I’ve decided to put the last two (or three in a way) days of the exchange into one entry because I’m not finding many chances to write in the blog due to all of my exam preparations.
The ninth morning of our trip was a very sad one as it would be, for most of us, the last time we would see our host families. To make matters worse it was a bloody freezing morning, probably the coldest of the entire week. We all felt pretty miserable as we waited for the bus to arrive (Japanese buses are on average less than two minutes late!!) and I was holding in the tears as Teiji gave one last moving speech to everyone. Regrettably, I sat on the wrong side of the bus to wave as we left the stop, but I’m fortunate enough to know that Emi will be visiting soon – the 1st of January to be exact. A lot of the day was spent travelling by coach, train and the famous bullet train, which was an impressive piece of machinery. The acceleration was amazing, and I literally didn’t notice it start moving as I was lifting my suitcase into the storage unit and by the time I looked out of the window the world was speeding by. It was a rather posh way of travelling however, as we noticed the price on the ticket totalling to over a thousand pounds worth of yen.
Our destination was Hiroshima, and after dropping off our bags at the hotel we would be staying at that night we went to a more Western-style restaurant to have lunch before catching a tram to the location of the dropping of the A-bomb. Money had been invested in the preservation of a building which was not quite wiped out by the bomb thanks to its position pretty much directly below the detonation of the bomb. There were many plaques scattered about the area explaining exactly what happened and the amount of tourists was staggering. We slowly made our way towards the museum, experiencing everything as we went. One particularly moving monument was one dedicated to a young girl who died from leukaemia from the radiation. She believed that if she could make a certain amount of paper cranes in time she would get better and survive, however she died very close to her target and this sad story has inspired everyone who comes to the place to leave a paper crane. Thousands and thousands have been left there, and the company who set it up weave them all together to make things like mosaics and coats. It was really an impressive sight. The museum dedicated to the dropping of the A-bomb was incredibly moving and really quite disturbing. Reading about all of the side-effects of the radiation and the aftermath of the bomb-dropping really made me quite angry. It’s hard to imagine how they could have even been stupid enough to drop one nuclear weapon, let alone another one when they knew what it could do.
After that thoroughly sobering experience, we were given a change to raise our spirits by going into the city to look at all of the shops. After being abandoned almost instantly by Jamie and Michelle, Harri and I soon found ourselves losing the rest of the girls as well, deciding eventually to just walk up and down the main street. For some reason Harri was obsessing over finding a rubber duck for one of his friends but we never found one. After walking up and down about three times we bumped into Michelle and Jamie and made our way back to a crazy clothes shop we had visited earlier so that we could try some on. I quickly got bored and rather grumpy as the other two guys blew all of their money on some incredibly over-priced and pretty ugly looking trousers and a neck warmer for Jamie. I was completely fed up by the time half of us had met at the rendezvous point and had to wait in the freezing cold for the girls to come out of a shop which we have loads of here in Britain (Boots or something). After such an emotionally draining day I couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and spent most of my night on the computers in the lobby speaking to my girlfriend on facebook as it was my first chance to do so throughout the whole week. Eventually we were told by Donna to go to bed so we did, but not before all gathering together in one of the rooms to all chat some more. I was the first to decide to go to sleep and made my way back to our room (mine and Harri’s) and dropped off to sleep.
In the morning we set off on the bullet train back to Osaka, where we spent the day before boarding the plane back home. We spent a lot of the day at Osaka castle, which was also a museum dedicated to its history (unfortunately I can’t remember any of it.) The architecture of it was fascinating, with several tiers of big curving stone walls surrounded by a moat and the castle sitting at the very top. At the top we stopped to get a few photos and eat some food (most interestingly, some balls of batter which had octopus in the middle) before heading into the castle itself. We caught a lift directly the top to get a huge view of the entire city which was stunning. Learning-coach pointed out his primary school to us and we made our way through the castle looking at the different displays detailing the legacy of the castle and the process of it being rebuilt. Most memorably was a chance to wear some samurai-style armour and wield a sword, which was a good laugh.
Eventually we reached the bottom and made our way back to the city via train. It was much more different compared to where we had been living the whole week, crowded with people walking through the streets and high-rise buildings surrounding us. We eventually ended up in a building that literally had a Ferris wheel going straight through the middle of it. As you’ve probably guessed we got on it and got our second view of the city. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the view from the castle but it was nevertheless great fun and I got to witness a flock of birds flying around in what seemed to be almost a perfect sphere before landing on a roof and nose-diving off in perfect unison. After getting off the wheel it was almost dark and we went to what I think was the fourth restaurant of the day. Needless to say I was stuffed and unfortunately didn’t manage to finish my food. We made our way to the bus stop for the bus which would eventually take us to the airport. It was undeniably the saddest goodbye of the trip as Nobu and Taka had been with us almost the whole time we had been there. Kayleigh burst into tears as we waved goodbye out of the window of the coach and as we tried to console her, as if in a moment of hilarious fate one of us spotted a MASSIVE inflatable rubber duck in the middle of a courtyard. We didn’t even manage to get a decent photo of it because of the reflections on the window of the bus, but the irony of it had us in tears most of the journey to the airport.
The flight back wasn’t really anything special, so I won’t bother boring you any further. All I can say is that that week was one of the best in my life and I really would love to go back to Japan at some point in my life. I would advise anyone reading to as well if they’re looking for somewhere to go and have a sizeable chunk of money. It wouldn’t be anything like a normal holiday, but it would definitely be worth it.