Finale

Japan, a country with such a different culture, as we used to. After I came here, everyday brought a new surprise. While talking to people and making new friends, I tried to find the differences between Japanese and western way of thinking. But the time passed by and I recognized that there are actually a lot of similarities. Today Japanese people make some of western culture their own. For example they celebrate Halloween, Valentine day and Christmas. But after taking over those events they often change the meaning of them to adapt it in Japanese society. For example Halloween is not the scary day we used to. In Japan it is a dressing up day, so you may also wear cute or funny costumes or even cosplay. To the Valentine day Japanese add the tradition of girls giving boys self made chocolate. And Christmas is not the holy day to spend with the family. It is more the second Valentine day or actually I would say it is even more the “day of couples” then Valentine. Everyone who has a partner is going on a date. If in western countries everything is closed and everyone spend this evening at home, so in Japan it is the complete opposite, the Love Hotels are overbooked and places like amusement parks and restaurants are completely crowded. The reason for it is probably the way Japanese think about western culture, for them it is something romantic like old castles and middle age dresses, gentleman behavior and rendezvous in Paris. But if you as a foreigner walk on the streets with Christmas light decorations you start surprisingly fell like home.

OSAKA

Osaka, with population over 2.6 million is the third largest city in Japan after Tokyo and Yokohama and the second largest economic center. It is part of Keihanshin area, which includes also Kyoto and Kobe. This metropolitan area is by GDP the second biggest in Japan and the seventh biggest in the world.

Osaka is famous as an industrial city. The port of Osaka has even better international connection then the one in Tokyo.

The best place for sightseeing is the castle of Osaka. Build in sixteen century, now it is one of the most famous Japanese castles. Surrounded by a deep moat it lays in the middle of a large park in center of Osaka.

Citizens often meet in this park for different kind of events. 

In Japan Osaka is really famous for local cuisine. The traditional dishes are Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki und Udon. In downtown u can find a lot of really good restaurants. And not just restaurants, but also all other kind of shops.

Osaka is also the location of the second popular amusement park in Japan - Universal Studios Japan. The USJ is open the whole year. Celebrations of special days divide the year in different time sequences like Halloween, Christmas or Valentine. This place is one of the most popular dating places. Every day before closing a beautiful light parade goes through the streets of USJ.

find more about Osaka here: http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/

The Shrine Island

Itsukushima is located next to Hiroshima Bay in the Inland Sea of Japan. Popularly known as Miyajima this Island belongs to Hayashi Razan's Nihon Sankei. Nihon Sankei is the list of three most popular sightseeing places in Japan. Beside Miyajima there are the sandbar of Amanohashidate and the islands of Matsushima. The most beautiful building on Miyajima is the Itsukushima shrine.

 Build in 593 it was destroyed and rebuild many times. This shrine stays on pillars on the beach. By the daily moving of the water, it is on land in the morning and seems to swim over the see at the evening.

 A lot of people come there to watch the water slowly moving in the shrine.  

Most popular view of this island is the 16 meter high torii, which stays in the water 160 meter before the shrine. Till tree in the afternoon visitors can walk beneath the torii and make photos. It is a tradition to put a 5 Yen coin in the cracks in the wood or between the corals like looking polyp colonies which cover the underwater standing part of the gate and make a wish.

All main buildings of Itsukushima are connected by a 280 meter long corridor. There is also the oldest Noh-theater stage in the world. The shrine and the torii are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are Japanese Nationals Treasures.

If you plan to visit Itsukushima you can take a ferry from Hiroshima or Miyajimaguchi. You should try oysters at one of the stands in the shopping area, this is the regional specialty. The typical souvenirs are the wooden rice spoons. Monkeys and deer move freely. You should watch out especially if you carry something eatable with you, deer might be seen in Shinto as a messenger of gods, but they often act aggressive while trying to snatch some food from tourists.

If you would have time you should visit the Mount Misen. Parts of it are still covered by primeval forest. By a ropeway you can reach a shrine were by the monk Kukai ignite fire burn already for more than thousand years.

We will never forget...

The building now known as the A-bomb Dome was designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel. Completed in April 1915, the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall soon became a beloved Hiroshima landmark with its distinctive green dome.

While business functions included commercial research and consulting services and the display and sale of prefectural products, the hall was also used for art exhibitions, fairs, and cultural events.

Through the years, it took on new functions and was renamed the Hiroshima Prefectural Products Exhibition Hall, then the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. As the war intensified, however, the hall was taken over by the Chugoku-Shikoku Public Works Office of the Interior Ministry, the Hiroshima District Lumber Control Corporation, and other government agencies.

Because the blast struck from almost directly above, some of the center walls remained standing, leaving enough of the building and iron frame to be recognizable as a dome.

After the war, these dramatic remains came to be known as the A-bomb Dome.

For many years, public opinions about the dome remained divided. Some felt it should be preserved as a memorial to the bombing, while others thought it should be destroyed as a dangerously dilapidated structure evoking painful memories.

As the city was rebuild and other A-bombed buildings vanished, the voices calling for preservation gathered strength. In 1966, the Hiroshima City Council passed a resolution to preserve the A-dome Dome, which led to a public fundraising campaign to finance the construction work. Donations poured in which wishes for peace from around Japan and overseas, making the first preservation project possible in 1967.

Several preservation projects have been carried out to ensure that the dome will always look as it did immediately after the bombing.

In December 1996, the A-bomb Dome was registered on the World Heritage List as a historical witness conveying the horror of the first use of a nuclear weapon, ans as a world peace monument appealing continually for lasting peace and the abolition of such weapons.

To help protect the dome, the national government designated the area around it as a historic site under the Cultural Properties Protection Act, with a larger area in and around Peace Memorial Park set aside as a buffer zone.

Sanjo Station of Keihan Line



Sanjo is the last station of the Keihan Main Line (京阪本線, Keihan-honsen). Keihan Main Line is the Keihan Electric Railway Train Line. This Line connected Osaka and Kyoto. The first station is Yodoyabashi located in Chūō-ku, Osaka.  Sanjo, which lies in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, is an important station, here stops all kind of trains from local up to Limited Express. This station lies directly on the Sanjo Bridge over the Kamo River. On the other side of the bridge is the Sanjo-Dori Street. This is one of the oldest shopping districts in Kyoto. The most impressive point is the contrast between traditional Japanese stores, which are selling Kimonos, Tea or sweets and the modern Shopping centers. Sanjo has also an interesting history: there was a former hideout of Sakamoto Ryoma. Sakuma Shozan and Ohmura Masujiro were assassinated there. The Ikedaya Incedent which involved the Shinsengumi was also occurred over there. Now it’s always crowded with young people. If you visit that station you will for sure see a lot of couples sitting along the river. There are also groups who are just hang out together. Amateur bands meeting there on the Weekends and perform after each other on the provisory stage next to the water, so it looks like a small open air concert. Every evening there are also bands performances directly next to the station entries. Last weekend there was a Jidai Matsuri- Festival- Parade passing Sanjo. Normally hold up at October 22, this year because of heavy rain it was moved to Sunday, October 23. All the people came really early, so the streets was completely crowded hours before the parade come to the Sanjo Bridge. Jidai Matsury or the Festival of the Ages shows the national costumes from 9th till 19th century and involved over 2000 people. It is one of 3 most famous festivals in Kyoto.

For more information:

http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/visitkyoto/en/theme/amusement/downtown/st_sanjo/

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/japan/kyoto-festivals.htm

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/kp/english/guide/saijiki/f_jidai.html



Portray of a Japanese Person

Me and my Friend has meet this nice man in Kyoto while visiting temple. He saw us taking photos and offer kindly to take picture of us together. Then he shows us some good places for taking pictures in this temple. He told us that he was a photographer and shoot often pictures here. After living in Japan for over a month I would say that the most of Japanese people are really friendly, nice and helpful.

This is my ceramic teacher. He teaches us the basics of working with clay.  Pottery is one of oldest art forms in Japan. It dates back to a Neolithic Age. The Jomon pottery is world famous ancient ceramic and even gives the name to an earliest era in Japanese history. Today ceramics still play an important role in Japanese culture. Especially in the tea ceremony. Tea masters use special maiden cups and pots since 16^th century. Some cups are really expensive and may cost over hundred thousand dollars.

Read more about it here:

http://www.ehow.com/about_6373109_history-japanese-pottery.html

http://www.japanese-arts.net/ceramics/cer_teaceremony.htm

http://gordoncwong.ca/?p=389

These are some people I met at “The Ring”, a karaoke club in Hirakata. Even if you know that Karaoke come from Japan, so I guess you probably never hear the name Daisuke Inoue. But it was him who gets this fabulous idea in early 70. In the beginning he just made 11 karaoke machines and rent them to some clubs in Kobe. He didn’t patent his work. Despite Karaoke get famous all over the world he didn’t get any benefit of his invention. 2004 Daisuke Inoue was honored with a Peace Nobel Price as a creator of Karaoke, because it provide “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.”²

Read more about it:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054546,00.html

2:   http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2004

06.08.1945 United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In between destruction and fire there was a 13 years old girl who survived, and keep on living till today to tell the new generation about the nightmare, which came true.

In between of white light and black rain, the whole city burned to the ground… corpses on the streets… people burned in a second while walking… dead bodies instead of water in the river basin… black bodily parts raised above ashes and trash… few survivor looking in vain for relatives… some still alive, with eyes burned out and fingers melted together… will die now, in a hour, tonight, tomorrow, next week, in a month, next year… because of pain, shock, burns, radiation toxicity, cancer, suicide…

She told us also about the man who died last year. He survived two atomic bomb attacks. After Hiroshima disaster he flees from destroyed city and went by train to Nagasaki looking for shelter and relatives. No one knows that it would be the second target. Be grateful to those who survived and still keep their spirits up to travel across the world and tell their stories, trying get the humanity clarified of war cruelty, to prevent the recurrence of atomic warfare.

Read also about other survivors here: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hiroshima.htm

What the people in my Neighborhood do…

If you living nearby Nagao station, every time you leaving home, the beautiful view appear in front of your eyes. But you rarely see people. I was wondering where all of them are. And now after few weeks I’m pretty sure I found some of them. 

People are doing Homework, watching small live acts, which are played on the streets, or just hanging out and of cause shopping, some of them also have some dinner there afterwards.

What am I talking about? It is obviously Kusuha Mall.

Originally from 1972 and rebuild in 2005 the Kuzuha Mall today consists of multiple buildings, with a separate building for the Kuzuha Mall Kids, along with the main three-story covered mall. Inside are modern shops, a department store, bakery, small art gallery and a two-storey cluster of restaurants in the 'Dining St.' food court. (www.kuzuha-mall.com)

Why do I know that the people here are from my neighborhood?  It’s easy! You just have to look to the long line of them waiting for the same bus back as me. And this is the one of the most wonderful types of behavior, which is really typical for Japan.  

Back in Germany I can’t imagine someone waiting for the bus in that kind of strict line…