HIROSHIMA: While its all fresh in my mind.

So, I just got back from Hiroshima. It was a beautiful city but I noticed alot of things. First, Hiroshima is a very well planned city. The streets are surprisingly wide, and while there is no subway the streetcars has its own little charm. On the other hand keeping in mind the reason why the city had a chance to be planed so well was the A-bomb.

The A-bomb museum was horrifying to say the least. The pictures were not so shocking as I had seen many before. But the somber mood and the people surrounding me, as well as the layout that included not just the horrifying pictures but alot of information, background and true stories was numbing in scope. My number one complaint was the museum was so long it left you feeling rather empty and exhausted by the end of the exhibit.

But one such horror was the people there. There was a young girl probably around 13 (or in Japan terms 9-18) who was with her mom and younger sister, there were looking at a replica of Hiroshima the day before and the second after the bomb. The mom was explaining how in an instant the entire city was destroyed and probably all the people killed, she had her completely unenthused daughter go back to the full scale model of before and take a look to compare to the utter destruction that followed, and the young girl responded with a, hnnnnnn. It made me sad and a bit angry that the youth seemed so apathetic to it all. Like none of it concerned their lives, or perhaps her own trivial problems overshadowed this site. Granted I have no idea what was going on her in life, and maybe she was just having a bad day, maybe her mom got her up early and she wanted to sleep in and just could not be bothered... but that still does not excuse the total disregard to such a horrific lose of life.

But going on through the museum there were times when I just could not hold in the tears. But I am without a doubt a horribly proud person and fought terribly to keep them in check. But as I was walking through I ran across a young girl with her mother, she was silently crying, not bawling, but she was crying so hard she has a small towel pressed to her checks, hiding her eyes. I thought to myself, and latter reflected in the small note book of reflections at the end of the museum, that if more human beings in this world could hold such empathy to human life and the preciousness of each one, I am certain we would not live in such a horrifying world of cruelty and death.

Also I deeply regretted not getting a new camera battery and charger. I thought well I have a battery just not charger, so I will wait till I find just the charger because I dont want to shell out another 5 sen on both. I thought shinnae, yamato and Jon have their cameras so I should be fine. But, walking around the peace park I thought to myself, cameras and pictures are not so much about taking a picture as a keepsake, but the act of taking a picture is capturing a moment in time and framing it in your own mind. As if the action itself is more precious than the pictures that develop. I felt that taking a snap shop of the A-Bomb Dome, would've framed simply in my own mind what that experience meant for me, but as I was lacking a camera, all I could do was lament the missed opportunity.

With just 3 days I could not see all I wanted to, or all I thought I might want to. In reality I thought we were just going to snow board for two days but I was really happy we went just for one and sight seed the other day.

Snowboarding has also managed to come together for me. At first try I was awful once again and falling down left and right. I eventually chickened out and scooted on my edge the whole way down. But seeing Shinna be so afraid that she could only go down twice I decided to just screw it and cane it down. Granted even then I was a bit cautious I really managed to go down with some speed and felt the great rush. I'm still pretty weak on turning left (as I am going down goofy) but I think I'm getting the hang of it and I cant wait to go again.

Last but not least. The fashion in Hiroshima is totally different. Girls there do NOT wear skirts that go up their butts, and on cold days they do not bare their legs, they actually wear stockings! Gasp. And the bling bling Tommy, hiphop reggae fashion, does not exist. Its a rather generic but pleasant Japanese cute fashion. Interspersed with some funky fruits fashion. Shinnae and Yamato seemed to enjoy the change of pace, but I thought .....the girls in Hakata ARE MUCH better looking. Its no lie the girls in Hakata/kyushu area are MUCH MUCH better looking on the whole and average the the other places of Japan.

Coming off the train and running into an old man at least 50 wearing, bling bling Sean Jean all white track suit with gold accents really made me feel like, ahhh Fukuoka. And then going to Hawks Town and seeing these Sho 4-6 kids in their baggy, baggy track suits and over sized caps ahh, home. Hiroshima was a great place, beautiful city with so much history but in the end I love Fukuoka, slutty clothes, reggae music and all.

But as a consequence of no Hip Hop/Reggae scene or at least a weak one, we ran into some Para Paraing Center Guys. Black face, Silver hair, tight jeans and all... it was a scary scary site and I was amused. Sadly neither Yamato, John or shinnae had the temerity to take a picture..sadness. Overall I loved the trip, but next time I hope to drive none of this take the bus, which I once again got HORRIBLY car sick on. Hopefully I will be able to go again for snow boarding sightseeing and all that jazz.