Highlights of Japan

13 -14/11/24 – Days 7 & 8

Happy birthday to my son-in law, Jason back home in Australia!!!

Day 7 13/11/24

The day I had been expecting so much on this tour has finally arrived, and it is the full day optional tour to Hiroshima via the famous bullet train, well worth the 550,000yen price ($550AUD/ person) but in saying that I’m feeling so many emotions with the tragedy of Hiroshima to be so called ‘excited’. I hope my 32 or so photos show you the day I experienced. My Polarsteps app map shows the journey as a plane flight, but it was the bullet train & I can’t change it .. probably this operator’s error. The group partaking this optional journey was told well in advance the night prior to be in full timing mode, for the timeframes are really tight.

Of course, the best of plans fail with our booked 7am brekky in true bedlam with another bus tour cramming in & we had to fight to get anything or to get some respectable order in play. Most of us even gave up on getting to the coffee due to the timing & congestion. A complete shamble.

Secondly, our bus departure was set at 7.30am sharp & low & behold, the same married couple as previously described in my last blog were extremely late & with no apologies. They have been consistently late or lost nearly every day!! Trend, our diligent guide is now stressed, so in conjunction with our bus driver it was now absolute we must now go straight to the bullet train station on the other side of Osaka & not take the standard connecting train close by to our hotel to that station. Trend had made all the booking & payments the other day in advance as part of the requirements so there can’t be any changes.

With our new peak hour road trip, the traffic was horrendous and lots of alternate side streets were used to get around these bottlenecks. You could tell our bus driver was in a race. Japan’s trains are precisely on time so there will be no waiting for our arrival. Trend repeatedly warns us that there is no time to dawdle off the bus & we must almost run to the #3 platform to meet the bullet train. Trend is very direct with this instruction & now it is every ‘man for himself’ in making it to Platform #3 & seek out carriage 15. Trend provides our tickets just when the bus pulls into the kerb. We are off!!!!!

Somehow, we successfully crossed the road in the one group & most of the travellers scrambled up the 2 floors of escalators, whilst I shot up the stairs adjacent which made me one of the first onto the platform. Most train stations in the cities are well above the street line of shops below. Now I am behind Trend & she darts off along the platform bearing in mind ‘every man for himself’ plus the train has already stopped on the platform. By this the train signals were sounding (escalating beeps) for doors closing & finally Carriage 15 appeared & when I ‘jumped’ in after checking on the group I believe the doors brushed behind me. We are in!!! Can’t believe everyone got on in time but quite a few minutes later Nicole & Anne finally appeared. They had to enter the nearest carriage & walk through seeing they were so far behind us. Now we are all together. Whew!!! Insane timing.

The inside of the bullet train is so similar to that of an aircraft & I guess we are travelling in considerable speed. You can get a plane from Osaka to Hiroshima, but the airport is considerably east of the city and more road transport needed upon arrival. By plane is a much slower process & cheaper than the train but certainly not convenient. We are on the fastest bullet train @ 300klms/hr & it’s so smooth & fast!!!

We had 2 very quick stops, Yokohama & then Fukujima then all the way to Hiroshima. Alighting from the train I looked at the Platform #12 indicator board out of curiosity & it said Hakata which is the next major stop beyond Hiroshima. I was pleased I quickly understood this indicator board & wasn’t challenged like I was in Blog 1. With everyone abuzz from our most unusual & exciting train travel (no bullet trains in Australia) we quickly escorted ourselves down the escalators to our new awaiting bus & driver for the day. You have no idea how clean these buses are (inside & out). Immaculate. From my previous blogs we still haven’t found a dirty vehicle of any description in Japan. No kidding!!

Hiroshima is blessed with many river tributories and many bridges to cross making this a very attractive city with transport options like water cruising. Trend provides us with some handouts showing where we are headed to next. We first visited the Miyajimaguchi Ferry Terminal to take a toilet break & a 15mins cruise directly across to a nearby island (Itsukushima Is) to see World Cultural Heritage of Miyajima Island, also known as Itsukushima Is & Itsukushima Shrines plus the 16^th century replica of the O-Torii Gate set in the ocean waters.

This massive O-Torii Gate, the ninth since the Heian Period was built in 1875 of some 16.6m high & weighing close to 60 tons is exposed to the elements and even withstood the atomic blast being possibly just outside the 2 or so klms blast range. Pls note in the photo the size of the people at low tide nearing the gate to see its enormous size. The gate’s roof structure is 24.2m in length of Japanese Cypress. The post structures are formed to accommodate approx. 4tons of fist sized stones for its own weight bearing.

After taking the range of photos of this magnificent gate we strolled over to the shrine location, again dodging the free roaming deer & avoiding the deer shit of course for the ferry & bus entry.

We went through the ancient shrines, market stalls & stood around for ages eating what food we could buy until the required time set by Trend to return to the ferry terminal. This time lapse proved most wasteful when we got to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park & Museum. We were all glad to be back on the ferry & ultimately the bus where it kindly let us off at the bridge road entry near the Atomic Bomb Dome building eastern location & will meet us at the far western end of the Peace Park after. For those visiting Hiroshima you can get a ferry cruise from the Peace Park to Itsukushima Is & visa versa as the best way to travel to these major locations.

The Peace Park has on its eastern boundary a very large T shaped traffic bridge that replicated the original T shaped bridge. This Aioi Bridge was originally built in 1932 (the same year as our famous Sydney Harbour Bridge & my hometown heritage listed bascule truss Grafton Bridge). The original Aioi Bridge was pressurised by the atomic blast at 7tons per m2, 15 times more than normal. Under this sudden pressure the bridge thrashed like a leaf spring being snapped back & forth with the bridge platform up in the air. Fortunately, the bridge remained intact & was used for a further 35yrs until the age & damage took its toll. The current replica bridge was commissioned in October 1983 & still forms an integral part of the city’s transport system.

This unique T shaped bridge obviously provided an accurate landmark for the US B29 bombers of the morning of August 6^th, 1945, at 8.15am, as there were no other existing prominent landmarks. Hiroshima was bombed primarily due to its extensive gunpowder industry & not say, Tokyo (major populated city). Next to the bridge is the 1964 Red Bird Monument from the novelist Miekichi Suzuki (1882 -1936) who with his famous children’s books, etc was dedicated to recognising Hiroshima’s recovery & to seek for world peace again.

Adjacent to the monument you are left daunted by the only remaining building structure (Atomic Bomb Dome) left from the atomic blast & it requires constant engineering to keep it safe. It was built in 1915 & to be demolished like all the other structures but there was a public outcry due to its unique design & domed roof & that proved significant for Hiroshima’s future. The bomb blasted very close to this bridge & building some 600m above ground & some 160m S/East of the building where there was a circular catastrophic effect of more than 2.5klms away. Being almost below the bomb detonation a lot of the building structure survived but all occupants obviously didn’t.

We then crossed the smaller river bridge to the Children’s Peace Monument which the community petitioned the government to construct a memorial to the children lost, still suffering & for future generations all from the starting wishes of a young dying 12yr old girl victim, Sadako Sasaki who was 2yrs old at the time of the blast & later died of Leukemia. This monument evolved through some 3,200 schools in Japan and other countries who contributed for its commissioning on 5^th May 1958.

Most of our group singularly & respectably bowed silently at the monument & rang the bell hanging down from within. On top of the monument there is a young girl holding a steel art form of a bird Crane of Peace & from each side of the structure is a young boy & a young girl statue.

Turning around we walked past the eternal flame at one end of the Pond of Peace where it symbolically held by ‘hands of concrete’. At the other end of the pond an arch monument stands where dignitaries from around the world come & place wreaths here.

We then walked down the long path to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum & Trend tried hard to get us into the packed museum. Once in, you were almost trapped by the sheer volume of people & most were not continually moving forward as they should. Far too many people & by the time I squeezed through I had missed about 50% of the museum & almost the last person to meet the group ready for the bus. After another 15mins of frustratingly waiting the same lady of the couple was late again & Trend had to go back in to find her. No apologies again forthcoming. The museum had so many tragic photos, fils and synchronised AI video of how the blast took place over the city & the blast circumference detailed. There was just too much to see & very little time and ‘seeing’ through the walls of people. I felt like I was being relieved in not seeing all the horrors on show as it is always difficult when you see what humans do to other humans, particularly in war. When I visited the Killing Fields in Cambodia it took me some 3 days before I could see the world better again.

Based upon the debacle of meeting the bullet train this morning, Trend allowed more time to arrive at the station where we had some 15mins to spare before the bullet train came in which allowed myself a quick video of its arrival.

For some reason it seemed an even quicker return back to Osaka, but I think the darkness of night helped & we reached our hotel at 7.45pm. The only food outlet area was back into Dontobori precinct, another 15min walk & quite a few of the travellers couldn’t be bothered, so I headed off alone … again. I found a nice little restaurant filled with young people, great music & was given an English menu.

I picked the Pork Stew viewed by the picture & bamb!!! It came out in a very hot cast iron bowl filled with enough food for 3men. Yikes!!! It had a lot of chilli in it & the extra-large beer stubbie clearly wasn’t enough to douse the invisible flame of the chilli!! I was starting to cry with the chilli .. & sweating .. Lol!! I translated (text) to the young waiter why I couldn’t finish it & expressed I didn’t want to offend, as it is unJapanese to withdraw early from your meal. He took it well, smiled, almost laughed really & bowed graciously, as did I.

Walking back to the hotel my stomach was gaining more inner warmth, so I found a Lawson convenience store & bought a ‘cornetto’ ice cream & that did the trick. Can’t remember when I last had a cornetto ice cream.

Tomorrow we all get a sleep-in, but checkout is 10am & the hotel will store our bags till the 2pm bus departure to Osaka airport (1hr 10mins bus) for our flight to Busan Sth Korea.

14/11/24 Day 8

I awoke the next morning fully refreshed & with all my washing dry & plenty of time to properly pack my backpacks for flying and a casual trip in the elevator for brekky & a 10am check out. Our bags were stored for our 2pm bus departure to Osaka airport making sure our bags didn’t mix with the other bus tour.

Trend (our amazing guide) directed me to a local park some 30mins walk away so I headed off there but didn’t see a great deal there or along the way, but on the park is The Museum of Fine Arts & this was now temporarily closed. I was hoping to see that for my daughter, Kate who is an artist & would love what I would find inside. Such a shame.

Upon my return to the hotel, I found my favourite older fun couple Ted & Maria sitting in the brekky area having a few beers so I joined them for 2 soothing beers ($5.50ea) of good value until everyone starting rolling in after 1pm in readiness for the 2pm pickup. Ted & Maria are a fantastic couple from Manly in Sydney & they certainly made my trip wonderful. I do truly miss them now.

Trend was of course early (Japanese professionalism) & sorting out our bags & the hotel & most of us had our tour survey paper & tip monies with envelopes provided ready to hand to Trend when she was free.

We are all on the bus prior to 2pm, Yay!!! … but wait!!!! DS (70 yr old painful passenger from my previous blogs) hasn’t showed & no-one had seen him or knew where he would have gone too. 20mins has gone & now Trend is reviewing hotel’s ctv footage & that showed DS at his bags at 8.20am that morning & nothing else.

Trend is severely stressed & passengers have become angry as DS has had previous bad form of this & put Trend in a previous disastrous position with her manager & the local police a couple of days prior. With no alternative the bus had to leave for the airport on a 1hr 15mins journey. At the airport, still no word from DS or him taking Trend’s repeated calls.  We are now starting to worry, not anger as much & DS not within the airport as first thought.

Trend says a hurried good-bye to us all but graciously allows me a photo with her for now she will head off to another airport terminal in case DS arrived there by mistake. Deb, a fellow passenger will now be the sole contact with Trend to avoid more stress to Trend. Due to this extended time lapse Trend had to reluctantly inform her manager & the decision made to formally report a missing person to police. This is a very bad thing for a guide to report this in Japan. Heavily frowned upon if you read my 1^st Japan blog & Day 4 blog.

Trend was booked to go home to Tokyo after us, relax for just one day & start another tour. She absolutely loves her job & in showing tourists her wonderful Japan but now that is all lost, plus her pending tour income. Time is now getting away & we even board our plane 20mins late & still no further news.

Our flight is more like a domestic flight of 90mins & once through customs & immigration we are met by our new Korean guide, Jade who does a quick roll call.  Deb, being quite stressed notifies Jade of DS’s disappearance & not making the flight. Jade shows some confusion & states DS is at our hotel & waiting for us from arriving that morning. WOW!!! .. the tour people became instantly furious & vocal, but I was even angrier than that!!! Typical self-centred, obnoxious DS!!! He had taken a taxi to the airport, took a different flight, then another taxi. Massive unnecessary expenditure, so selfish & never told anyone what he was doing. Absolute contempt for anyone else.

We then found out Jade had not notified Trend or Trip a Deal either with her 30yrs experience, so it was left for Deb to notify Trend who was so relieved but still in trouble with her manager. Some of us travellers, including Deb will make our own independent report of DS’s antics on this trip to Trip a Deal directly in support of Trend for all his antics was never a failure of Trend. Post blog: I submitted my 3-page report of DS to Trip a Deal upon the 2^nd day of my return to Australia as promised to the group & was well received. I later texted Trend to check on her & even at Christmas she sent me a Happy Christmas & some of her Tokyo Disneyland photos of her time away confirming she is doing fine & still smiling.

Before I finish this day’s blog, I wish to somehow portray how magnificent Japan was for most of us on the tour. We were blessed with I’d say perfect weather over the 7 days with no rain & as much sun Autumn could provide. We received the best guide in Trend & certainly, the bus driver, Takanashi-son .. (spelling?) with their attention to detail, full professionalism & overall skill in dealing with so many personalities and safe driving.

Japan is a country that prides itself on the above personal traits without question as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs. Their culture is wonderful & most pleasing where we are warmly embraced. Criminal actions, like theft is extremely rare and the consequences of monumental shame, etc would be very harsh for the offender plus their family. As I walked the streets of Tokyo, Osaka, etc hundreds of bicycles are stored along the footpaths & not one was locked. Going to a phone shop & the phones on display are not cabled locked like in Australia. Some of our passengers left their phones on tables & park benches & were still there when we searched for them. Travellers were quickly advised if they left money in machines or forgot their change. So honest. The townships & cities are so clean, and every vehicle we saw was spotless to a fault and there are so many other examples that reflect the examples of the world’s crown jewel of Japan. I hope you can understand the magnificance of Japan just through my few blogs?

I was far too angry to sleep that night, even though I was in the best hotel so far (Asti Hotel, next to Busan Railway Station). Today I walked 11,329 steps or 8.51klms. Tomorrow is set for 9.30am bus departure & to run into DS … Literally!!! .. Stay tuned for my next blog for this welcoming occasion (sarcasm).

Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. I trust the stories and photos will get better.