Two standout students gave the following examples as the perfect ending to this beautiful story.

Student 1.

Son: Shut up! Give me that cake!
Mother: Jump off a cliff.

Student 2.

Son: Shut up! Get out!
Mother: No, you get out of this house!

I think I have a wonderful influence on my students.

This is the last photo I took this winter vacation. I think it sums it up pretty nicely. Simple, sunny and cold.

One of the first things I did this new year was to visit a brothel. Possibly a haunted one at that, since it has been abandoned for some time now. Though a little dangerous since areas have been burnt down and the only entrance was through a broken window, we made it in and out safe and sound.

The broken window around the back of the building led us into a room that was fully burnt down. You could see remains of people having lived there – I would figure the women who worked there. Bunk beds and a kitchen was barely made out in the charred mess that was left behind but you could tell what they were. A wall had partly fallen toward the beds but that was our only way through so we carefully slid through trying not to make the wall fall on us. This led us to a hallway.

The hallway made me feel like I was in a ghost movie, and a really high-budget one too. It was pitch black and the light from our torches could only go so far. It wasn’t too long however, and before we knew it we were in the main hall. Unfortunately none of the photos I took there did any justice to the hallway and so I deleted them all. It’s not like I could bring a tripod in either, as it would be too difficult to manoeuvre and I don’t own one.

The big hall was decorated with a chandelier and a wall painting of three naked women whom have been graffitied on. There was a bar and a great staircase leading the men upstairs to their women. A sign on the wall where the staircase read: 上に行ったら死ぬ “If you go upstairs, you will die.” We ignored this and went upstairs.

Each of the floors had the same layout: three rooms that each included a bed and a grand bathing area. This is where I found the name of the place: Queen Chåteau. We kept going up and eventually made it to the roof.

From here, there were great views of Mito, and a lot of rusty water tanks and the machine that takes the lift up and down the building. Here, I also witnessed the largest wasp nest in my entire life, and thankfully it was dormant. There was a ladder built into the wall leading to the very top part of the roof and some convincing from my counterpart, I eventually made it to the top. Here, I took some final photos and made my way back down.

Quite an interesting day I hope you will agree, and somewhat different in comparison to your usual holiday activities. Others of this type from last year included Greenland (an abandoned theme park in Fukushima) and Niigata Russian Village. Best to do this in pitch black with a torch too. Adds to the experience.

Another year has passed me by. I know I have achieved well in 2011, but perhaps not much. I finally made it to Japan and am working. I have a nice apartment and made it to a six-figure salary (though ideally this would be in pounds and doesn’t quite translate).

I know I’m not old. I’m only 22. I feel old though, as if I should be further in life right now. A bizarre feeling when I put everything into perspective. I’m not entirely sure whether to slow down or speed up. I feel it should be the latter.

I think I need to be busier. I miss it. Sounds rather strange but it is quite difficult to be busy when you have time. OK, that sounds obvious but the motivation is lacking. Various different projects and studying Japanese should be occurring now as it is the ample time for this to take shape. What has actually become of me? A sluggish, tired and time-wasting personality has taken over and though I try to think of a way out, the exit is hard to find.

Maybe the answer is to leave the countryside. I am a city boy and always have been. Thank goodness University societies and other activities kept me busy otherwise I would have been in the same boat as I am in today. York was the most country-esque place I have ever lived in. Until I came here of course. I love change, but this is hard. A concrete jungle to acres of rice fields is not an easy transition.

Perhaps I miss company. People my age in this neighbourhood are hard to come by. Especially when I am still at an age of a University student here. I miss University. Busy and fun. Everyone around here thinks I am much older, at least 26… even pushing 30. Maybe this adds to the ageing feeling.

When I came here, I may have become relaxed on a New Year’s Resolution I made back a few years ago and have kept so truthfully. I have made and kept many but this one particular resolution is one I am sure everyone makes but struggles to keep. I am fortunate to have kept it but unfortunate to have lost it. It is to take everyday as it comes, try to achieve something whether it is something big or small every single day.

I am going to try and use Twitter this year to once again, make this come true. If you want to see if it is working, have a look at @robertkodama

From Nagasaki, we headed back to Hakata port to board a speedy boat to South Korea. An iPod in my ear and a snooze later (or rather, 2 and a half hours later) we had arrived in the port of Pusan. A bizarre moment was once we arrived did we go through any security. Nothing was on the Japanese side. As if we would try to do something to the boat once we had arrived?

A friend met us there and showed us around for a few days. This was lucky since neither of us spoke a word of Korean. To be honest, there’s not much to say about Pusan. It is quite different to Japan and there are a lot of attractive people there too. The food is spectacular, especially the Korean BBQ! Very cheap, and many side dishes, truly wonderful. I did make a friend there too who though French, lives in Tokyo so that worked out splendidly. Everything in Korea is possibly half the price of anything in Japan or the UK. In fact, going to Korea saved me money over the week I was there. Some things smelt bad though. In a thriving city, there does not seem to be an adequate sewage system. In most city centres, you can smell it wherever you walked. Combine this with the smells of cooked woodworms in generous helpings sold on the street, indoors was my preferable place to be.

I also visited the Korean war memorial park. This was nice and gave tribute to all the soldiers from around the world who fought and lost their lives in the war. A very calm place to walk around and get out of the busy city life. That’s pretty much it!

I saw this BBC article today which explains that instead of fighting against nature, you can work with nature to gain what you want in life. For example, this article explains that instead of fighting against elephants that come near your village which may result in unfavourable circumstances, you can use a fence of beehives to keep them away as the elephants are afraid of them.

Then I thought of my own behaviour and accepted them.

This is one of many similar stories but a perfect example which highlights my point. I was on a train in Tokyo with a friend. I had a sudden urge to sneeze and in order to do so, I faced down and placed my hand from the bridge of my nose parallel to the ground. This meant I did not cover my mouth and proceeded to sneeze in this manner. When I returned my head to the normal position, my friend was actually disgusted with me and said I had incredibly bad manners. One should cover the nose and mouth when sneezing in such explosive expulsions. According to her.

This is the problem I have with such socially acceptable suggestions. Facing down firstly projects all of those vile germs towards the ground. A hand parallel from the bridge of the nose ensures that they will not be projected up to the heights of people’s faces. This to me is a relatively clean manner which prevents other people catching any disease that lie in my body. It also means that they are not smeared onto objects other people touch i.e. unlikely to be transferred to other people. Unless of course there are people who like licking the soles of people’s shoes or ties shoelaces with their mouths. Which I think are next to none.

What happens when you sneeze into your hand? For starters, your hand becomes a hotspot of everything that came out of your body. Secondly, you will smear it on something whether it be on the side of your jeans or a handrail on the train. The likelihood is you’ll forget about it and eventually smear it on something public which then becomes transferable to whoever touches that public something. That person may buy something to eat and use his or her hands to eat it. Thinking of common daily lifestyles, one does not wash their own hands enough. It is not only hideously disgusting for you, but for others too and to me that is bad manners.

Sneezing, coughing, vomiting, defecating, farting and other natural disapproving behaviours are there for a reason. To get whatever is bad for you out of the body thus making you a healthier person.

Sneeze – an involuntary expulsion of air due to the irritation of the nostrils

Cough – a condition of the respiratory organs causing coughing

Vomit - matter vomited from the stomach

Defecate - discharge faeces from the body

Fart - an emission of wind from the anus

None of the above sounds particularly appetising and are due to something negative within the body and the act of doing anything of the above is to get it out for your own benefit. This includes burps, diarrhoea, runny noses etc. etc.

Don’t be socially accepted when it comes to this. Get it out for your own benefit. If you worry about others, think of ways that can benefit both parties.

The next stop was Nagasaki. I’ve been here once before but wanted to visit again. We visited the place the bomb fell in Nagasaki too and visited the origin of Madame Butterfly – The Glover House.

A walk around the house slightly reminded me of England again. The owner of the house built this house in resemblance to what he had back in Britain and so many familiar things were dotted around, despite their age. I walked into one room and God Save the Queen could be played via one touch of a button so I couldn’t resist. Sounded rather odd mind…

It was nice to see a part of the original score from the opera and a wig that was used in a production. Though I may have never been in the opera itself, it took me back to the days when I was in M. Butterfly – a play which uses the opera as part of its narrative.

Getting hungry, the manager of the hostel we were staying at recommended going to Chinatown as Nagasaki had a long history of Chinese immigrants. Here, you can eat Nagasaki champon, a local favourite and excited, we  headed over there for a huge portion.

The night ended with a trip to the wharf. It was nice and cosy but we just sat around not doing much. We had to get up early the following morning to head to a different part of Kyushu. All in all, a relaxing and enjoyable stay in Nagasaki. Again.

Everyone knows the story of Hiroshima.

8:15am, August 6th 1945. USA drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima city, destroying the area.

8:15am, August 6th 2011. I visit Hiroshima for the first time on its 66th anniversary to find out what they are doing to commemorate this day.

The day starts off like any day. Some of the preparations around the A-Dome area can be seen for the latter part of the day, and a number of school students asking people to sign a petition against nuclear weapons. One of them approaches me and asks me to sign after reading a passage about why they think it should be abolished. I oblige and head towards the dome itself.

I’ve seen plenty of pictures but never been up close to it before. You can’t step foot into it as it is surrounded by a security fence which is not only understandable, but also a shame. Looking up at it, it is difficult to fully imagine what it was like when it happened, or what it was like in the aftermath when this building was still standing in its crippled form. I really wanted to step inside and get a better feel of it but I figured this could lead to a possible arrest so I decided against it.

I was then given a flyer to see a play about a boy called Shigeru and what happened to the boy on the day of the bombings. Though the acting was poor, the sentiment was there and it was a delight to see a play in Japan finally.

People made literally thousands of cranes and left them near the memorial in the memorial park. The range of striking colours were incredible to see and everyone was crowding around them desperate to get a photo.

We then took a trip to the museum by the memorial to find out a little more about what happened. There was some belongings they had found from the bombing displayed in the museum, and possibly the most striking of them all was a little boy’s bike. Burnt to a crisp and yet preserved for eternity, there is no way a human being can survive what happened to the bike.

Last but not least, we stayed to watch the floating lanterns, marking the last point of the anniversary. This was relaxing to watch and all the colours were soothing as they floated into the dark night.

Our next hostel was close to the ferry port on the way to Miyajima. Our initial idea was that we wanted to visit Hiroshima so this came as a wonderful coincidence as I never knew this was here.

Upon arrival at the island, I was greeted by a lot of friendly deer. Relatively reminiscent of Nara I thought, but with more sun and sea. In the distance we could see the gate so we headed down towards it and came pretty close.

It was pretty big and relatively magnificent though it didn’t seem as amazing as it has been portrayed in photos I’ve seen. Perhaps because it was flooded by surrounding tourists. I wanted to get as close as the gate itself but the tide started coming in so I didn’t get very far. A few photo snaps later and we had decided to have a brief look around the island before heading to Hiroshima.

We came across this 5-storey pagoda which is apparently famous in the area. Not entirely sure why but it was here and so I took this photo from below.

Found this dark temple too which we took a stroll through. None of the photos of this place came out very well unfortunately and the place itself was a little disappointing. ¥200 and all you got was this space and nothing else.

What a shame!

And this post therefore concludes the morning I had in Miyajima. Not a bad start to the area.

]]> https://robertkodama.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/the-gates-of-miyajima/feed/ 8 Robert Kodama miyajima.001 IMG_0383 IMG_0379 IMG_0369 IMG_0370