HAPPY SPORTS DAY!
So it's a national holiday here in Japan, and walking around the massive train complex that is Tokyo Station (looking for the place to exchange our JRail passes) all we saw were kids in baseball jerseys and soccer kits. So... there's that, I guess. Basically its a holiday dedicated to getting your fat ass off a couch and outside. We should totally trade a useless holiday for that. I nominate Sweetest Day, Columbus (aka- "Indian Genocide") Day, or Easter. Pick one.
That said, today was day two in series of travel, hurry up and wait for the train kind of days. We have another one tomorrow on our way to Kobe, but thankfully, we're using that as a base of operations for a little while. But today, seeing as we're out here and all, we thought we'd go check out Hiroshima.
Before we leave, though, let me point out the various and many ways Japan kicks ass.
#1- Toilets
There's health care, education, poverty, and caring for the elderly, but the biggest gap between how much Japan kicks our ass is in the arena of toilets. Our hotel room didn't have any toilet paper. But that's ok, because our toilet came equipped with a bidet. And not that mamby-pamby bidet the French use, oh no...
"Ready to accept your feces, sir..."
"Please open the pod bay doors, HAL"
This here has a robot built inside, designed to find your balloon knot and squirt warm water up in there till your netherparts are squeaky clean. Weird? Oh yeah. A little creepy? At first. But man oh man, if my chocolate starfish didn't feel fantastic all day. And these things are basically in every western style restroom you find. I haven't encountered the "pit" style one dad keeps talking about, but so far, its pretty sweet.
#2- Cell phones
The iPhone doesn't sell very well out here, and they're much cheaper here than in the US because they're basically crappy phones in Japan. Japanese phones get broadband internet, TV, much higher resolution video and still cameras, and big high def screens (for a phone at least). All this is why WiFi is virtually nonexistent... anything you would want from a laptop, you can do on your phone. And most senior citizens can use these gadgets better than I ever could.
#3- Trains
I'll bet anything, the Olympic committee rode Chicago's transit, then used Tokyo's, then immediately crinkled their noses in disgust. Chicago's "L" is crap. Worse than nothing, really. I might just walk everywhere, because these trains have screens telling you estimated arrival times on the platform, flatscreens inside telling you where you're at, where you're headed (pictured here)
"Not pictured: Another CTA rate hike/Springfield Doomsday Scenario"
and talk about CLEAN. Grafitti? God no. Trash and people eating, tossing their chicken bones on the seat next to them? Nope. Women getting harrassed by creepy perverted guys? OK, maybe they have that worse than Chicago (supposedly), but no one could ride around Tokyo, and then get on the Shinkasen (basically a superfast Metra train that connects major cities. We didn't pay for the Nozai bullet train passes, but these trains were plenty fast) and tell me Chicago had a system APPROACHING respectability. Oh, and then the subway was a good 1.50 cheaper too. This awesome train system is why a nation of 150 million doesn't even have a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions, and why they have miles and miles of beautiful rural scenery unspoiled by a mass network of interstate highways. People have cars, but take the train when they can. And its awesome. I've been spoiled and the thought of getting on the Blue Line just makes me angry at this point.
"Dear Mayor Daley: Can we please use all that Olympic money on this instead? K Thanx Bai!"
Back to our day...
Me and dad were both up crazy early because we're still getting acclimated to the time zone changes, and also because every mattress available is some super firm memory foam thing. It's like sleeping on a cinder block. But we got going, grabbed some breakfast (the McDonald's sells hot dogs with a little scrambled egg on top on their morning menu), I hit the AM PM and had a rice ball and some tea. Dad proceeded to spill half his coffee into his briefcase, but it should be ok for the most part.
Figuring out how to get back to Tokyo Station from the Shimbashi station without the help of that supernice old guy from last night was a little bit of a challenge. But we figured it out, and proceeded to wander Tokyo Station for a while trying to get our JRail passes for the week.
"Go Speed Racer, goooooo..."
When it opened, the clerk was great, spoke perfect English, and solved almost all our hiccups about getting around for the day. The ride to Hiroshima was a quick, comfortable, and smooth four hours. The highlight for me was the baby in the row ahead of me kept starring at me over his mother's shoulder and seat. I'm caucasian and have a big beard and a shaved head, so I must have looked like a weird cross between a bear and an American to the little kid (a "BEARican" if you will...)
I also got Mt. Fuji... going by at supersonic speeds:
We took a short cab to our hotel and man, did dad pick a GREAT hotel. Look at this view!
And it wasn't that expensive compared to Hotels in Tokyo or even back home. But man, a huge castle... right outside! Thing is, this castle is only about 60 years old. Because we're in Hiroshima, after all...
Our whole reason for being in this country is because my dad is a nuclear engineer and Japan has not only been stepping up the production of nuclear plants, but also debating joining the nuclear superpower club. Considering they've been the only country to have a nuclear weapon used against them (twice), that sounds odd, but consider how the have both China and North Korea sitting right across the Sea of Japan from them, they could use a deterrent. I suppose.
So it makes we'd take a whole day to go sightsee around Hiroshima while we're here, just before we go to a nuclear conference.
"I see the 'A-Bomb Dome' has a retractable roof"
First off, the city is pretty. I heard someone describe Hiroshima as the "Baltimore" of Japan because of its blue collar working class people, its harbor, and its famous seafood. But damn, the downtown park is nice, full of reminders of ground zero and monuments to everyone possible who died in the bomb (Children, Koreans, War Veteran's...) but also scale model of the tower at Trinity Site where they tested the bomb in the first place (!)
"Not all of these pictures have inappropriate jokes under them, you know?"
The whole site is very moving in some ways, super abstract in others, and pretty "in your face" pro peace in others. They're supercritical about the "need" to drop the bomb in the first place, the almost clinical approach the scientists and pilots took to developing, testing, and dropping the bomb, and why anyone would develop a weapon in the first place. But after a while, some of the exhibits started to run together and guilt fatigue just sort of set in, so we took off.
"If you're trying to make me feel guilty, I should warn you: I was raised Irish Catholic."
Oh, and our way back, we walked past this HUGE covered shopping area. It was nice.
"Yikes, Does EVERY town in Japan have to look like Vegas twenty years in the future?"
"Video Games not coming to America, Ever: 'Taiko Drummer Hero 2'."
Before we stopped for dinner, we stopped at the castle we saw outside our window when we first got here. It's a massive wooden and concrete structure (built in 1958) with a Shinto shrine inside.
I put 100 yen in the bucket for the fortunes, and then you're supposed to look up on the board what your fortune was (I had no idea... I don't read Japanese) and then tie it to this rack thing for either good luck to come true of make bad luck go away.
I found the thing a little corny, but I went along with it... but not before I dropped my girlfriend's camera (I borrowed it for the trip) and just about gave me and dad a heart attack when we couldn't get the lens to retract all the way. All we had to do was hard reset it and it came right back to life, with no damage (if you're reading Kelly, we promise its fine) to anything, except it did really worry us for a second.
But the single best part was right when I handed the camera to dad, who immediately proceeded to drop it on the ground, he shouted "FUCK" real loud in front of the altar. So, yet another classy moment in the Brown's attempt to not be ugly ass Americans everywhere we go...
"Yet another place of worship desecrated with our profanity. You're welcome, America."
Beating feet as fast as we could from the castle, we made a beeline for the shopping plaza ("Dodeo"... it's fun to say!) hoping to find some food. The first corner we get to, some waiter was outside, barking for customers.
"This guy..."
Dad was feeling adventurous and I just feel bad for servers, so we made the command decision to lead us wherever and take his 10% off coupon with us. We went down a couple of turns into an alley, and just when I began to second guess the decision, we went up and elevator and walked into a super classy okonomayiki joint.
Okonomiyaki is a famous dish from Hiroshima and the Kansai region of Japan. Its just a pancake, topped with Udon or Soba noodles, a little meat, and a fried egg and this DELICIOUS barbecue sauce. Dad ordered a bacon one, and me, with my aversion to egg, just had a pork, garlic, and bean sprout stir fry, served right on the teppanyaki style griddle in the center of our table. We finished it with this delicous muscat sorbet (it's just red grapes) and rolled our fatasses back home, thanking the street barker profusely.
"Hmmm... Japanese 'pizza'."
Walking back to the hotel, we swung by the massive high end shopping plaza right next door. It had all kinds of high level shops and stores, wrapped around in this beautiful stone architecture. And on the top floor was the "food court" with a classy French bistro, Korean BBQ, and a Vietnamese cafe. All of this overlooking downtown Hiroshima.
So, we checked out for the night. Dad is crashed on the bed, despite his assertions that he needed to get work done tonight for the conference. And I just spent two hours writing all this down while listening to a Japanese preview of all the NFL games this weekend. Listening to a Japanese guy pronounce "Ben Roethlisberger" is hilarious.
I'm going to hop in the shower, take a ride on the robo-toilet and call it a night. Tomorrow we head to Kobe and the Kansai region.
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