Out with the old…

And in with the new…

Japan is the most efficient, the most clean, the most organized, the most advanced, the most polite, and the downright coolest country I’ve ever been to. I wanna have it’s baby!

One of the most awesome districts of Tokyo is the Shibuya district, which you may recognize from the movie Lost In Translation. An estimated 1 million people cross through this pedestrian scramble each day.

By my estimation Shibuya has to be the largest shopping district in the world. Now I’m not what you would call a shopoholic by any means, but I do appreciate creative and colorful advertising if it’s done right. Shibuya certainly has some of the largest, and most colorful advertising I’ve ever laid eyes on. It makes the billboards of Los Angeles look like a dump.

And the Japanese just LOVE their cartoons and weird animated characters.

I swear Peter Pan must have been inspired by a Japanese person. It seems like they never want to grow up. It’s no wonder they are so youthful and energetic and happy!

Melrose Ave. in LA has nothing on the building facades in Shibuya.

I don’t know what it is. But it’s impressive for a store front.

And that’s just the outside. They cut no corners in designing the interiors of stores either.

It’s this sort of creativity that allows huge corporate brands like McDonalds to take chances and think outside of the box. The results are often clever and witty. In this example, they go with the Less Is More mantra and do away with all branding. No famous golden arches. No Ronald McDonald clown. Just “Quarter Pounder” in red writing on a black truck. I’m not a McDonaldsoholic either, but I appreciate their willingness to experiment. It’s fun! Simple. Effective. Different.

The purpose of my trip to Shibuya today was to try and locate a store I had been to last year. It was part automat, part clothing store. I didn’t know the name, or the address. So all I could do was retrace my footsteps from memory.

Once I found the sports complex I knew I was headed in the right direction.

All I had to do was walk past the tower…

…past the swimming pool building…

…past the courtyard…

…and right over the bridge, I would be dropped off right near Harajuku St. This is one of the funkiest streets in all of Japan. So many unique individuals all with their own personal style.

Everything goes here. Nothing is too crazy. Experimentation is strongly encouraged.

Once I found the memorable “WHAT!?” wall I knew I was getting close.

Just around the corner would be the geometric glass Audi building…

…and just down the street a couple blocks was the shirt store I was looking for!

The cool thing about this store is that only one of each of the t-shirts they have for sale is on the clothing racks pictured above. If you like a shirt, you look at the tag on the shirt for a map of the store. It will tell you which floor your shirt is on, and which wall to find it on. You make a mental note of the shirt style number, and then you go look for that code along the wall where the map pointed you to. The walls are lined with shelves of LED numbers that coorespond to the shirt style numbers. Once you find your number, you pull the clear round tube with red screw-on top off the shelf for your desired size.  All of the shirts are custom designs by local Japanese designers. It sort of turns shopping into a little game and helps to put just a little bit of ‘oholic’ in even the most non-shopolholics. Fun. Clever. Unique.

With my mission accomplished and a couple of new t-shirts in my bag, I popped into a little resteraunt. They too had a unique purchasing system. You pre-pay for your meal at a little vending machine that spits out a ticket very much like a train ticket dispenser. You then hand the ticket to the lady behind the counter and they prepare your meal for you. Simple. Efficient. Tasty.

Everything about this country is so much fun! I love everything about it! So as you can imagine, it is with great sadness that we must bring our Japan stay to an end. I love this country. I will be back soon Japan! I’ll miss you!

Today our friend Kana met up with us to go explore the grounds of the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

Located smack dab in the middle of the bustling city of Tokyo…

…the palace grounds cover 3.41 square kilometers and at one time the real estate had a value greater than that of all the real estate in the entire state of California!

Like so many other palaces in Japan, the grounds are surrounded by a giant moat filled with glass like water.

Unfortunately the actual palace building itself was destroyed by fires, earthquakes, and human destruction to make way for other buildings. Fortunately, there are still some great gardens…

…and ponds to walk through…

…and to sit and ponder by.

After leaving the palace grounds I randomly stumbled across the Marunouchi Gallery, which had a really cool space photo exhibit by the photographer Vincent Fournier. Below are a few photographs from the collection.

After warming up in the gallery for a few minutes we hopped on the train at Tokyo station back to Shinagawa station so that we could meet up with Jay’s dad for dinner who just happened to be in town on a business trip.

After dinner it was back to the hotel.

And it was on this island, just a few meters off the shore where the most famous Shinto shrine exists.

During high tide, the Itsukushima Shrine appears to be floating in the bay.

And during low tide you can walk past the friendly deers on the island…

Right up to the base of the torii.

And you can sit on the edge of the shrine on stilts…

…and watch as the water recedes back into the ocean.

That process of course can take several hours. So instead of watching paint dry, we instead choose to take the more challenging hike of the island and walk 2.8km to the top of Mt. Misen.

First a little meditation…

… to ensure out safe travels up the rocky mountainside.

And then it was off through the rainbow colored trees…

…full of multi-colored leaves.

It was a hike that took us almost vertically straight up the side of the mountain. But as they say “no pain, no gain.” And gain we did. As we gained more and more altitude, the views became more and more breathtaking.

Once we reached the top of the mountain at 535meters above sea level, we took it one step further. We found the tallest boulder we could find… and climbed to the top of that to celebrate our accomplishment…

…and to enjoy the view…

From way up above, we could check the tide levels way down below…

…in order to time our decent back down the mountain, and back to the ferry, back to Hiroshima, and then back to Tokyo later that night.

The experiences we had in Southern japan were remarkable, further cementing Japan’s place in my top 5 countries in the world. It’s definitely a must see, and I know I for one will be coming back.

We arrived here in Hiroshima this afternoon on the Shinkansen high-speed train from Osaka. We quickly dropped our bags off at the hostel and then headed out on the tram to visit ground zero. The Atomic Bomb Dome.

The former HPIPH (Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall) is one of the last remaining buildings from that fateful day on August 6th, 1945. On that morning, at 8:15 in the morning, as people were on their way to work, and children on their way to school, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb ever to be used in the history of humankind. The a-bomb detonated about 600 meters above the HPIPH, and consequently vaporized everything in the radius of the blast.

What remains of the building…

…has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing, now serving as a reminder of nuclear devastation…

…a symbol of hope for world peace and elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Across the river from the dome is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park which has a variety of monuments and memorials to help us all remember the impact of the decision to drop the bomb.

The Memorial Cenotaph has the names of all the people killed by the bomb. The Cenotaph carries the epitaph, “Repose ye in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated.”

Through the monuments arch you can see the Peace Flame…

The most jaw dropping memorial had to be the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound.

That grass-covered knoll contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

Seventy-thousand human beings incinerated in a matter of seconds.
Seventy-thousand mothers, fathers and children.

WHOA.

….

No words can describe the lump in your throat or the knot in your stomach as you stand there just trying to imagine what it was like on that clear August day.

Behind the Peace Flame is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The museum exhibit presents the facts of the atomic bombing, with the aim of contributing to the abolition of nuclear weapons throughout the world, and to achieve world peace. As one might expect, the sights in the museum are gut wrenching. Some of the display cases show clothing, watches, hair, and other personal affects worn by victims of the bomb including several watches that have stopped working at 8:15am. Towards the end of the exhibit is when it really gets emotional as you see piece after piece of scorched childrens clothes, and toys, and lunch box tins that are charred beyond recognition.

Again, no words can fully describe this experience but perhaps the thousands upon thousands of origami cranes next to the Children’s Peace Monument can help to sum it up.

Despite the atrocities that took place in this city, they people of Hiroshima of risen above it all and have taken it upon themselves to shown us all what is really important in this world, and what it means to be a human being on this planet.

Thanks Hiroshima!

It has become very clear on my travels that one of the defining factors in what separate an decent city from an excellent city is the train system. All of my favorite cities thus far have had great train systems… Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Athens, Budapest, and of course the entire country of Japan.

The train picture above is taking us 330 kimometers south from Osaka to Heroshima, and the entire trip will last just over an hour. I love flying, but unless I’m the pilot, trains are now my preferred method of travel.

It’s just about that time of year again, and since for the most part we’ve only packed clothes for warm weather, it’s time to head farther south to squeeze in a few more warm days before we head to the next country — Thailand.

We heard from some of the Japanese people we met, that Osaka was the shopping meca of Japan. They weren’t kidding. There are miles of outdoor malls, and each outdoor mall seems to be connected to a nearby indoor mall. And each indoor mall is flanked by streets lined with shops from major brands. And each shop is sandwiched between several restaurants. It’s amazing that all of these places manage to stay in business!

We’re aren’t much for shopping, but at least the stores here also double as funny photo-ops…

…with crazy displays mounted above the entrances…

…crazy billboards…

…and lots and lots of lights.

We did do a little bit of shopping however.

As we were walking through the isles of a technology store, past all the latest techno-gadgets and whizz-bang cell phones, I caught a whiff of a very familiar smell. A smell that brought back memories of home. As I turned the corner, I realized where the smell was coming from…

It was a Wendy’s!

Oh man! It’s been so long since I had a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger and a Biggie fries from their 99 cents menu. It was one of the few cravings I didn’t indulge in during our brief visit to LA a few weeks ago. Imagine Jay’s joy when he discovered unlimited portions of ketchup! Just like back home.

I try not to eat too much food from American conglomerates while exploring the world, but this was one of those rare exceptions, and we only split a burger and fries, just for the nostalgia of it all.

One of our friends Kana (seen here practicing her WOW face)…

…was nice enough to play tour guide for the day and introduce us to some of her friends…

… as well as drive us around to different areas of Osaka to see some sights.

Like Osaka Castle…

Which has a great view of the city from the roof top terrace.

Inside the castle is a museum about the construction, destruction and restoration of the castle in addition to the details of it’s significance in Japan’s history. On the ground floor we had the opportunity to try on some ancient Japanese warrior garments. Would you want to run into these warriors in a dark alley?

I think not.

Once we finished playing around, and posing for some photos for some Japanese folks, Kana took us to her favorite yakiniku restaurant which was about a 30 minute drive outside of the city.

The staff there was awesome, and so friendly. They were thrilled to have the first foreigners visit thier resteraunt in over 10 years! It was an honor to be there, and the food was delicious! Even the tongue was tasty!

The temple sits at the edge of a pond called Kyōko-chi (Mirror Pond).

It’s a beautiful sight indeed.

A perfect ending to our stay in Kyoto, which started off a little rough, but things are definitely getting brighter (no pun inteded) as we make our way farther south to Osaka for a couple of days.

They have become so acclimated to the city life…

…that they even obey the laws so that they don’t get tickets.

Other than the deer there are a few others sights to see such as Tōdai-ji…

…which is a great big Buddhist temple built to house a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana.

Just to give you an idea of how colossal it really is, each finger is about the same size as a human being. So ya, she’s a hefty one.

Before the sun went down we took a stroll through a nearby garden on the way back to the train.

Not many flowers were in bloom, but the changing colors of the leaves was still nice enough for a few photos.

Oh, and I almost forgot! On the way into the city we passed by a shop with these two guys kneading some dough with giant wooden mallets that was very impressive. Especially towards the end when one guy put down his mallet and started using his hands at double-speed, while his buddy (who he obviously trusts very much) kept walloping the dough with his mallet — also at double speed.

Up a few stairs and along the outer wall of the shrine were hundreds of ema (small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshipers write their prayers)…

…and below them were long bundles of origami ropes of different sizes, shapes, colors, and styles.

From the awning of the shrine hung bells with long sheets of cloth for worshipers to tug on after their donation and before their prayer.

Inari’s shrine is an important one, as he/she is responsible for fertility, rice and worldly success. It is for this reason that the grounds of the shrine are filled with millions of these torri snaking all over the mountian side. Each of these orange gates was donated by successful business men, merchants and manufacturers as their way to give back for what Inari gave them.

The gates start out really large at the foot of the mountain…

…and get slightly smaller as the elevation increases…

…until they split apart…

…forming long orange and black corridors.

Once you finally emerge from the halls-o-halloween, you will find smaller shrines with even smaller torri…

Naturally, the smaller the torri, the more you can fit on, near or  around a shrine. There are so many torri they needed to create a large torri just to hold all the little torri!

Some of the other shrines strayed from the norm a bit, and were slightly more unique in their design. Some using different materials…

…others using different shapes…

…and others using different colors.

One thing is for sure, if there is one person the certainly deserves a few torri (if not their own shrine) it’s the owner of this vehicle who wins the award for worlds best parallel parker.

And worlds skinniest human bean too from the looks of it!

They must have melted themselves with water just so they could get out of the van.

Probably the dragon water…

…from Kiyomizu-dera.

Get this… that temple right there, is built entirely without a single screw or nail to hold it all together! How do ya like them mortis tenon joints!? Eat your heart out Norm Abram!

In addition, that platform that you can see all those people standing on, is where people used to literrally “take the plunge” and jump 13 meters to the ground below. If you survive, you are granted one wish. If not, well, maybe you should have wished for something else! Two hundred and thirty-four jumps were recorded in the Edo period and, of those, 85.4% survived. The practice is now prohibited. Drats. Those are pretty decent odds too!

I guess we’ll just resort to the more modern wish granting practices of hanging up an ema or two.

It’s sort of sad to see the temple get all of the attention when on a nearby hillside this deteriorating pagoda gets no love.

It’s still a very pretty structure. Maybe they used Elmers wood glue to put it together and that’s why nobody cares about it.

As the sun began to set in the distance…

…it was time to head back towards the entrance…

…for a shot of the fading sun.

Boy is that sucker fast!

As a quick aside: I just recently read the good news that California will soon be getting it’s very own high-speed train from SD to SF/SAC. Good move Cali! Trains are for sure THE BEST way to travel.

As our health is starting to stabilize, we can start to resume normal sight seeing. So today’s place of interest was Nijō Castle. It’s a massive 275,000 square foot ancient palace smack dab in the middle of a bustling city. And it’s protected from invading city folk by a wide moat around the outer wall.

Once past the moat you can see that the palace is made up of two concentric rings of fortifications.

And inside the 2nd ring is Ninomaru Palace.

Photographs were not allowed inside of the palace, so you’ll just have to visit it yourself. But really quickly, a couple of cool facts…

1. The palace is built with a floating floor and each and every floor board squeaks when pressure is applied. This squeaky design is on purpose in order to alert the residents of any intruders. These days however as tourists pass through it sounds like there are millions of little birds trapped beneath the floor.
2. The shoguns of the Tokugawa family instructed all of the feudal lords from Western Japan to help build the castle, hence uniting much of Japan.

The rest of the castle ground are filled with various other buildings, and some amazing postcard-like gardens

Quite a magnificent piece of land. It’s no wonder it’s an UNESCO World Heritage site.

As my energy levels were dropping below a safe operating range, it was time to call it a day and get in some rest to try and complete this recovery.