Where's Ron?
Japan, 1 December 2015 - 24 February 2016
Ron near Rotarua, NZ, January 2015
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
23 January 2016
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
The giant mid-Atlantic storm brought something in the neighborhood of 20 inches (51 cms) of snow to Afton over a two day period, with winds and drifting as well. It finally stopped snowing late this afternoon, and the wind is supposed to drop overnight. I'm well stocked with books, food, jigsaw puzzles, and assorted projects, plus wood (for heat) and water if the power goes out, and will sit here happily until my half-mile (.8 km) driveway gets plowed. That will happen eventually - the person who plows it has a contract with Wintergreen, the local ski resort, and they are his first priority. That's fine - I'm perfectly happy here for multiple days. I suppose I'd eventually get bored, but it wont happen any time soon! My car is parked at the highway end of the driveway, but I don't have anywhere I want to go and I have no intention of wading through all that snow just to get to my car. I did go out of the house once, after lunch today, to shovel a path approximately 10 feet (3 meters) between the back door and the bird feeders so I could refill them. Don't need to go out again until the feeders need refilling! Although at some point I will need to shovel a path from the front door out to the top of the driveway.
I've actually spent the bulk of yesterday and today processing the many photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Ron sent and setting up the Web pages for the travel messages and the photos. So the photos he talks about in this message, along the other photos (cranes, apartment, and my photos of St. George), along with his travel accounts are now all up on the Web.
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos of Hiroshima, part 1, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Hiroshima, part 2, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Hiroshima, part 3, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Hiroshima, part 4, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Hiroshima, part 5, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Nagasaki, part 1, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Nagasaki, part 2, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Nagasaki, part 3, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Nagasaki, part 4, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
To see photos of Nagasaki, part 5, click on the thumbnail at the left.
21 January 2016
FukuokaHello, my dear,
You wanted some more descriptive reports on my travels and I have picked the two sites of our atomic bombs as an example of my train trips to other towns.
Normally I get off the train and look for an information office to get some maps and information on what to see and do. Some places have better information than others. My Lonely Planet guide is useless on my phone and touch pad as it just spins and spins trying to download what has already been downloaded, and then trying to find the pages I want at the moment. And a constant stream of messages saying Nook is not responding do I want to wait or close. [Note from Ellen - The superiority of paper is once again demonstrated!] Either choice results in additional identical messages. On the fast trains the Internet doesn't work because of the speed of the train.
And the metro/train/bus maps are all laid out differently so going back and forth between them is often guess work. But I get a gist of the layout and start walking. My main tool is maps on my phone that generally work with or without internet access. I can see where I am and what direction I am walking and some idea of what I am seeing and where I want to go. With no Internet I cannot search or use some of the other parts of the app.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki present a different challenge since I am coming to a place that was destroyed and can not see what was there before the bomb or what is was like after the bomb 70 years ago. So my plan is to show you Hiroshima and Nagasaki through pictures as I wandered around reading the various signs telling me about what I seeing.
In Hiroshima between Christmas and New Year's, I found the Shdukkeien Garden and the Art Museum closed but as I continued walking I discovered the Castle grounds open without ticket takers, and wandered through the grounds and the Gokoku Shrine. I entered the Shrine from the side, after following some birds in the park, and it took me by surprise.
Then I discovered a fancy hotel with an elaborate wedding chapel and an impressive commercial building, which I explored, finding water works and in the downstairs shopping area an amazing collection of fingernails. When crossing the street, using an underground, I again found myself again in a maze of underground walkways with stores, including an amazing umbrella store. I came up when I saw a sign to Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Tomb.
Of course I have read about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and all the reasons we dropped the bombs to end the war and save lives. But I don't read those reasons on the signs here or see the reasons in the museums. What I am reading in the signs, in books, in the letters, in interviews on the computers, watching and listening to the videos on TVs and monitors, are first hand reports from the survivors or family of the people killed or whose bodies were never found. The personal stories of the people dying over the days, months, and years afterwards. (Days later sitting in a bar in Fukuoka I find myself listening to the wife of the man sitting next to me telling me the stories of her grandmother who was living there at the time.)
I watch the U.S. presidential debates and read the news about terrorist attacks (9-11, buildings blown up, school shootings, attacks on our embassies, and more) and compare them to where I am standing, the signs and stories I am reading or listening to. Am I not witnessing the largest terrorist attack ever?
Our media focuses on the results of terrorist attacks, like the signs and stories I am reading, listening to, or watching here. I don't see any coverage of why we dropped the bombs, and in our news media the coverage of terrorist attacks is similar to the coverage here - what the damage was and who was killed or what was destroyed. It is harder to understand and report the reasons for the action. Often we don't know. But we provide the reasons for our actions, but generally not "their" justifications.
. Here they have turned the bomb sites in Hiroshima and Nagasaki into a peace movement. Should we do the same with our terrorist sites?
I hope you will look at my pictures and read the signs and perhaps have just a little of the feeling and experience I had in these two places.
While the bomb in Nagasaki was bigger and more powerful, the results seemed less because of the mountains surrounding Nagasaki. When the pilot reached the first target, Kotura, the clouds hid the city so they diverted to the second target, Nagasaki. If you magnify the first picture, of the train I took from Fukuoka, you will see the sign for the next station: Kotura. I think I will go spend a day in Kotura to experience the difference a cloudy day can make.
After wandering around in Hiroshima near the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, and The Hall of Memories, I left the area and walked across the river to the local train station and used my JR Rail Pass to go down the river to Miyajima, literally "Shrine Island," a popular name for Itsukusima Shrine. It has long been revered as a sacred island because of Itsukusima Shrine founded there in 593 A.D. and dedicated to the maritime guardian goddesses. After about a 30 min train trip to Miyajimguchi Station I took a 15 minute ferry ride to the Island.
When I returned to Hiroshima I found the Street of Lights and wandered around for a while taking pictures. The Japanese are doing wonderful things with the LED lights, inside and outside. Enjoy the pictures, which do not do justice to the reality of walking though them.
After the lights and dinner, with my portable wireless running out of power and my camera battery exhausted like my personal energy, I boarded the train and returned home to my apartment.
When I visited Nagasaki there were similarities and differences. Hiroshima was flat and more compact while Nagasaki was hilly and more spread out. In Hiroshima I walked (a lot) but in Nagasaki I used the street car which connected to the places I wanted to go. Both had peace parks, memorials for the victims, museums of the bombing, and lots of testimony from the survivors which explained how the bombs changed their lives and how they recovered and the lives they lived - and lots of signs. I will let the pictures (and the signs) take you on the tour of Nagasaki.
This is too much to write, too much for my friends to read, too many pictures for Ellen to process, and takes too much time to write and send the pictures through my Internet connection. But it will give you a sample of a couple of my touring days.
Alice has written me about Kyoto and the places I must see, some of which I did. But I am not through with Kyoto, and will return a couple of more times.
It is cold, some days wet, and one day I walked in the snow flurries with a clear umbrella. Tomorrow I will start some visiting in Mai's home south of Nagoya and next weekend with Richard north of Nagoya.
Love and miss you,
Ron
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Last updated: 19 February 2016
