Miyajima and Hiroshima

Miyajima Gate
Originally uploaded by danabree.

Well, I know it's been a long time since I've posted, so if anybody's been waiting for an update, sorry! I've been super busy with this term's university work. I'm taking international relations, Islam, and Intermediate Japanese at the moment. The Islam course is only one semester, so I've had to write 2 essays in 2 months, and I have my final exam in a month. Phew! It's really interesting, and I can start to see links and logic in all the activity in the Middle East current events now. Still have a lot to learn, but even crazy stuff like Osama bin Laden and why he's waging jihad against the West is starting to make sense. Obviously, I don't agree with it, but I can see his viewpoint better. People like George Bush who just lump all Muslims into one big batch are morons, he really needs someone to actually give him an education. I read something funny recently, if you take the "p" off of "President Bush", you're left with "Resident Bush". That pretty much sums it up, he certainly wasn't meant to be in that position in the first place, at least if you take vote totals into account!

My Japanese class is interesting, and I'm doing weekly private lessons once a week as well, but it's such a hard language to actually use. The special honorific language called keigo totally sucks to use, as it uses totally different verb forms, depending on whether you're talking about your actions to a superior, or the superior's actions. Plus, it's a very "fuzzy" language, you're not really meant to directly say things.There's the Japanese concept of honne and tatamae, which basically means what you actually think, and what you say to others about what you think. A friend of mine recently had a problem with that recently. A Japanese co-worker blew up at her, and my friend couldn't figure out what the problem was. Her co-worker had agreed to drive her from her school to the train station once a week (which was on her co-worker's way back to the office). Last week out of the blue, her co-worker yelled at her saying she wouldn't drive her anymore, that she wasn't her taxi. Needless to say, my friend was surprised and hurt at the outburst, especially because her co-worker had agreed to take her once a week. After talking to my Japanese teacher about it, it turns out that my friend's co-worker probably never wanted to drive her at all, but was too polite to say no. Eventually, her resentment probably built up and caused the outburst. I asked my Japanese teacher why it happened, and long story short, you're not supposed to ask people to do things that might inconvenience them. Even if they say yes, they probably mean no, but are too polite to say it. For me and my friend, that is such a difficult thing to deal with. We are used to people being straight with each other, and discussing things in an adult manner, not just letting things build up to an eruption. Anyway, there's no way I could do that. Of course I try to say things politely, but I'm not Japanese, so I will never be able to think that way, or anticipate when something may or may not be a problem. It's hard enough just trying to string a sentence together coherently in a foreign language without trying to be a mind-reader at the same time.

Miyajima Temple
Originally uploaded by danabree.

Anyway, in November last year, as a reward for getting through my first year of extramural studies at Massey, I went to Hiroshima and Miyajima with a friend. It was so much fun!! We thought we would have missed the changing of the leaves, but we were actually there just at the perfect time! It was so beautiful, especially on Miyajima. We stayed at the Miyajima Grand Hotel - lovely and quite cheap!! There were all these crazy deer all over the island, and they kept trying to eat my coat! It was good though, every time I had a piece of paper that I didn't need anymore, I'd just give it to the deer to eat! And before anyone gets pissy about that, the deer were eating everything in sight anyway, including newspapers, and being Japan, there were no garbage cans anywhere!!

Miyajima monkeys
Originally uploaded by danabree.

Also, on Mount Misen there were wild monkeys everywhere, which was such a treat! I love monkeys, and we don't exactly have them running wild around the place either in Canada or New Zealand! So much fun, but a little freaky as they were pretty big, and the older ones kept screaming at each other and chasing each other amongst all the tourists. The view from Mt. Misen would have been nicer had the day been not so hazy, but we hiked about a half hour up to a little temple right on top, which was lovely. They were doing Buddhist chanting there, and you could buy little bags of peanuts to give to the ever-present nutty deer. The fawns were so cute!! I highly recommend Mt. Misen and Miyajima to anyone going to Hiroshima - amazing! And yes, in the picture of the Miyajima Torii (Gate), that is another deer just parked on the sand!

Hiroshima was awesome as well. It's such a peaceful feeling city, lots of parks and nice rivers. Of course, that was the intention when it was rebuilt after the war, but it makes a nice change to the average hustly bustly busy busy busy Japanese city. The Peace Museum was really good, very well laid out with lots of amazing information. It's totally not biased in any direction either, which I was a little surprised at. It explains all about nuclear technology, what it is, why it was developed, as well as the process that went into selecting Hiroshima and Nagasaki as targets. The area with bits of school uniforms from students who were killed and things like that was really sad, but worth seeing. It's sad to think that there is still some discrimination against the survivors of the bomb, they went through so much. I also recommend the Hiroshima okonomiyaki (like a meat and vege pancake) - it's really really good!

Miyajima autumn
Originally uploaded by danabree.

Apart from all my studying, I've also taken on a volunteer position with the Canadian Embassy as a consular warden. Basically, I'll be keeping lists of Canadians who have registered with the Embassy updated, and keeping people informed as to what to do if an emergency strikes, like an earthquake or something. I'm going to Tokyo in a few weeks for training, which will be really fun and interesting I think. I'll get to meet the Canadian Ambassador and other staff from the Embassy and consulates, which will be great. It will also be my first trip to Tokyo, so I'm looking forward to that. I should be able to meet up with some Japanese friends I worked with in Canada, and haven't seen in a few years, so that should be really fun! We're also going to a disaster prevention centre, so we'll get to feel a big "earthquake", put out a "fire", and experience a "typhoon". I love those kinds of natural events, so it sounds like the perfect place for me!

So, apologies again for the delay between posts. I will try to do them more frequently, but I can't promise anything!