Day 14 - Hiroshima
Word of the day - Counting in Japanese
1- Ichi
2- Ni
3- San
4- Yon
5- Go
6- Roku
7- nana
8- Hachi
9- kyu
10- ju
Our morning trip to Hiroshima went off smoothly and with no one losing anything. It was only about an hour on the shinkansen, so very very fast. We got in around 11:30, and wandered over to the hotel. Since we were not planning on going to the baseball game until 5pm, we had the whole afternoon to do whatever we wanted, so I dropped off my luggage and headed over to the National Peace Museum with Charles and Jodi.
I'm going to reserve my remarks about the museum and peace park for their own entry after I visit the park itself on Tuesday morning.
After I worked my way through the museum, I took a taxi back to the hotel and managed to get checked in and iron my clothes for the few days in Hiroshima before heading down to meet our guide, Mr. Otsu. The rain was pouring down like cats and dogs outside, and we were hoping it would lift for the baseball game. However, once we all were met by a beaming wonderful Mr. Otsu, we learned that the game had been cancelled, and it was up to us to figure out what to do. We decided to go out to dinner with the 5 of us, and Otsu-san called some of his friends to meet us at the restaurant.
We wandered under the train station (our hotel was attached to it right near the Shinkansen gates) and over to the other side. Up on the 5th floor was a very nice Japanese restaurant, and we were escorted into a room in the back (with chairs this time, sitting on the floor has been tough on some of us). A round of beers was in order, and then Otsu-san ordered many appetizers for us to sample. We had so many in fact that we ended up ordering very little for dinner. After the second round of beers, Otsu-san's friends came up, a very nice (and nervous!) coworker who is learning English, and his wife who works at the Career Center at Hiroshima Shudo University. Since they were at the other end of the table I didn't have much of an opportunity to talk with them, but the ample beer made the already cheery Otsu-san very gregarious indeed. We were able to ask questions about all sorts of topics.
One of the things we noticed is that Japanese youth seem to be about two years behind American students in terms of maturity. There is an innocence, or naiveté about them that is at the same time charming and worrisome (after all, being naive in the US can be a dangerous thing). This of course brought up comparisons to American junior level students, who challenge, rebel, tantrum and also grow up rather quickly. We were wondering about things such as teenage pregnancy, sex, gender expression, dating, etc, and Otsu-san was more than willing to answer our questions. We found out that there may be teenage pregnancy, but it's not talked about and very rarely seen. Abortion is legal in Japan, and not seen with the religious viewpoint some in the US tend to take on it. It could be a very good reason for the low teen birthrate. Also children are allowed to be children longer, and in may ways encouraged to do so. Childish school uniforms, hair bows, and cartoon pencils show up even in senior year classes. We also asked about the divorce rate (about 30%), when people typically marry (closer to thirty nowadays), and the impact of multi-generational families versus the quickly appearing nuclear family.
I also reaffirmed that my favorite new hobby is getting Japanese men into a very good mood with a few beers and an interest in their country :)
After settling up the bill, we were able to head in for the night, probably earlier than we would have had the baseball game been on, and had a very very good nights sleep.
No real pictures today since it was just traveling, and I'll save the Peace Museum ones for Tuesday.
1- Ichi
2- Ni
3- San
4- Yon
5- Go
6- Roku
7- nana
8- Hachi
9- kyu
10- ju
Our morning trip to Hiroshima went off smoothly and with no one losing anything. It was only about an hour on the shinkansen, so very very fast. We got in around 11:30, and wandered over to the hotel. Since we were not planning on going to the baseball game until 5pm, we had the whole afternoon to do whatever we wanted, so I dropped off my luggage and headed over to the National Peace Museum with Charles and Jodi.
I'm going to reserve my remarks about the museum and peace park for their own entry after I visit the park itself on Tuesday morning.
After I worked my way through the museum, I took a taxi back to the hotel and managed to get checked in and iron my clothes for the few days in Hiroshima before heading down to meet our guide, Mr. Otsu. The rain was pouring down like cats and dogs outside, and we were hoping it would lift for the baseball game. However, once we all were met by a beaming wonderful Mr. Otsu, we learned that the game had been cancelled, and it was up to us to figure out what to do. We decided to go out to dinner with the 5 of us, and Otsu-san called some of his friends to meet us at the restaurant.
We wandered under the train station (our hotel was attached to it right near the Shinkansen gates) and over to the other side. Up on the 5th floor was a very nice Japanese restaurant, and we were escorted into a room in the back (with chairs this time, sitting on the floor has been tough on some of us). A round of beers was in order, and then Otsu-san ordered many appetizers for us to sample. We had so many in fact that we ended up ordering very little for dinner. After the second round of beers, Otsu-san's friends came up, a very nice (and nervous!) coworker who is learning English, and his wife who works at the Career Center at Hiroshima Shudo University. Since they were at the other end of the table I didn't have much of an opportunity to talk with them, but the ample beer made the already cheery Otsu-san very gregarious indeed. We were able to ask questions about all sorts of topics.
One of the things we noticed is that Japanese youth seem to be about two years behind American students in terms of maturity. There is an innocence, or naiveté about them that is at the same time charming and worrisome (after all, being naive in the US can be a dangerous thing). This of course brought up comparisons to American junior level students, who challenge, rebel, tantrum and also grow up rather quickly. We were wondering about things such as teenage pregnancy, sex, gender expression, dating, etc, and Otsu-san was more than willing to answer our questions. We found out that there may be teenage pregnancy, but it's not talked about and very rarely seen. Abortion is legal in Japan, and not seen with the religious viewpoint some in the US tend to take on it. It could be a very good reason for the low teen birthrate. Also children are allowed to be children longer, and in may ways encouraged to do so. Childish school uniforms, hair bows, and cartoon pencils show up even in senior year classes. We also asked about the divorce rate (about 30%), when people typically marry (closer to thirty nowadays), and the impact of multi-generational families versus the quickly appearing nuclear family.
I also reaffirmed that my favorite new hobby is getting Japanese men into a very good mood with a few beers and an interest in their country :)
After settling up the bill, we were able to head in for the night, probably earlier than we would have had the baseball game been on, and had a very very good nights sleep.
No real pictures today since it was just traveling, and I'll save the Peace Museum ones for Tuesday.