[RD] Exploring Japan

[warpus]

Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki

My stay on the island was coming to an end, as I wanted to be back in Hiroshima by a certain hour.. I had a bit of time before the next ferry, so I found a place to eat



This variant of okonomiyaki uses noodles and is layered, not mixed. The main ingredients are batter, cabbage, pork, noodles, and okonomiyaki sauce.

 

[Arakhor]

What purpose does the "floating" bridge serve? It must be really inconvenient to use as a shrine.

 

[JohannaK]

Floating bridge? What floating bridge?

 

[warpus]

What purpose does the "floating" bridge serve? It must be really inconvenient to use as a shrine.

Do you mean the floating red torii gate that's in the water? Those are symbolic entrances to Shinto temples, signalling the transition from the mundane to the sacred. There is no need to step through them to access the temple though

Or do you mean the part of this shrine that's right on the water? It was built with accessible docks for pilgrims, to give them easier access to the island and this temple in particular

 

[warpus]

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

After lunch and saying my goodbyes to one of the local deer I jumped back on the ferry and then the train, and was back in Hiroshima at a reasonable time.



I had walked to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which contains the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the A-Bomb Dome

 

[warpus]

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

This park is right in the center of Hiroshima. This location was once the city's busiest commercial and residential neighbourhood... The park was built in the field left behind by the blast

The dome is not actually right at the hypocenter. It was the closest building that was in some form still left standing after the blast though.. For the hypocenter you have to go for a 5 minute walk (which I did not). The initial target of the bomb was one of the nearby bridges.

 

[JohannaK]

I should think a single 'target' for such a bomb, is more symbolic than effective.

 

[warpus]

I should think a single 'target' for such a bomb, is more symbolic than effective.

Yeah, given the blast radius and the targeting capabilities of the time, it seems it didn't really matter what the specific target was. They were targeting a nearby bridge, but hoping to decimate the busiest part of downtown, which is what was accomplished. Still though, when this happened they probably used similar targeting protocols as other (more regular type of) bombs - so they had to pick something specific to aim for. I'm not an expert by any means, and am just guessing, but perhaps the bridge would have just been simpler to target from above. If you also look at this part of Hiroshima on a map, the dome and this park are right by one of the forks in the river. Maybe that made it easier to see the target from above as well?

 

[amadeus]

I wonder what the secondary target was for the Hiroshima bomb? The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was not initially intended for it; the city of Kokura (now Kitakyushu) was the original target but supposedly because of a cloudy day, the bombardiers had to move to their secondary target—Nagasaki.

I lived there for a while and, unbeknownst to me, my picture with an atomic bomb survivor was published in a local newspaper. For a couple of weeks, I was getting approached by older people in the street and couldn’t figure out why.

Someone clued me in shortly thereafter. Wish I could find the copy I had!

 

[JohannaK]

Oh, I have a DVD documentary that mentions what the three possible targets for the day were. I think that given they were just three days apart, it's very likely Kokura and Nagasaki were those alternative targets.

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah, given the blast radius and the targeting capabilities of the time, it seems it didn't really matter what the specific target was. They were targeting a nearby bridge, but hoping to decimate the busiest part of downtown, which is what was accomplished. Still though, when this happened they probably used similar targeting protocols as other (more regular type of) bombs - so they had to pick something specific to aim for. I'm not an expert by any means, and am just guessing, but perhaps the bridge would have just been simpler to target from above. If you also look at this part of Hiroshima on a map, the dome and this park are right by one of the forks in the river. Maybe that made it easier to see the target from above as well?

By 1945 the US Air Force realized that they did not have the capability to drop a bomb from high altitude and have it hit an aim point less than a quarter of a mile across. So they weren't so much "targeting", as that they wanted something recognizable from a long distance as a reference point.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I wonder what the secondary target was for the Hiroshima bomb? The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was not initially intended for it; the city of Kokura (now Kitakyushu) was the original target but supposedly because of a cloudy day, the bombardiers had to move to their secondary target—Nagasaki.
I lived there for a while and, unbeknownst to me, my picture with an atomic bomb survivor was published in a local newspaper. For a couple of weeks, I was getting approached by older people in the street and couldn’t figure out why.
Someone clued me in shortly thereafter. Wish I could find the copy I had!

The list of Cities for Atomic Bombs appear to be Hiroshima, Kokura and then Nagasaki
The Bridge was not the primary target, considerations for the target site was for maximum impact since the US only had two bombs ready, Hiroshima had largely been ignored by US bombers and had important military and Industrial potential as well as being a key port for logistics. All three sites were for the Atomic Bomb were large cities.

Just the conventional bombing was effective, especially if the US could shift its air force from Europe to focus on Japan. At least a blood bath of an Invasion of Japan was avoided. Olympic would have been a costly battle.

 

[warpus]

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

I got the following text from the official museum guide (/wikipedia)

The Peace Memorial Museum collects and displays belongings left by the victims, photos, and other materials that convey the horror of that event, supplemented by exhibits that describe Hiroshima before and after the bombings and others that present the current status of the nuclear age. Each of the items displayed embodies the grief, anger, or pain of real people. Having now recovered from the A-bomb calamity, Hiroshima's deepest wish is the elimination of all nuclear weapons and the realization of a genuinely peaceful international community.

The museum is the raised rectangular building in the picture above that's straight ahead.

The east wing of the museum focuses on Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped, the development of the bomb, the decision to drop it, the lives of citizens of Hiroshima before and after, and so on. The west wing focuses on the damage of the bomb, effects on the local population before and after the blast, some of the associated horrors, the effects of the radiation, there's displays of personal artefacts of some of the victims, and so on.

I did not take many pictures here because it was just so sad. It didn't seem right to photograph any of the photos of disfigured and suffering people or any of their personal items. I walked around most of this place in silence, with a heavy feeling in my chest and in my heart.. This place exists so that we never forget and so that this never happens again, so I made sure to read and see as much as I could. Some of it was not easy to look at.. but I felt that it was important to expose myself to all of this nevertheless.

I did take some pictures inside the museum, mostly right at the beginning of my walkthrough. After I saw the first horrific image I just couldn't turn on my camera again...





Above you can see the exact spot where the bomb detonated.

 

[warpus]

After visiting the museum I spent a bit more time walking around Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

 

[warpus]

On to Beppu

In the morning I checked out of my hotel and jumped on the high-speed Shinkansen again



I was heading west still, to Kitakyushu, where I would transfer to a non-bullet train to my next destination.



This map shows you my journey so far. I started out in Tokyo in the eastern part of this map and took the bullet train to Kyoto.. A couple days later I took a regular train to Nara to the south, then the next day took a train through Osaka, transferred back onto the bullet train and made stops in Kobe, Himeji, and Hiroshima. Now I was heading to Kitakyushu, transferring to a regular train again, my next destination being the spa resort town of Beppu on the island of Kyushu

 

[warpus]

First Impressions of Beppu

The train ride lasted 3 hours, including the transfer in Kitakyushu. It was a much easier transfer for me to navigate than the one I did in Osaka, where I ended up missing my stop and later had to walk through seas of people in a 3D maze of urban craziness. I'm also now thinking that my transfer could have been in Fukuoka and not Kitakyushu.

I arrived in in the early afternoon and did not end up taking very many pictures this day. In fact, the pictures that I did take are rather curious. I took a picture of an Indian restaurant, a beer ad featuring a surprised beer connoisseur, 4 pictures of the sky, a picture of a statue of a rabbit outside of a restaurant, and.. the following 2 pictures that I will show you



Beppu has 8 geothermal hotspots within city limits and is famous for its onsen (hot springs). In fact, I now remember that as soon as you arrive in the city or even maybe during your approach to it.. you see the steam rising up to the sky everywhere. It is quite the sight, and that is why I have pictures of the sky, but unfortunately they did not really turn out.

The building you see above is an onsen. An onsen is a hot spring, but it can also refer to a building with bathing facilities for the public which uses a geothermally heated spring as its source of hot water.

I walked through some sort of a red light district part of town to get to this onsen.. Sketchy looking establishments here and there, but.. this place got good reviews and is supposed to have historical significance.. You can read more about it here.

I hesitated and went in to get my Japanese onsen experience.

It was for sure an interesting experience. The building was sort of run down and not very well maintained. Nobody there spoke English at all, so first I had to figure out what to pay for. There were different options and different rooms. The sand bath option had to be booked ahead of time and I was there too late for drop ins anyway.. I eventually picked something and ended up in a room with a big body of water in the middle, and I want to say 3 older Japanese men in various stages of their own onsen experience. Two were in the water and one was sitting on a small plastic stool (or bucket) pouring water over himself. If you want to see what this all looks like (minus the people), click the link above and scroll down

I did my research beforehand, I swear. I read up on what to do and in which order, but finding myself in this situation, I somehow completely forgot all the steps. I didn't even know where to take off my clothes, but eventually I figured out that you're just supposed to do it right there. Then I walked up to the guy on the stool and asked him for tips.

That was brave of me, probably. Once I got in the water it was a lot less weird, and just hot and relaxing. I think I lasted 10 minutes and then got the hell out of there. I felt refreshed but wasn't sure if I would ever return to an onsen again (I did)



The other picture is from a restaurant I ended up eating at. I wasn't having much luck finding good options for food, but this place got great reviews and was open and nearby.. Their menu had no English and no pictures, but the guy behind the counter did a great job trying to explain everything. Unfortunately all I could figure out was that there was raw chicken on the menu (sashimi), and I did not want any of that for sure. I asked him to make me his speciality and the above is what I got.

It's blackened chicken, but I could not tell you anything about the recipe or the sauces. He cooked it in front of me and it was basically on fire. It looks like it was maybe a little bit too much on fire, but it was actually very good.

 

[warpus]

Day 17 - The Eight Hells of Beppu

The Eight Hells of Beppu are hot springs and geothermal pools which are especially spectacular or active. They are for looking at and definitely not for bathing in.

Most of them are sort of clustered together, but a bit out of the way. In order to get there I had to jump on a bus.

The Blood Pond Hell

 

[Arakhor]

Oh, that one's very pretty. What a great name too!

 

[warpus]

Very pretty indeed! I don't think I was quite convinced that I made the right call to come to Beppu until I saw the hells. My original plan was to stay on the high speed line and eventually end up on a smaller island

Here's some videos of the Blood Pond Hell. Notice the tiny whirlwind in the second video. I used to think that's an optical artefact of some kind.. but looking closer, it does actually look like spinning steam..

 

[warpus]

The Tornado Hell

Every 30-40 minutes or so this geyser errupts erratically for 6-10 minutes. There is a large elevated seating area at the site allowing you to get a good look at the geyser no matter where you're sitting









I wanted to note that I've noticed most sites translating the first hell I visited as the "Blood Pond Hell" and not the Blood Hell, as I've been calling it. As such, I've renamed that whole section