Jap Blog 9th August 1996

Shower. Brekkie. Walk to train station and put almost everything into a locker. As usual my backpack wouldn’t fit in. Took it to Peace Park and it was a good thing that we arrived early as were able to get a seat. A great service, I must say. Not that I could understand it. I almost cried a couple of times. Wayne left early to go to his Rotary Club meeting – I was expected to attend, although this hadn’t been made clear to me.

Stayed around after the service waiting for everybody to clear the area so that I could get a good photo. Sat down and a Japanese lady, Hideko Rikitake, asked me if I was ok. In English. We started talking. She took my photo. Her grandmother and aunty were hibakusha and had died during the last year. We went to the “Unknown Victims” Shrine and lit a stick of incense for them. Walked to the bus stop and kept talking. Hideko asked me how old I was and I asked her to guess, adding that I look older because I have a goatee. Her guess was 28 [author’s note – being only 24 and having the person lower their expectation and guess 28 makes me think that I looked really old]. We swapped addresses and Riki told me about a ceremony that started at 6:30pm and asked if I would like to come. I said that I wasn’t sure about our plans this evening but would call her. Took the tram back to the train station and arrived at the same time as Wayne.

Arty water fountain. Who says the Japanese have no taste? We decided to climb Inasayama. Summit was at 333 metres and it took us 1 hr and 20 minutes to climb [author’s note – damned oversized backpack]. Incidentally, there was a cable car to take us to the summit but being backpackers and very money conscious, we decided to do it the real way. Great view. Wayne telephoned the Hazama household [author’s note – from the Rotary Club] as they had invited us to stay the night. I rang Riki, from the top of the mountain, and asked if she could meet us for the ceremony. Yes. Only took us 45 minutes to get back to the train station. Met up with a Swiss guy, Adrian, whom we had bumped into a couple of times previously. Had a drink together and as we were leaving two girls wanted to talk to us and take our photo. Great English [author’s note – why don’t I remember them?]. We left Adrian to it [author’s note – lucky bugger].

Caught the tram to Peace Park and Riki was a little bit late. The ceremony involved Toro – paper lanterns and candles – which were to be floated on the river. Wayne and I had all of our gear and so it wasn’t an easy walk. Get this, we dropped our gear off against a wall or somewhere, and just carried on with the ceremony. Took the lanterns down to the river where they were put on wooden floats and hundreds of them were sent down the river. Nobody touched our gear and the strange fact is that no matter how large my paranoia is, I didn’t expect anybody to interfere with our belongings [author’s note – great country or what?].

Wayne called the Hazamas again. We all walked to the meeting place – 25 minutes away. A restaurant was nearby and we had tea there. I had prawns – whole. Oishi (delicious). Mrs Hazama paid and Riki couldn’t believe it. Dr Hazama arrived and we dropped Riki off at her home. The Hazamas had offered for Riki to stay with them too [author’s note – did I mention the incredible hospitality of the Japanese?] but she politely declined mentioning that she had some window dressing to carry out in Kitakyushu the next day. She gave me a bookcase piece that had been in her family for a long time [author’s note – I still have it].

Drove a long way from Nagasaki and we are staying in an apartment block overlooking the Dutch Huis Ten Bosch. We talked until almost 2 am, generally about World War II, the bomb on Nagasaki and the strange things that Japanese do. The Hazama’s children are studying in America and they even rang one of their sons for us to talk to.

- posted by Hammy @ 8:12 am