A day in Japan

[chadbag]

So, we are in Japan for 3 weeks. Got here last Tuesday. Visiting the wife's family. This is our 5th trip since our son was born in 2003.

I'm going to post a few random things once in a while that strike me as interesting/funny/strange or whatever.


Today my SIL was driving us to church services. I noticed she had TV going. Her in-dash media center and navigation system has a digital TV tuner built in and she can get any of the over the air TV channels in her car. I think my wife said that she said it was not supposed to work while the car is moving, but whatever, it was there and working. No, she was not watching it while driving (so she said, and we made it there in one piece)




Samantha lives! (yes, that is who that is. I guessed it and my SIL confirmed) [the young'ns here on M4C may not recognize this]




Blue Force Gear Micro DAP Pack on my son's back. We both have them and the wife has the Jedburgh. Great little packs and tough.

[montanadave]

Samantha lives! (yes, that is who that is. I guessed it and my SIL confirmed) [the young'ns here on M4C may not recognize this]

Keep a sharp eye out for her hot cousin, Serena!

[Abraxas]

I have always wanted to go to Japan. I took two years of it in highschool many moon ago. Someday....

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Cool I got to go there once for a whole month wish I had seen more have fun

[chadbag]

I've been wanting to make an update but with the site offline a few days and then when it came back, at least I had problems with posting and when it worked being very slow. I have not tried for a few days as we have been busy.

But I will get some pics posted asap. We went to Kagoshima (on Kyushu) and took a 30 min train and then a 30min bus ride (which was like $17 for 2 adults and one kid (my 3 year old was free) to a place called Chiran. During WW2 there was a Japanese Army Airbase there in Chiran and a majority of Army "Special Attack" missions were launched in 1945 during Okinawa etc from there (aka Kamikaze, which was what the Japanese Navy called their "suicide" attacks while the Army just called them "Special Attack"). There is now a museum ("peace museum" which is what military or war museums seem to be called in Japan) where the airfield was and it is dedicated to the Army "Special Attack" pilots, though they also have a small section on Navy Kamikaze pilots and other similar things. They have a few restored aircraft there plus the remains of a Mitsubishi ZERO fighter that was pulled out of the Bay some 30 odd years ago. There are also lots of artifacts and stuff from the time as well as pilot letters and wills and other personal effects. They also have pictures of all the pilots. It is kind of "spiritual" to read about the individuals who flew the missions. Their backgrounds, feelings, etc. (I am not condoning Kamikaze or the Japanese leadership or the war or anything but recognizing the actual warfighters themselves were just like warfighters anywhere -- fighting for their country, for their buddies, and families and doing what they thought was right -- the "kamikaze" pilots were not forced to go and were all volunteers, who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to try and protect that which they believed in, which was their families and their country -- and I bet most of them thought the war was dumb and wished it had not started etc).

This was this past Wednesday when we went to the museum.

Friday, my son and I went Shinkansen riding to try and get some new types we had not ridden before (my son is a huge train guy). Each of the Japan Rail companies runs their own system and in some cases use different types of trains and we are trying to ride on an example of each one. So on Friday we jumped on the morning 8:13 train from Osaka to Tokyo (using a JR Central Shinkansen 700 model, which we had ridden before) and once in Tokyo we went 2 stops past on a JR East Shinkansen E4 Max which is a double decker bullet train. We only went 24 minutes -- 2 stops. Then we got off and went right back to Tokyo on an E2 type. Both the E4 and the E2 were new types for us. (Actually the trip to Kagoshima, which was an overnight trip, was a new type of train for us as well, which is the new N700 which is a new model based on the 700 -- JR Kyushu is running N700 for their "Mizuho" Shinkansen, which are the fastest runs stopping at the fewest stations, as well as their "Sakura" Shinkansen, which stop at a few more stations and so are a little slower overall though both cruise at the same top speed of around 300kmh when they can while JR Central is only running N700 on their "Nozomi" which are the fastest which only stop at a few stations. Our Japan Rail passes are not good for Nozomi and Mizuho runs but are good for all other runs but to ride an N700 we had to ride the JR Kyushu version which is really nice.

But anyway, enough distractions.

ON Friday, after we got back to Tokyo from our little ride on the E4 Max and E2, we went to the Yakusuni Shrine (the one that gets all the Prime Ministers in trouble when they visit) and on the grounds is the Yushukan which is a "War Memorial Museum." They had a bunch of interesting things including a Zero, some artillery, an "Ohka" (aka Baka) flying rocket bomb for suicide missions, a manned suicide torpedo, an example of "Oxygen" torpedo which did not leave bubbles behind, some machine guns, a Japanese tank, and lots of other stuff, plus stuff going back in time to the 1600s (armor and swords and stuff). Unfortunately, they did not allow photographs except in the initial gallery before you entered the paid portion of the museum. And since there were CCTV cameras and security all over it seemed I did not try and sneak pics. (At Chiran I snuck a bunch on my iPhone).\

The Tokyo Museum (Yushukan) was interesting with the slant they put on things. WW2 was "Greater East Asian War" or something like that. It was not WW2 though they did have a section which had the start in Europe etc. But they had a couple of rooms dealing with China / Japan before Pearl Harbor (which for them started on Dec 8 not Dec 7 since in Japan it WAS Dec 8 I think due to the date line). They also tried hard to convince you Japan was forced to attack due to American economic pressures (which factually is true -- we did put an oil and iron embargo on them I think due to their China adventures). You can tell that nationalist types run the museum. Not all things had English explanations but lots of stuff did. It was interesting to read what they had to say on everything.

more info about Yushukan: http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kami...ukan/index.htm

more info about Chiran Peach Museum: http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kami...iran/index.htm

So I will try and post a bunch of pics from both museums.

Here is the train we took to Kagoshima -- an N700:



Here is the Zero they found in the bay like 30 or so years ago and recovered.




More pics to come as I get them saved on the laptop and uploaded to my server. It is almost midnight here and everyone is going to bed and so I have to hit the sack now...

[Sam]

Thanks for sharing your vogage and pictures. Looks like lots of fun.

I've always wanted to go back to Japan as an adult. But just can't pull the trigger due to the cost. My dad took us there while he was on business trip in the mid 60s. I was only 3 years old so I couldn't remember much, just flashes of memories and pictures in my mind. We still have a couple of pictures of my mom and dad dressed up in kimonos. We stayed in Tokyo, Osaka and Ube. I remember riding the first generation bullet train, visited some ancient castles and mountain caves.

As for the Japanese warriors/kamikaze, I guess it depends on the point of view of the observer. To the Japanese, they are heroes. To others, especially other Asian nations who were brutalized by the Japanese Emperial Army, they were butchers. Ask the Chinese (The Rape of Nanking), Koreans, Philipinos and my grandparents. I've heard of attrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers when they occupied Cambodia.

But we forgive them and moved on. We don't think twice about buying Japanese goods or enjoying some of the Japanese cultural influences. I think the Japanese culture have learned from the lessons of their imperialism and have attoned for their wrongs.

Anyway, how about more pictures.

[chadbag]

Thanks for sharing your vogage and pictures. Looks like lots of fun.

I've always wanted to go back to Japan as an adult. But just can't pull the trigger due to the cost. My dad took us there while he was on business trip in the mid 60s. I was only 3 years old so I couldn't remember much, just flashes of memories and pictures in my mind. We still have a couple of pictures of my mom and dad dressed up in kimonos. We stayed in Tokyo, Osaka and Ube. I remember riding the first generation bullet train, visited some ancient castles and mountain caves.

As for the Japanese warriors/kamikaze, I guess it depends on the point of view of the observer. To the Japanese, they are heroes. To others, especially other Asian nations who were brutalized by the Japanese Emperial Army, they were butchers. Ask the Chinese (The Rape of Nanking), Koreans, Philipinos and my grandparents. I've heard of attrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers when they occupied Cambodia.

But we forgive them and moved on. We don't think twice about buying Japanese goods or enjoying some of the Japanese cultural influences. I think the Japanese culture have learned from the lessons of their imperialism and have attoned for their wrongs.

I don't want to diminish atrocities committed by some and seemingly institutionalized at a higher level in leadership. But I would bet a majority of the Japanese soldiers did not participate in atrocities and additionally were appalled by them. (From reading letters and stuff from soldiers at the museums etc you get the impression they were just like normal guys plus reading accounts from Nanking, for example, of soldiers who helped the Chinese and refused to participate [non Japanses sources btw]). And I am betting that a bunch also lightly participated out of cultural "follow the leader" type reasons and not personal "convictions". But there was a much more rampant penchant for such things than in Western armies and I am not trying to diminish culpability on part of Japanese leadership for leading, condoning, participating in, etc atrocities and other bad stuff (from the top generals and leaders down to whatever "leaders" existed in a unit, from a private people looked up to as an unofficial leader, to NCO, junior officers, to leadership (captain, major, colonel, general etc). And there were certainly whole units seemingly composed of moral degenerates. Certainly such mentality was more wide spread in Japan during the war and prewar era than in Western armies/countries.

But I am betting the average citizen and the average conscripted soldier was no more wanting of that stuff than you or I. And my comments in the earlier threads were specifically about Kamikaze type pilots being normal warfighters trying to do their best which included personal sacrifice. (In reading the letters and stuff they left behind you clearly see that they were not moral degenerate crazies)

Anyway, how about more pictures.

More pics are on the iPhone. Just need to get them on my MacBook, rotated as necessary (they look fine on the phone and when I email them to myself they look fine in the mail on the MacBook but when I save them and look at them in an image editor or upload and look at them on the web they are rotated 90 deg for some reason and I have to edit them and re-upload them).

[kwelz]

I am not normally one to point out such things. But have you thought about having those unsightly spots on your children's heads looked at by a Doctor?

Seriously though. Great photos. I have always been fascinated by Japan. Very interesting culture.

[Belmont31R]

I am not normally one to point out such things. But have you thought about having those unsightly spots on your children's heads looked at by a Doctor?

Seriously though. Great photos. I have always been fascinated by Japan. Very interesting culture.

We had a Japanese exchange student when my older sister was in HS and and I was MS. This chick would take 4hr long baths and stink up the bathroom with all these weird scents.


Granted Id still love to go there as well as NZ and Aus all on on long trip.

[chadbag]

OK, got some pics off the iPhone and onto the Macbook and uploaded to my server.

I mentioned we were in Kagoshima on Kyushu last Tuesday/Wednesday. One of the first things I noticed after we left the train station and started the 1.25 mile walk to the hotel was that the ground was all dirty. Almost everywhere. Some stores had obviously swept up and the walk way was clean in front of them, but most of them just swept the stuff into the flower/plant beds along the edge of the road.



You noticed it on cars and stuff too (picture taken from train to Chiran):



Turns out it was from this:



There is an active Volcano in the bay just a couple clicks from the city center. From what I understand, due to the high silica content, you very rarely get lava flows but it is pretty much continuously erupting ash and stuff.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakurajima

Anyway, we went out to Chiran like I said to the "special attack" museum.

Here are some more photos from this museum. The rotted out Zero did not have any no-photo signs that I could see initially so I took a bunch. Later I did see one no-photo sign in the room. The rest of the museum was filled with no photo signs. I played the boorish American and took them anyway, but furtively with the iPhone. Just carrying it around and not obviously taking pictures, so some of the pics are not as focussed as they should be or as well framed as they should be.

Rotted out ZERO retrieved from Bay:







The Japanese used a fighter in small numbers called the Tony by the Allies and "Hien" by the Japanese. It was one of the few water cooled inline engine fighters the Japanese used. Most of their stuff was radial engined. The engine used was a locally built DB601 from Germany (Bf109E engine for example), which the Japanese licensed. They had trouble with quality and so the engines did not work all that well. By the time they were being built it was more toward the end of the war and war time manufacturing problems made the engines troublesome.



Japanese version of the DB601:



more info on the Tony: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Ki-61

The Japanese also had a high performance fighter code named "Frank" by the Allies and called "Hayate" by the Japanese (I earlier called it a "George" in my post -- I was misremembering it):









They also had an Oscar fighter on display. The Oscar was an earlier army fighter contemporary with the Zero (which was Navy). Originally it had only 2 30cal (7.7 / 303) machine guns.







They also had an Oscar outside. I think this is a reproduction though it sure looked real when you looked at it. Looking closely though, for example in the wheel wells, you could see that they were fiberglass wheel wells. I think it was made for a movie about Chiran. (I don't think you would be leaving a rare original Oscar out in the weather either)






--

The museum was full of pictures of all the "special attack" pilots from the Army (that flew from Chiran, Taiwan, or a few other places). Here is a sample: