Hiroshima, Japan

Now I know why the Bible says, “Blessed are the peacemakers…” (Jesus, Sermon on the Mount). Anyone who sees Hiroshima, Japan knows why peace is so important. Hiroshima is the toughest place so far for me to write about. It touched me in a way that I did not expect. From the second I stepped off of the bus, I knew that this was going to be much different than I expected. It was the saddest thing that I have ever seen, but the thing that I am most glad to have experienced while in Japan. Nothing could have prepared me for this.

As I stepped off of the bus, my heart sunk when I saw the dilapidated skeleton of a building that was once the heart of Hiroshima. This building, now known as A-bomb Dome was once a busy building with many people working. Now, it is a memorial for the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August of 1945. The park, called Peace Park, was difficult for me to get through, not because of the terrain, but because of the emotional significance of this place. It was not only a place for tourists either as I also saw school groups and what seemed to be locals walking in the park. There was a large monument with a goddess of peace and doves around it. This was also covered in paper cranes because people make these as an offering and they stand for peace. There is a belief that if you make one thousand paper cranes and hang them, then your wish will come true. At this monument, there was a noise box that explained in Japanese first, then English, the significance of the monument. It described the lives lost, the children who gave up their youth for their country and very sad depictions of the day that the bomb was dropped. As I sat there listening to the number of teenagers that had died in the bombing, I imagined how I would feel if this were to happen in my home, to my friends. I thought about people the same age as those described in the recording. I thought about my youth group from home, I wondered how it must have felt for so many parents to lose their children. After this sad contemplation, I headed for the museum.

We were making our way to the museum, when somehow we began a conversation with a Japanese man and 3 Japanese women who were walking in the park. This was interesting as I almost expected them to be hostile toward Americans, but they were some of the kindest and most accepting people that I have ever met. It was incredible. The man spoke to us about our travels and appeared to be very interested and accepting of America. The women had paper cranes that they had made and placed in plastic bags to hand out. They gave each of us one and smiled a lot and spoke with us in English.

Then, we crossed the street toward the museum. We were stopped by an older woman with an umbrella, shielding the sun. She stopped each of us to bless us (or pray) for us specifically. We did not know what she said, but she closed her eyes, bowed her head, put her hand in front of one of our faces, and said some words in Japanese. After a long silent pause, she lowered her hand and said thank you many times. This was interesting and we didn’t know what it meant, but were glad to have experienced it as the lady was very glad to have done what she did.

We arrived at the museum and paid 50 yen to enter, which is less than a dollar in America. We entered and watched a video that had English subtitles, which described the gruesome events. After the video, we waited in line with people that were mostly of Asian descent to see artifacts of the bombing and historical documents that led to the event. There were letters from US presidents and former heads of state from other countries. There were the letters from Einstein that led to the creation of the bomb. There were things that I had no idea existed because we don’t learn about this event very well in American public schools.

The saddest artifacts came after the factual documents. There were clothes from school children that were killed in the bombing. There were plaques next to the clothes that told the names and ages of the children and teens who had worn those clothes the day they died. The plaques described where the victims were and what they were doing that fateful morning at 8:15. Most of the children struggled home with deep and deadly burns and died hours later by their parents. There was hair and even fingernails that parents had kept because it was all that remained of their children. I had no idea that I would see things like this. The museum and park put the whole event into a different perspective for me. It was also interesting to be one of few Americans in the museum. Most visitors appeared to be Japanese or of Asian descent. This was an awkward experience for me because I would expect for the victims of such a horrific incident to be hostile toward Americans, but they were not. For the most part, the other visitors were accepting and kind. I was very emotional in parts of the museum and even cried. This was met with sympathy, instead of hostility. Of all of the things that I expected to experience, sympathy was not one of them – wow! I could not believe this; my country is responsible for what happened and they were kind to me when I got upset.

Something that I found particularly interesting is that in the museum and Peace Park, the historical references were incredibly objective. The plaques and information did not implicate Americans as terrible people or harshly describe the events. This was surprising to me and shows the importance of the betterment of humanity. Even though the United States was responsible for this terrible tragedy, the Japanese did not express this truth in a harsh way. This shows their desire for peace and the ability for the Japanese to be humble and seek this peace without trying to blame anyone for their suffering.

At last, my trip to the museum was over, but I left with this overwhelming feeling of sorrow for the people of Hiroshima and a deep desire to not ever let something like this happen again. This leads me to what may be the saddest memory from the museum. In the museum are copies of over 500 letters written from the mayor of Hiroshima to heads of state in nations that are testing and developing nuclear weapons. These letters implore the leaders to reconsider their use of nuclear weapons and use the experience of Hiroshima to convince them how destructive these weapons can be. The leaders have never responded and have obviously not learned from the sad and destructive example of Hiroshima.

I think that Hiroshima is something that everyone should see. I think that witnessing something like this can really lead to the peace that the people of Hiroshima seek. If everyone understood how destructive and devastating these weapons are, maybe we would truly move toward disarmament (instead of just talking about it). I am very glad to have had the opportunity to see this incredible place. I know I have several readers on this blog and I don’t know how you feel about war, but know that the victims are real people – just like you and me. Think about it.

Japan - September 12-16, 2007

Japan is amazing – I loved it!! I also adore the Japanese people. They are so kind, welcoming, and helpful. This conclusion is not just from my visit to Japan, but from my interactions with Japanese students aboard the ship. We are blessed to have several Japanese girls studying with us this semester. Of all of the people on the ship, they tend to be the most helpful. I asked one girl about Hiroshima and she drew me a map in English so that I would know exactly where to go when I got there. These are things that typical Americans just don’t do.

Japan itself is awesome. I visited Yokohama, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe. We docked in Yokohama on September 12, 2007. In Yokohama, we sent some letters, exchanged money and set out for the train station. We took the train into Tokyo, where we exchanged our rail passes. After what seemed like an eternity on trains, busses, and subways, we arrived in Asakusa, which is the district of Tokyo that our hostel was in. We settled in at the hostel then went for dinner at a nice traditional restaurant. My friends and I removed our shoes and sat on the floor to eat our dinner. It was awesome. We had soba noodles and each of us ordered different other things. The noodles were very good and I also got shrimp tempura, which was also very tasty. After eating, we explored the city and found a karaoke box to sing in. It was fun and the walls had bright lights on them depicting an underwater scene. After singing karaoke, we returned to the hostel, spent some time on the internet and then went to bed.

The next morning, we got up early so that we could be in Ryoguku by 8 am. This is where people buy tickets for sumo wrestling. We didn’t actually get there until 9 am because we were traveling in a rather large group and it took some people forever to get ready and leave. We got to Ryoguku and bought our tickets, which were about 2100 yen (the equivalent of about 20 bucks in the US). The tournament lasted all day, but the better fighters did not start until around 4 pm, so we decided to explore the city and meet back together later. From Ryoguku, I went with a group to see the Imperial Palace and to Shibuya (a district of Tokyo with lots of shopping and restaurants. We walked a lot that day to try to see lots of sights. We ate lunch in Shibuya at a restaurant that didn’t have any English menus. We just pointed at a small picture of something that looked good and waited to see what we had ordered. Mine came and it was chicken tempura, which was really good. After lunch, we did some shopping until it was time to return to the sumo arena.

Sumo was very fun. It was tough to get used to at first and figure out what they were doing and how one person won. We stayed for about 2 and a half hours and really enjoyed the experience. The sumo wrestlers were very nice and allowed us to take pictures with them. After sumo, we went to the capsule hotel where we were staying. It was quite an interesting experience, especially the communal shower. The girls I traveled with, though, put our bathing suits on and showered. The capsule hotel was really neat and was basically a row of capsules on each side of the room. The capsules were like bunk beds that were encapsulated with a mattress on the floor of the capsule and a television and a light in each one. After checking out and showering, we went to Shibuya to have dinner and hang out. We returned to the hotel by taxi, which was rather expensive.

The next morning, we got up at 6am to catch the train for Hiroshima at 7am. I have an entire blog to put up about Hiroshima, so check it out. We left Hiroshima and went to Kyoto. Everyone was saying how difficult it would be to find a place to stay in Kyoto, but we found a nice place the first hotel we stopped at. It was a little more expensive – 15000 yen, but that equals about 50 dollars per person. This was definitely the most expensive place we stayed, but it still wasn’t very bad. The hotel was really nice and a good change from the places we had stayed the few nights before.

The next morning we got up and visited the tower at our hotel that overlooked the whole city. We headed for temples and sights and ended up running into the guys that we had been traveling with and got separated from. They are very nice guys and it was good to run into them again because that day it was only the three of us girls traveling together. It was Christen (my roommate), Robin, and me that were traveling together. We ran into Blake, Aaron, and Drew. They are really nice and fun to travel with. We went to the Golden Pavilion, which is one of the most famous temples in Japan. Then, we went to Nijo castle, which was huge and a large property. We went to Gion, which is the geisha district of Kyoto. We had fun, shopped, ate lunch, and actually saw a few geishas. They do not stop for photographs, but we snapped a few anyway. From Gion, we went back to the station and took off for Kobe, where the ship was docked.

We got to the ship and settled in a bit. Then, Christen and I went looking for a pay phone to call home. It was about 1:30 am when we got back to the ship, but at no point that the two of us were walking around did either of us feel unsafe. It was incredible how safe Japan felt – I felt safer there than walking around downtown Charleston at night. It was comforting to know that a safe place like this exists.

The final day of our trip in Japan, we visited Nara. In Nara, there are deer that walk around everywhere and are very friendly and domesticated. We went to Todaiji temple, where the largest copper statue of Buddha ever cast is displayed. It really was huge!! I had a great time in Nara. It was a short trip. We only went to the one temple and the deer park. We got lunch, did a little shopping and went back to the train station.

When we got back to Kobe, we looked for a place that served Kobe beef, but they were all really expensive, so we just went to a local place and had some Japanese cuisine, which was really good. Then we went back to the station to ride the tram back to the ship. We got on the ship pretty early. I fell asleep by 9 pm because I was so exhausted.

Japan in general was amazing – I really enjoyed every part of it. I did a lot of things and traveled with some good friends. I also learned that traveling in smaller groups is better than traveling in big ones. I learned about a different culture than my own. I met some very kind people that were able to help me despite the language barrier. It was awesome!!! I love Japan.

HAWAII

Hawaii was absolutely the most amazingly beautiful place that I have ever seen. I remember thinking before I got there if it would really live up to the pictures and if a place could really be that beautiful. I leave with the overwhelming answer of yes!!! In fact, the pictures don’t even do it justice – it is just that beautiful. As I looked at Hawaii, I couldn’t help but feel that God had created this beautiful place for us to enjoy and I am so glad that I got to experience it.
We woke up at 5:45 am to watch the sunrise as we entered the port. The beautiful purples, oranges, and pinks in the sky were amazing. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. Also, the view of land for the first time in a week was quite amazing, too. Not to mention the fact that this land was the most beautiful place ever! We pulled into the port at Honolulu, Oahu and began to wait to go through immigration. We had to go through immigration because we had come from Mexico. While we were waiting, Christen and I ate breakfast. I was too excited to eat and only had a yogurt. I went through the immigration line around 7:30 or 7:45 am. The guy looked at me and my passport to make sure that I was the person in the picture. He said, “welcome to Hawaii”, stamped my passport and I exited the room. Just because I was done with the immigration process did not mean, however, that we could get off of the ship. We had to wait for the ship to clear, which means that everyone has been cleared by immigration. Unfortunately, this was a pretty lengthy process.
I got off of the ship around 9:15 or 9:30 am. From the port, we set out for Hanauma Bay, which is a little cove on the southeastern side of Oahu. I have bought a Go Oahu card, which is essentially a discount card for everything on Oahu, but the company for snorkeling used by the company was completely booked. I took a taxi with three other people to Hanauma Bay. It was about 42 dollars, but split four ways it wasn’t bad. The taxi ride itself was beautiful. We passed by Diamond Head and many other beautiful landscapes. When we arrived at Hanauma Bay, I was truly surprised at how clear the water was. From all the way up on the top of the hill, we could see the beautiful color of the water. We bought tickets to the park, which is a wildlife refuge. Before we could go in the water we had to watch a video about protecting the wildlife in the bay. Then, we hiked down to the water. I say hike because it was quite a long and rather steep incline down to the beach. We rented equipment, put things in a locker and got in the ocean as quickly as possible. The water was surprisingly cool. I was rather shocked at the cool temperature of the water. I thought that because it was Hawaii that the water would be really warm. It was refreshing, though, after I got over the chill bumps when I entered the water. The fish were beautiful and there were lots of them. They had the deepest, most vibrant colors. There was one that was my favorite, it had pink and green and blue streaks all over it. I also saw a sea turtle. The sea turtle was really neat and it just swam there next to me, unafraid and unbothered by my staring. I stayed there for several minutes amazed at this large and beautiful creature. I also got to take an underwater camera, so I will have these pictures developed eventually and share them. We stayed at Hanauma Bay for a couple of hours and then left for Waikiki. We caught a bus, which I had to sprint up to in order to get it to stop because it was already leaving. It was very nice that the bus driver stopped, even though she was not a very nice lady. We got to Waikiki and walked around for what seemed like forever before finding a place to eat. After eating, a surfboard company dropped a rental off for me at the beach. I paddled out and just sat enjoying the view. As I paddled out, I stared down at the reef and was actually afraid of hitting it with my board, even though it was several feet beneath me. The water was so clear that I couldn’t tell how deep it really was because I could see all the way to the bottom. If there wasn’t a more perfect ending to the day, I sat on the beach and watched the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen. It was just like the pictures. The palm trees, surfboards on the beach, and beautiful beach set the scene for the vibrant colors that painted the sky. As the sun set, there was a group preparing for a public hula show. We watched for a little while and then caught a cab back to where the port was. We mailed some letters and postcards, grabbed some food and ran for the ship because we didn’t want to be late. We had to be back to the ship (on the ship) by 9 pm. If we were even minutes late, we would be penalized with dock time in the next port, which means that we would have to wait an extended period of time before being able to leave.
This day was absolutely amazing. I wish that we could have spent a bit more time in Hawaii. It was beautiful and I loved it! It truly seemed like much more than one day because of all of the things I got to fit into the short period of time that we were there. I definitely want to go back there one day.
To be quite honest, I have never really considered Hawaii all that different of a culture. We had to have a cultural pre-port meeting on the ship where they discuss aspects of the culture of the port that we are about to dock at and I wondered why, until I went. There were a few students that were from Hawaii and they basically ran the meeting. One of the boys did a native dance and a girl did a hula. They were such beautiful dances. While they were dancing, you could see the passion for their home on their faces. As they spoke, I began to understand the unique culture of Hawaii. I began to appreciate this other culture. I also have learned a lot about Hawaii’s past and how America took it over just over a hundred years ago. America overturned their queen and took it over because they thought it was a good idea. This sad story is true and I began to understand how brutal imperialism was. I began to understand this impact on the Hawaiian people. It has never seemed real to me. The students’ passion made it real, their eyes told the story of their culture.

Life on a Ship

Life on a ship is very interesting. I literally get rocked to sleep every night by the ocean. It’s when we get rocked in the day time that is the toughest to get used to. I have a roommate named Christen (yeah, funny isn’t it??). She is from Seattle, Washington and she is an art major. I really like her – we are getting along great so far. Our room is a little bigger than I though it would be. We have a closet that we share, which is not as bad as it sounds. We have plenty of drawer space and closet space for the two of us. We also have our own bathroom, which is nice because it is the first time since I started college that I have had that kind of luxury. Speaking of luxury, we have a cabin steward, Edwin, who cleans our room EVERYDAY. He makes our beds and vacuums and cleans the bathroom and everything. I feel so spoiled. When we go to meals in the dining rooms, we have waiters that bring our drinks and take our trays and clean up after us. It is quite an interesting thing to get used to.
I have been getting quite used to watching the sunset on the ocean everyday. It is so beautiful and no two sunsets are the same, which makes me want to watch every night. It is just so beautiful and awesome to be able to do this everyday. Also, the deep blue color of the ocean from the ship is unlike anything I have ever seen. To stand on the deck and look out and only see ocean is a very humbling thing. It makes me realize how small I am and how big the world and ocean are. It is amazing. I stare out at the horizon and wonder what is on the other side of that ocean, in a few days, though, I will see it.
We started classes a few days ago and I am really enjoying my classes so far. One of the classes is very different from anything that I could take at College of Charleston and I think it is very interesting – international terrorism. It is quite interesting how little we know about this topic, but how much it has begun to affect our lives. I am also taking a class on intercultural communication and an international communication course. All students are required to take Global Studies, which is an interdisciplinary course that covers just about everything and introduces the individual ports from various perspectives. All of my courses are interesting and I enjoy what I am learning. I did decide to only take 12 hours (4 classes) this semester, instead of the usual 15 at home. This is what is considered a full load on the ship and I agree with that precedent. I will, however, have a tough time next semester because I will have to take 18 hours. I am required to keep 30 hours per year to keep scholarships and such, so I will have to make up for my lighter load this semester. It is only light in the number of hours, because there is quite a bit of reading. It is also interesting to have only classes while at sea (every day including weekends) and have the whole time off while in port. I imagine this is kind of a modified week/weekend schedule. The coolest thing about classes is that our field trips are in different countries. Our professors suggest various practica for us while we are in different ports to supplement our learning in class.
Enough about class… I have met some awesome people since I have been here. I think it is so neat how people that would probably never be in the same city at once are suddenly put on a ship to live together for a semester. We live next to our professors and eat with them and get sea sick with them. The students on this ship represent a wide variety of backgrounds. There are students from 48 states and 15 countries (including the United States). I am so blessed to be able to have a multicultural experience before we even get to port. I also find it amazing how we are instantly able to connect to people. We are all in the same situation, though. We have left our homes, families, boyfriends/girlfriends, friends, home institutions, and everything we’ve ever known to travel the world and have a one-of-a-kind experience. I am so glad to be here. I do think that most of us have a similar outlook on the world and this journey. We generally want to experience all that the world has to offer and meet people from other countries and experience various cultures. Most of all, I want to look on the map and see a county and not see a geographic outline, but see faces. I want to look at Vietnam and remember the kids I saw in the orphanage and the people that I hope to see in the market. I want to look at the many places that I will be going this semester and see people that are like me, people that love, smile, laugh, hurt, cry, and live. I want to remember that most of all.
We have been talking a lot about being citizens of the world and widening our borders. I am excited to look back on this journey and see this transition that we have been told will happen.