Friend Me On Facebook!
Follow Me On Twitter!
Wow. What a couple of days! These were some of the best days of my trip so far.
It began very late Saturday night/very early Sunday morning. I hitched a ride up to Yokohama which was about 5 hours away. Aimachi’s color guard was performing and the Blue Devils (including my good pal Lenny) were a featured guest. My ride left at 5 am. I stayed up the entire night and slept in the car.
When we arrived, we had lunch with the color guard in a hotel. When the guard left to get changed for the show, Mr. Sekine and I were left waiting in the dining room. To kill some time, I took out my Japanese phrase book and started to thumb through it. Mr. Sekine took an interest in it, especially the section on phrases used for dating. The next thing I know, he is walking out the room with the book and I eventually find him reading sections of it to the color guard. Although slightly embarrassing, it was also pretty funny.
After that, we watched the guard and Blue Devils perform outside and then followed them to an indoor facility where they both rehearsed and performed clinics. Later that night, the guard and BD both had dinner at a banquet with Blue Devils being the guest of honor. What was funny about this was Lenny and I wanted to spend as much time as we could that night and were considering not going to dinner with our respective groups. Ironically, our two groups were going to the same place. I spent a good part of the dinner socializing with BD members and trying to recruit two trumpet players to fill holes for our current season at Aimachi. Unfortunately, as much interest as I received, no one could do it on such short notice. Once dinner was finished, Lenny and I walked around the city and had some drinks before calling it a night - it was great catching up with my buddy. Last time we were able to sit down and talk for a while was in Newark, Delaware, and now here we were in Yokohama, Japan.
The next day can be summed up in two words: marching band. I spent the entire day watching a very large and very long marching band competition which began around 10 am and finished around 6:30 pm. The rest of the American Aimachi guys showed up in the middle of the day as well. It was great seeing all the different groups perform, ranging from preschoolers to some of Japan’s top bands. Throughout the day, I had a chance to hang out with Lenny and some other really cool BD guys. Once the competition was over, the Americans and the newest foreign member, our drum major from Thailand, made out way to one of Japan’s southern Islands where we had reservations to spend the night at a resort.
Ok, so when they said resort, I didn’t know what to expect. I kept telling myself that something probably got lost in the translation and this was just a nice hotel.
Nope, they got it right…
This place was INSANE. My first clue was the huge gates at the entrance of the resort. Next was the steep drive up to the very top of this tree covered mountain. When we pulled up, I had an even better understanding of what this place was. It was a private resort - only members could stay here - and it felt like a castle. We were given our keys (one room for 5 of us) and made our way up the elevator. So you know in a hotel when you get out of the elevator and there’s a long halfway in front of you? To help you find your way, there’s a little plaque on the wall that maybe says Rooms 401-420 go left, 421-440 go right. Well this one said 401,402 left, 403,404 right. This was going to be good…
The room could be best described as a honeymoon sweet equipped with a living room, huge bathroom with a high tech toilet and jacuzzi, bedroom, another half bathroom, and finally a Japan room - which was essentially a dining room with legless chairs and a table only a foot off the floor. We dropped our stuff off and took a private shuttle to the bathhouse just slightly down the hill (similar to the one from last week - hot springs and all). After the bath, we went to a Karaoke bar - my first time! My favorite song to sing was Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” I had a blast and think I did pretty well for my first attempt.
The next morning I awoke from my futon I set up in the Japan room and walked outside to the balcony. When we arrived it was dark so I couldn’t see the view. I could see it now. It was the Pacific Ocean. Absolutely beautiful. To the left and right were other high, green hills but directly in front was the sea. A site I always have and always will love. This put a smile on my face.
To see the pictures of everything up to this point, go here!
Our time at the resort was short lived and we continued on our journey to a place completely different in tone but much more valuable of an experience: Hiroshima.
I’ll admit, I was hesitant with the idea of seeing this city. While I feel it is important to see and understand, the thought of being somewhere where there was such instantaneous, widespread, and indiscriminate death seemed almost overbearing.
We drove into the city around mid-day. I couldn’t help but be amazed and fascinated with every bit of life and prosperity that could be seen inside the city. Many of the pictures I took were of people walking around and living their lives. As difficult as it was, I was trying to imagine what people were doing the moment it happened, what it looked like in the city, on this street. Looking at this place with those eyes lent a power or feeling that is very difficult to describe.
One of the most amazing sites we saw is dubbed that Atomic Bomb Dome. This remarkable building was one of the only structures to survive because the bomb was detonated 600 meters directly over it.
Next, we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum contained several artifacts as well as a thorough history of the city and the events that took place before, during, and after the bombing. Some of the things inside, if not all, were very hard to look at.
I found two things very interesting about this visit. First: where the people of Japan place responsibility for the bombings. They blame it not on the United States, but the war. A plaque at a memorial site reads: “Let all the souls here rest in peace; for we shall not repeat the evil.” War, not America, is the evil. The feel if they had never joined the war, or rather, had there never been a war, this would never have happened. I think it is remarkable to see the situation this way when it would be so easy to place blame on America alone.
It was only two years after the bombing that Hiroshima began a worldwide effort to end nuclear weapon use and testing. When so many pieces had yet to be picked up and the fire still burned inside everyone’s hearts and minds, the city not only began to move forward, but to take it a step further by beginning a movement to prevent future bombings. Very inspiring stuff.
Pictures of my visit to Hiroshima can be found here.
We left Hiroshima that night with the plan of coming all the way back to Nagoya City – an 8 hour drive. We made it about 4 hours into the trip before they realized we should stop for the night. Sekine decided to stop off in Kyoto for the night. How convenient he is also a member of a private resort in Kyoto. Although not on top of a mountain, this one was just as luxurious.
The next day we headed up a nearby mountain by cable car. From the ground, it was hard to tell what would meet us up top. All we could see were trees, but just on the other side of that tree line were several temples and gardens. Upon reaching the cooler, thin-aired summit, we walked through a beautiful garden that recreated several of the scenes from Monet and Van Gogh’s works. A very sacred spot within the garden is where a 19 year old founded Japanese Buddhism 1300 years ago.
After traveling further down the mountain and away from the gardens, we came across several Buddhist temples and shrines. Many of these date back some 1200 years. In one of the largest temples are several candles that were all lit from the same flame dating back 1200 years.
Pictures of Kyoto will be posted soon.
After a very late lunch op top of the summit, we headed down to begin our drive back to Nagoya. Several hours later, all of us exhausted, we arrived at the complex. We opened the door to our room and walked in to find all of our laundry had been washed and folded for us and the room completely cleaned. This was a very nice surprise to finish a very fun and interesting trip.
Recent Comments