August 2008: Nagasaki, Japan.

My first trip to Nagasaki 12 years ago, I remembered rushing to a ramen shop once we stepped off the train. We were that hungry.
I remembered there was a then a boy of subnormal intellect sitting with the cook on the other side of the counter. I assumed then that it was the effect of the atomic bomb that was dropped here, having passed down through the gene.
In the Nagasaki youth hostel then, while taking a bath, I have this creeping feeling that wandering souls was outside in the courtyard.

Having seen on the news that it would be the 63rd anniverary of the A-bomb drop in Nagasaki around the time I am in Kyushu, I decided to revisit the place.
I missed the official memorial service at the square with the Peace Statue. I was at a smaller venue, where peace protestors were gathering. As I tried to make my way to the official site, I saw a middle-age lady hurrying down a narrow
path towards the protestors. Then siren started sounding over the city and that stopped her in her track. With hands close to her chest, palm-on-palm, and head bow, she said her prayer. At that moment 63 years ago, a feets step away from where she was, the A-bomb came down on Nagasaki.
That done, she hurried back up the same path, probably to her chores.

With a harbor fronting the city, Nagasaki is a picturesque place. And every buildings look new and nice, with none of the old houses one may encounter in places like Sado or Kyoto. You realise after a while that has to do with the fact the almost all the could be old was wiped out on 9th August 1945, 11:02am.

Anyway, Kyushu, it seems, has the nicest train design. It may have to do with the fact that it welcome tourists from Korea and China via the Fukuoka harbor.

August 2008: Satsuma, Japan.

Leaving Honshu island and crossing over into Kyushu, to Fukuoka, southernmost station on the Shinkansen line.
Fukuoka provided a nice capsule hotel, with free rooftop sauna, free internet access and carpet in the reception area smelling so much like newly-laundered hotel bedsheet that I was tempted on a few occasion to roll on it.
Unlike the one in Asakusa, it was strictly for guys only. One lady, who probably missed the last train, was politely turn away the moment she got in the queue at the reception.

Fukuoka serves as starting point for day trips to Satsuma and Nagasaki.
Satsuma lay claim to having got the Meiji Restoration rolling. Remember the samurais who made their last stand against American firepower, they called Satsuma home.
I saw no-one remotely resembling Tom Cruise in town, though. Satsuma has a Museum of the Meiji Restoration, where local pride is showcased, as it recounts Satsuma's men and women deeds during the Meiji Restoration.

Satsuma is also famous for Mastushima (an island off its coast with an active volcano) and Satsuma Age (fish cake).

August 2008: Kyoto, Japan.

12 years ago when in Kyoto, I stayed in a tiny guesthouse called Toji-an in one of those old houses in the alley of Kyoto.
The pleasant surprise I found out while staying there was that it was almost next to a strip joint (DX Toji). What's more, Toji-an gave out discount coupons to the shows.
About 5 years ago, when I was back in Kyoto, I was able to seek out Toji-an, with no map, and nothing else except my memory.
No such luck this time. Arriving close to midnight, Toji-an was nowhere in sight. I have to settle for a business hotel for the night.

It was a freaking hot day in Kyoto, and so I opted for the air-conditioned comfort of the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Except for racks and racks of manga stored in its
basement, all other books (and there were many) can be picked of their shelf and read by visitors. Visitors can even bring the books out to the grass field within the museum compound and
read them under the sun. The fact that nothing except a flimsy fence seperate the field from the streets says a lot of how civic-minded the Japanese. I can easily name a few countries where
such a policy will soon result in lost books.

August 2008: Okaya, Japan.

Niigata to Okaya on the Shinkashen. When earthquake strike most recently on this line, the Japanese was caught by surprise that such a fault-line exist.
I have been hauling a white shirt, black pants, black leather shoes and a black ties around Japan thus far solely for this trip to Okaya. The memorial service
service for the recently-deceased Oguchi Daihachi (widely recognized as the father of modern Taiko Japanese drumming) was held here. Although lacking a black jacket,
I pretty much ended up looking like the ushers.

August 2008: Niigata, Japan.

It was the water of the Pacific Ocean in the morning when I was on the Hachinohe local line.
By the afternoon, I was on the train from Hachinohe to Niigata. By then, the body of water besides the train window was that of the Japan Sea. Does it matter?
Not really...but then, see, I don't have a life.
Niigata has a team B (the Niigata Albirex) playing in the local Singapore Soccer league. Though that was not the reason to be in Niigata. The only reason that brought
me to this city was Sado Island. From Niigata, one can catch a ferry out to Sado. For Sado, I do have reason to be there, 3 in fact:
1) During my colleague days I have read a chinese translation of a Japanese novel (Anata no Namae wa...: And your name is...?). I can't recall the story except that it was a tragic romance,
probably happening during cold winter days.
2) Lonely Planet talk of it as being an island for political excel. I reckon on that alone, it merit a visit.
3) It is home to the Japanese drum group, Oni-Taiko-Za.

That it was a bright summer that I visited meant I never got to soak in the atmosphere mention in reason 1 and 2. And Oni-Taiko-Za holds a Earth Day taiko matsuri
2 weeks after my arrival. Anyway, I gave me a chance to wander around the padi fields and old shopping streets near the ferry harbour.
In the very least, I learnt that Niigata is the hometown of Takahashi Ryumiko, manga author of Inuyasha ans such.

August 2008: Hachinohe, Japan.

Still in the Tohoku (East-northern) region. Hachinohe is the northern end of the line for the Shinkashen (at least for now.)
The Matsuri here is billed as one of the 4 big summer matsuri in Tohoko, the other being the Nebuta, Kanto and another which name I can't recalled.
Having seen the Nebuta and Kanto in a previous summer, I was having high expectation for this.
Having arrived on a hot afternoon, I got to check out floats gathering at the starting point for the matsuri. I looks much like most other matsuri you will
encounter in Japan - a community effort. Floats from each of the different neighborhoods in Hachinohe were being driving to the gathering area, adults were
helping out the kids with the customs. Others were posing for group photoes in front our their floats. Winning floats came with banner announcing what prize the float
had won for the year, indications of the amount of pride each nieghborhood held for their very own creation. And as the floats made their ways down the streets, residents
and shopowners on the side of streets came out of their shop/home to cheer participants who happens to be their acquaintants, many times with a plastic cup of cold beer.
Hachinohe also has a local line running on the Japanese Pacific coast, quite similar to the one running in Sri Lanka from Colombo to Galle.
It was a quiet line when I took it. Alight at a quiet stops and you can proceed to take a long stroll along well-marked path that takes one
from forest to beaches. The station may be small, but it has all the information a visitor may need: train timetable, number to call in emergncy,
map to the nearest bus station should the train fail to make it to the station, and timetable for that bus.

August 2008: Morioka, Japan

If you go to Japan in Spring for the cherry blossom, in fall for the red leaves, and in the winter for the snow, then the excuse to go in the heat of summer would have to be the Matsuri (summer festival.) And when it comes to Matsuri, the best of them seems to be concentrated in the north-eastern area of Honshu. The reason, I guess is that this is a mainly-farming region, and the Matsuri is a way to bring in the tourist money.

In early August, the northeastern city of Morioka celebrates the San-sa matsuri. San-sa, I was told, means Three Rocks. The same three rocks that gave Iwa-te ("Rock-Hands", the prefecture Morioka is in) prefecture its name. The matsuri involves groups (and there was many of them), marching down the mail street,dancing and hitting the drums strapped on the front of their body.