them. The other team has their own small section in left field where they do the same. I guess they travel with the team? In an ocean of yellow (Softbank's color) you see a small patch of blue (Seibu's color) in left field.

These fans are the cheerleaders. When a player from that team is up to bat they do their songs and chants. Loud banging of drums rumble the stadium and the trumpets are heard under the loud singing. These fans mean business! Took another video on the still camera to give you an idea.

Each player has their own introduction when the starting lineup is called, just like back home. But the quality is much better. Here is DJ's.

It was a great game. DJ pitched 7.1 innings with 9 strikeouts and 2 earned runs. Unfortunately the Hawks only scored 2 runs as well, and in Japan, no game goes past 12 innings. The game ended in a tie. Weak.

There is no 7th inning stretch or singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," there is "Lucky 7th" where you blow up balloons with whistlers on the end and let them off in the air. A tad childish, but then again a lot of things in Japan are childish.

Tomorrow is a day off for DJ, so we're going to Hiroshima.

Two of Japan's religions: Shinto and Baseball

My first day here I woke early to do the first thing on my list: learn of Japan's religions. About a 30 minute drive from the apartment is a city named Dazaifu, the location of the Tenman-gū Shinto shrine. This was not a very peaceful place on this specific day. There were shit-load of children there for field trips so it was fairly loud and I don't feel I got the full experience. Not like I could have anyway since everything at this location is in Japanese characters and the only semi-English speaking guide had the day off. Just behind the temple was the Kyūshū National Museum, again the only tour guide was gone so we didn't waste the 2750 yen to get in.

This structure is called a Torii. These Japanese gates are used to mark the entrances of Shinto temples.

Just behind the temple was this area with ponds of Koi fish and some had turtles. Give you an idea of how green this country is.

The country worships something other than the many gods of the Shinto religion, and that's Baseball. Later in the day, I walked to the Yahoo! dome from the apartment, it's only a 20 minute walk. I wanted to make sure I had the route to the stadium down since I would be walking there many times during this trip. I also wanted to get a feel of the process to getting into the stadium and the crowds.

More on Baseball tomorrow. The Match-up: Fukuoka Softbank Hawks vs. Seibu Lions at 2 PM. Seibu Lions have the best record in the entire league. Starting Pitcher for Softbank: D.J. Houlton - Lions are going down.

My first impressions

This country is amazing so far! My first impression of the Japanese people came the minute I landed in Tokyo. Every employee in that airport recognized the fact that I probably won't know any Japanese so they would approach me and, with broken English, offer assistance. Could any of you see an American gladly offering help to a Japanese visitor, or any other visitor for that case? Negatory. Everyone is extremely polite and Fukuoka is spotless! If someone walks by trash on the floor (which is rare) they pick it up whether it is theirs or not. Kids look at you like you're an alien, or Godzilla.

Every road is a toll road with a fee of 600 yen, about $5.50. A country of many smokers and not a single butt on the floor. Men in collared shirts walk the streets sweeping and cleaning gutters. Everyone, I mean almost everyone, rides bikes! There are parking lots just for bicycles and they are PACKED with them. None of them locked to a pole - very trusting people. It's hard to find trashcans around the city, and when you do there are different types because they are big on recycling here. Vending machines are everywhere. There are no paper towels in restrooms (you call them toilets here). Speaking of toilets, there are not many "Western" style ones. Most of them are squatters if you catch my drift. But there are urinals, so that's sweet. Then again, us guys can go anywhere.

Bikes everywhere!

There's the toilets for you, ladies. Not sure if Asian women are as attractive to you guys anymore imagining them using these. Or maybe they're more attractive - whatever floats your boat, sickies.



The vending machines are everywhere. Even ones that sell cigs. Middle of parking lots, sidewalks in neighborhoods, even in the prostitution houses (uh, some guy told me), kidding of course.

Everyone bows to you, and every employee is a model employee. There is NO TIPPING! No one will accept it and some people say it's almost an insult to even try. Like I said about model employees, they are better servers and more polite than any of us without working for tips! Same with cab drivers, no tipping and they'll stop on a dime to pick you up. The taxis are cool, the driver has a lever like a bus driver that opens your door for you and closes it. The cab drivers also dress like chauffeurs, complete with hat and gloves. All the cars are cool out here actually, we need these cars in America, though I have seen one Bentley, a Chevy Tahoe, a convertable low rider out of a Dr. Dre music video, and a Maserati. I have learned very little basic Japanese phrases already so that I can order food or pay for merchandise. I'm sure I'll learn a lot more in these next two weeks. I also have a cell phone that has three translators in the phone book that will help if I get stuck or lost somewhere.

This country is very green; trees everywhere, but it's hotter than shit. Humidity is through the roof and it rains whenever the hell it wants to for a minute or an hour. There is a cloud cover almost all the time and I have used my sunglasses only once. My parents are out here with me for three more days so we'll do some sight seeing together. I'm taking these first days to adjust to everything, and it's going well so far.

P.S. Everyone is an excellent driver out here! Who would of thought that? Ignore the sterotype.

I have arrived!

I left LAX at 12:55 PM August 27th on a 11 1/2 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean and arrived in Tokyo 4:20 PM August 28th. Damn that international time zone line. I didn't sleep one bit on the airplane because I was hooked up with business class and it was too much fun to sleep. Free drinks and gourmet meals along with a fully transforming chair/bed. Each seat had its own fold out 9in TV with news, movies, games, and music on demand. I watched the 1978 surf film Big Wednesday starring the always charming Gary Busey. Not sure why the hell that movie was on demand among blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda and Chronicles on Narnia. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I actually watched What Happens in Vegas with Aston Kutcher. Don't foresee any Oscars there.

In between flicks, I started to read the book The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by Maarten Troost. I love his writing style and I plowed through nearly half the book on the plane, often chuckling a little and waking the other passengers asleep in their beds. I took a little break and played some MLB 2K7 on my PSP. Continued my season with the Angels of course. Started my boy Joe Saunders against the Seattle Mariners. Vladdy went 4-5 with 2 HRs and Napoli hit a 3-run jack. Typical of the Angels, slaughtering anyone in the AL West. The most fun on a airplane ever! When we landed they had to drag me off that plane kicking and screaming.

From Tokyo, I needed to get on a 2 hour ecomony class (yuck) flight to the island Kyūshū, which is where the city of Fukuoka is located. At 7:55 PM August 28th, I had finally arrived!