Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday -- the keyboard was really weird and japenese-oriented, making it hard to type. This one is too, to a lesser extent, but Im really not going to worry about correct punctuation for that reason. Also, i only have 10 minutes to write this, so i will be speedy.
Hiroshima was really interesting. I did not get terribly emotional about the A-bomb stuff, more thoughtful. And a little emotional. By dropping that bomb the US leveled a whole city with the exception of like 3 buildings, and the people who didn:t die instantly died agonizing deaths over the next months and years (not everyone died, but the ones that did). The museums did a great job of somehow not being melodramatic about this. For example, it presented some of the whole complex situation that made sucha horrible event happen. Like, 6 years previous, when the Japanese captured Nanking, the people of Hiroshima danced in the streets when they heard the news. Meanwhile, of course, the Chinese were being slaughtered. Lots of bad, bad stuff was happening at that time.
A couple of things I didn:t know before though about the US: the exhibit suggests that one of the factors behind the decision of the US to use the bomb was how expensive and labor-intensive the Manhattan Project was, and produces a memo from some agency person to the President basically saying look, if we dont use this thing weve been using all this manpower on, people are going to ask questions. Also, accompanying the Enola Gay were a couple of other planes -- one to measure stuff about the weather and atmosphere immediately after the attack, and another to take photos. In fact, the people of Hiroshima could see weather measurement devices parachuting down just moments before the bomb went off. Air raids of Hiroshima were prohibited by the US before the A-bomb was droped once that was selected as a potential target -- basically, in addition to serving a military purpose, the US wanted this to be as close as possible to a controlled experiment of what happens when you drop this thing on a city. That is probably the right way to do it if you are going to do it, but still, creepy.
I am running out of time, so Im going to fast forward -- Hiroshima at night is really cool. The entertainment district is packed with stuff to do (i finally dragged myself out of my room at night). i briefly considered going into some restaurant where the waitresses dress and act like maids (hi erika! hi mom!), because i wanted to do something weirdly japanese and had heard that was a thing. But then I saw the waitresses outside and they looked so young-looking, as in holding teddy bears as part of the shtick young-looking. So I just had a beer and some cow-third-stomach and ran home.
Hakone, where I am now, is the biggest bust of the trip so far. Their big thing is you get to ride all these different types of transportation around, but some of them are bad. Im mainly bitter because the place im staying at is expensive and still nobody there speaks english, which is pretty annoying. but i just came from the onsen (natural hot springs), which feels pretty great, so Im doing better.
Tomorrow: tokyo. and meeting up with friends... hopefully.
More from tokyo!
