We arrived after 8 transfers, each no longer than a couple of minutes in Fuji. We hit the streets for some warm food. It took quite some time at the place and although the food tasted was good it was probably the worst service we’ve encountered since we arrived in Japan. We then tried to find an internet café and asked the local geek in a console game store. He was beyond bad in english and couldn’t help us, we headed back for the station in order to get some information from the people working there.

Same here, they didn’t understand the word Internet (or the word in their language, Internetto) and when we described typing on a computer they said that there were no such place in Fuji. We were also out of power to my laptop so our information was quite limited. We found an unguarded powerpoint at the station and hooked up.

It seems that the city Fuji would have buses to stations for Fuji climbing, right? Well one track starts here, the one with the worst view out of five. We were to head to shin-Fuji instead but for some unholy reason weren’t shin-Fuji connected in a way we could grasp to the city Fuji. Then out of nowhere a display showed that trains were leaving for Gotemba in just a few minutes. I recall having read that Gotemba was one of the more suitable starting points for climbing Fuji so we got on to the train.

Ulf then asked me if this was the track most people would take where you could restock supplies and so on on the way. I didn’t know, after using the recharged computer we found out that we were on our way to the ‘toughest trail’ with the lowest starting point. We laughed a bit and thought we would probably use some sleep though. There was of course no internet to be found in Gotemba either, the clock was somewhere between 21 and 22 and the first hotel we checked was measly 8000 yen per single room. Which was out of the question.

That clerk was quite good on english though (mental note; classy hotels have english-speaking personnel) and gave us a map where he pointed out an internet café. We started walking but couldn’t quite find the place even with the map. A family with an english speaking father (who later proved to be an english teacher) asked if we were looking for anything. I guess we looked quite lost. He told us that the scale of the map was a bit mean, the internet café was about 5 minutes drive from the spot we were standing at.

He was very helpful when we said we were looking for hotels and phoned the station hotel and asked for price and rooms, a twin room for 12600 yen. This was a last alternative but still way to expensive, we just needed somewhere to crash. He then suggested we try an japanese inn, ryokan, just around the corner and walked us there and we could get a room for 9000 yen japanese style. Not cheap but it was our best alternative so far and we hadn’t checked out any ryokan so we decided it would do for the night. He also explained that this week was a national holiday in Japan and most families were out traveling, which I also recall I read somewhere when he mentioned it.

The place had a japanese bath which was really nice after last night’s sleep outside the station and the room was spacious and we could charge all of our gadgets. After check-out the following day we will strolled the city in search for internet, food and useful information about mount Fuji. It was quite cold when we got here (25° said a display) and the hikers we saw where wearing winter clothing including gloves and beanies, our gear will probably be our running equipment and some thicker hoodie added to that. We also read that bringing a couple or liters of water each is a very good idea as well, and of course the camera. We are planning to climb Fuji tonight (usually you climb it during the night in order to see the sunrise from it’s peak) and then possibly head back to civilization, err I mean Tokyo.

After the Hiroshima Peace Memorial we discussed where to go next, go for Fuji, check out Miyajima or something else? We had stamps on our Seishun 18 card in abundance so we decided we should check how often the transports left for Miyajima from Hiroshima stations. The next stop was in a few minutes, no need to hesitate and off we went.

It was pretty crowded on the train and when we got to the ferry port there were people everywhere. A quick check at some tourist information showed us that each year the 14th of August there is a grand display of fireworks and this was a very popular event for locals as well as tourists. Again, lady Fortune rewarded her brave disciples.

There were groups of young japanese students on holidays, young pairs wearing kimonos all over the place as well as families with children. The island wasn’t big in any sense, I would estimate the amount of people somewhere above 100 000 and the area a little smaller than Roskilde including camping. It felt like being at a huge concert. We grabbed some food and went looking for a view that was considered to be one of the three best in Japan. We got there after some struggling in the crowds and got a really good spot.

Then the fireworks begun. I tried to capture some of with my camera but I guess the pictures doesn’t justify the reality. It was really nice and beatiful, a nice change from the feelings from Hiroshima.The fireworks just kept coming and after almost an hour we thought we go back to the ferry port.

There was some beach located nearby and I just couldn’t let this chance of swimming naked in Japan slip through my fingers. Said and done. We found a secluded area and I jumped into the water. It was nice although I guess we didn’t found the actual beach but rather some piece of sand since it was a bit dirty. I of course cut my foot on some rocks on the way up, not bad though.

The trip back to Hiroshima took a little longer since now the fireworks had actually ended and all those people just had to leave at the same time. Back at Hiroshima station we decided that the splurge yesterday at the hotel called for a sleep outside the station homeless-style again in order to correct or budget as well as avoid getting soft 😉

We luckily removed our luggage from the coin lockers just before 24 to change some clothing. When we went back in order to put the stuff back we couldn’t get in, which meant we had to sleep with our stuff unprotected. On the other hand, the situation that finding out 15 minutes before the train at 05:53 towards Fuji leaves that we can’t get our luggage seemed even less desirable so we considered it to be a good thing that we had our luggage at hand.I slept like a baby but Ulf couldn’t quite let it go with the homeless and yakuza-wannabes scouting our sleeping spot now and then. Some conversation took place where it seemed some local homeless guy explained that we could sleep in the same place as the rest of the gang but Ulf kindly declined.

I woke up by some puppy that tried to lick me. Ulf had to stop me from transforming the creature to a bloody pulp since I was more sleeping than awake and tried to defend me from this beast. When the sleep was leaving and I stood up ready to defend myself I realized that the beast wasn’t that big and according to Ulf quite cute, for a dog. Still I simply don’t get what’s the problem with dog owners who let their dogs walk around without a leach.

We are currently on the local trains again heading towards Fuji. We will see what we do there, perhaps a good sleep before climbing old Fuji would be nice. But then again, we could sleep on Mount Fuji instead. I guess we will see, we have done 3 of the 8 transfers now and it’s not much more than 9 hours left of the 12 hours we started with…

After a good night’s sleep we took the local bus to our planned visit for the day. The Peace Memorial Park and it’s museum. The museum of course describes in detail all to well the horrors that were consequences of the terrible dropping of the world’s first A-bomb, 08.15 the 6th August 1945 by the bomber Enola gay. I am not the most sensitive guy but I have a hard time writing this afterwards (it’s actually tuesday morning and I’m on a train while I’m writing this) because of the frustration, sadness and sheer sense of sorrow I’m feeling.

The museum and everything around this does not focus only in self-pity but is actively trying to prevent development (and of course use) of such weapons of mass destruction. According to Wikipedia the information about Japan’s actions prior to the bombing where put there after some complaints from other countries. You can say in rather light terms that Japan was no saint either, e.g. quite a few chinese citizens were killed when Japan captured Nanjing.

What is perhaps the most disturbing thing about all these events are the reason for why the bomb was dropped at Hiroshima at that dreadful day. I thought US perhaps had the decency not to drop it on Tokyo since the amount of civilians as well as Hiroshima being sort of a military training ground and headquarters for Japan. I was wrong, Tokyo was indeed suggested but the damage would be greater in Hiroshima and effects could more easily be observed there. The reason for not bombing Germany was that they might be possible to salvage the bomb and use it in their own research.

That was for the choice of where to drop the bomb. The choice of dropping it was that it would put an end to the war and therefore being able to stand up against criticism of it’s huge development cost. The fact that Soviet would end the war was known but US didn’t want Soviet to gain that much influence after the war. Better to write the play so that US make the deathblow. It makes me sick that see these documents between leaders of the world at that time describing how to best make use of their investments and how to avoid (extremely well deserved) public criticism.

Ulf and me didn’t joke as much we usually do and I guess we both were contemplating the problems with this world. Since we are both reading the same book now, End of Faith, by Sam Harris the problems with religious beliefs combined with todays weapons (H-bombs are about 3000 more ‘effective’ than the bomb dropped over Hiroshima) we discussed a few pointers from the book. In addition to the current events in Israel and Lebanon the future don’t look that bright. There was was also a quite depressing clock that showed two meters, one for days after Hiroshima and one for days after the last nuclear weapon test. The latter number was 171 days.

The were also official letters of protest sent from succeeding mayors of Hiroshima to each government responsible for such a test. There were way to many of those letters in the museum to be found. Sometimes I doubt that mankind deserves to survive but I guess we always need to struggle for peace.