I arrived in Osaka, one of the major cities in central Japan, where my parents had just permanently moved and owned a condo. I had met up with my mom who had come to the airport to greet me - my dad was away for business until the next day - and we went back to their condo, definitely the best place that I had stayed in the last couple of months. The one thing that I had realized, or was reminded of, was the fact that Japan has arguably the best food in the world; this I had taken notice after eating some leftovers from the day before. After some reorganizing, I knew that I only had 3 weeks in Japan so I started sightseeing right away. The great thing about traveling in Japan is this one particular transport: the bullet train. It's very very easy to take a day trip to cities that are 500 km away, and come back in time for dinner.
From Osaka, I first headed to the old capital town of Nara - one of the most important areas in terms of Japanese history. Nara was the capital of Japan during the Nara Period (710-794) when many of the famous Buddhist and Shinto Temples were built, under the guidance of such emperors as Shomu and Kanmu. Dating back 1200 years, the impressive Todai-ji, the largest wooden building in the world, houses the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world. A bit off the town center of Nara is the Horyu-ji, one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world, built by Prince Shotoku, the author of the 17 articles of the constitution in the 8th century.
I definitely started off my trip with the largest bulk of historic sites - namely Kyoto and Nara - which may hinder my appreciation for the rest of Japan (it's like starting Egypt with the pyramids). The biggest disappointment with Japan so far is the fact that everything, and I mean every castle, temple, shrines, etc., is a reconstruction because most wars and battles leave towns and opposing castles in ash. One of the best preserved castles in Japan is that of Himeji, built in the 14th century. Of course, when I was there, the castle was being repaired... Nonetheless, there were many inside secrets that were on the castle grounds that were interesting.
On the way back home, I stopped by the southern part of Osaka, headed to a strip called Dotombori with its bright neon lights and famous scenery. Here are some of the stranger sights of Osaka:
As a last day trip out of Osaka, I took the bullet train to Hiroshima, the city that conjures up only one image in most minds - the atomic bomb and the 80,000 deaths that it had caused during the last few days of World War II. The famous monument at the peace memorial park is the dome that still stands today, but it is a stark reminder of the damages that the bomb had caused, as the skeleton of the building was one of the few buildings standing near the epicenter of the blast.
And at the peace memorial museum, here's one of the displays that really struck me. This is a small portion of the number of letters that the mayor of Hiroshima had sent to ambassadors and world leaders of countries that possess nuclear weapon every time a test bomb has been detonated. Unfortunately, the number of letters had reached an unforgiving amount...
The next few days, I will travel to Kyoto and actually stay at hostels. I hadn't spent a dime yet in Japan because of my parents, but it's a little bit scary to imagine how much I'll be spending compared to SE Asia or China. In 5 days, my whole family will reconvene in Tokyo, this time with my parents and my siblings. A little bit of family, a lot of familiarity.
- Ryoji
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