Thoughts from Kyoto

Hiroshima was amazing. It was unreal and incredibly sad, and I really wanted to sit on a bench in Peace Park and contemplate for a few hours. I have a million things to contemplate after this trip in Japan. Christyanne has gone on to Tokyo and will tour Hokkaido for the rest of the week, so I`m a lonely gajin in Kyoto with a sunburned head that is too tired to be very lonely. Somehow I magically switched the language on my little Toyoko-Inn T.V. (first time I`ve figured out how to do that since being in Japan and I don`t know what I did), and I can drift into sleepy land while watching the complimentary movie "The Terminal." It is incredible how movies about lost foreigners keep finding me.

Rather than contemplate in Peace Park, I moved on from the A-bomb museum to the world of weird streetcars that take you to the ferry that takes you to a magical island where the deer roam freely and let you hug them and even try to eat your maps.
I saw the famous Torii and a pretty neat red pagoda, but I missed out on the monkies. I will find them tomorrow in Nagoya.

There were many gajins from many countries to meet in transit today -- Hiroshima is a magnet for foreigners it seems. That`s a good thing though. I saw a group of cute little Japanese school kids trooping to the museum, all holding eachother`s hands and wearing matching hats... maybe the madness of the past can be unrepeatable if we never forget it. I hope the plans to make a 9/11 museum are realized... I just saw the announcement in the Japan Times today and can`t think of a better way to heal the past and prepare for the future than see what I saw today. I`m glad I went to the Peace Park museum first, because the haunting feeling stuck with me as I toured the city and remembered that it was completely wiped out only 60 years ago. How do people carry on after going through that? How do they?

Gotta hit the hay, I have crazy plans of arising with the sun tomorrow to see pagodas before throngs of people get there. I hope it is possible. I am a sleep-deprived zombie wearing dirty clothes and my voice is turning into a strange croak that is confusing because I`m not sick... but there is only two more days to go and I will be on a long flight home. Home to my Max-boy, home to stay for a while. I don`t mind the plane rides and the train rides. There are so many things to contemplate....