この世界の片隅に "In This Corner of the World"

Sometimes, in the case of historical or traumatic events, our feelings of discomfort and sorrow might prevent us from seeking out further information. The merit of the knowledge we can gain from such information is invaluable. Perhaps this is especially true of wartime events in Japan in 1945.  Every so often, there is a movie or other media which chronicles these events, such as in Grave of the Fireflies or Barefoot Gen. However, many storylines are told from a military point of view, or focus on the victims in Hiroshima city, who suffered the most. These shocking recollections and horrific tales should certainly be read or watched by all, but it takes a lot of inner strength to sit down and do it.

Also, could it be that something is lost when we only look at the violent and horrific acts? What of the people living elsewhere in Japan? What of the civilians who went about their daily lives? What struggles did they endure and what did they take pride in? How did they make a living and how did they entertain themselves? What did they value most?

I did not expect to learn so much when I watched In This Corner of the World (この世界の片隅に), an animated feature which was released in Japanese theatres on November 12th, 2016, and is based on the graphic novel series of the same name. It is a beautiful rendition of everyday life in wartime Japan. The film starts in the 1930s in Japan, with a Japanese girl named Suzu, who lives with her family in Hiroshima city. She grows up, marries a man named Shusaku, and moves to a nearby town called Kure, where she will live with his family, help with the farming, housework, and look after Harumi, her sister-in-law's daughter.

Throughout the film, military themes are present as Kure was a military base for the Imperial Japanese Navy. At one point, there is a fire raid on Kure and several times the family has to take cover in a bomb shelter under their vegetable fields. However, unlike other movies in wartime settings, the plot does focus a lot on the day-to-day experience of an average person. Furthermore, unlike other movies that are set in Hiroshima in 1945, there is nearly no gore or graphic imagery. In the scenes where attacks and raids are depicted, nothing was overly shocking or upsetting, and nothing made me cry. Certainly, however, these parts are sad. I feel like they are necessary to paint a wholesome picture of young Suzu's life. She is happy, she is perplexed, she mourns, she is frustrated, she is content. This is her experience as a woman in 1945. Thus we can connect with her and we can learn from this.

There are even amusing and heartwarming plot points--for instance, at one point in the summer, Harumi finds a line of ants leading to the house and Suzu discovers that the ants have gotten into the sugar pot. Her attempts to purify the sugar fail so she goes into town to buy more, which is expensive due to rationing. After buying some, she gets lost in the maze of buildings, but is saved when she meets a wealthy young lady (Edit: Sorry, I made a mistake. The woman who helped Suzu was a brothel worker.) who tells her the way. Small details such as these, plus the authentic tone and old timey language use gave me a feel for the setting in 1945. In fact, I feel as if I probably missed a few references due to a cultural "generation gap," if you will.

On the subject of the language used in the film, it was not only quite old-fashioned but also I felt like I was listening to a genuine, bonafide "Hiroshima dialect." A lot of people know that the Hiroshima dialect uses turns of phrase such as "ja ke." This and other regional phrases and words were often used in the film, but I also felt the tone, the rise and fall of the characters' voices, was also very indicative of Hiroshima, yet sounded very natural and not overdone. Some people might think this would mean that the movie is difficult to understand because the dialect is so strong, but this is not so. I found that the characters spoke slowly and clearly enough that I could catch most of the words. I know almost nothing of the Hiroshima dialect, but after watching this movie I feel like I have a better understanding of what it is like.

In This Corner of the World goes beyond being a movie about wartime Japan. It is a movie about love, how we define family, loss, and new beginnings. These themes are depicted with beautiful art and the creative use of different mediums. It has won three awards so far, and is nominated for a fourth. Personally I cannot recommend it enough!

Here are a few links for those interested.
Wikipedia
IMDB
Anime News Network

Golden Week 2015: Shikoku, Chugoku and Kansai cycling tour

In Japan, Golden Week is a week of 3 or 4 consecutive national holidays and is a popular time to travel for Japanese people.

This year I decided to see Shikoku which is the only main island I hadn't been to in Japan. I went by bicycle and carried my tent and sleeping bag with me. The only other tour I have done with the tent was around Lake Biwako and that was only 3 nights or 400 km!

You know what another goal of this tour was? To visit 29 prefectures before I turn 29. So now I have visited 29 prefectures!

Day 1: April 29th, 2015

I left Nagoya late, at 11:30 am. oops. I took the Shinkansen to Okayama and transferred to a local line going to Shikoku. I got to Kagawa Prefecture, at Sakaide station (you can take the train across to Shikoku, by bridge) and rode for about 3 hours before finding a place to camp.
Kagawa is Japan's smallest prefecture, at a whopping 1876.73 square km. (2nd smallest: Osaka; 3rd: Tokyo; 4th: Okinawa)

Tent Sweet Tent.

 Day 2: April 30th, 2015

On my second day I went from Kagawa to Tokushima Prefecture. The weather was perfect. Originally I had planned to go to the coast, but I decided to cut down on time and go inland, across the north area of the prefecture. I found this to be an easy and pleasant day.

By the way this is what my setup looks like. (very minimalist!)

I found a castle there... Kawashima Castle

I think it was around 5 pm I found a spot to camp on a trail in Miyoshi city, Oboke Gorge (literally in the middle of nowhere). The area is famous for rafting tours and I went to an onsen there in the evening! Unfortunately I didn't go rafting!
This is near the site and I took these photos in the morning.

 Day 3: May 1st, 2015

Next I went from Tokushima to Kochi Prefecture. This was a very difficult day because there were two large hillclimbs, one halfway in and one when I was almost finished! But it was also a very enjoyable day because there was beautiful weather and very little traffic. In fact, it is the 3rd least populous prefecture in Japan!

Also, I had a scary discovery in the morning as I went to pump my front tire. The tire had a weak spot and was bulging out, and I had a spare tube but not a spare tire. This means if I hit a rock, or inflated it further and the weak spot broke, I could get a flat. I did not inflate it and hoped I could hold out until I got to Ehime.

I came across this nice temple and got a sticker for my bike

on the final hillclimb... almost at the top

Day 4: May 2nd, 2015

On the fourth day I went from Kochi to Ehime Prefecture. This was a very pleasant day, except for the first 10 or so minutes going from Kochi to Ehime. There was a 5 km long tunnel that was all downhill and I did it all the way going 40-50 km/h. I've done that before but not with a sketchy front tire and carrying camping equipment. Oh well safety 2nd!

Ehime is the prefecture that is connected to Hiroshima Prefecture via the Shimanami Kaido. I planned to set out on the Shimanami Kaido but I had already ridden 50 km from Kochi to Imabari, the north tip of Ehime. Also, around noon I took the opportunity to get my tire changed at Banff Cycle shop (a good Canadian name). I also did laundry (phew) and went to see the castle (just looked at the outside). The Shimanami Kaido is over 70 km long so I wasn't sure if I could do it. However, lo and behold I got to Onomichi, Hiroshima before 8 pm. 

Ehime is very cyclist friendly. This is a regular convenience store that caters to cyclists. The sign says "Conbini cycle oasis: air pump, water, washroom, rest area, info"

In Imabari I took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing.

In front of the entrance to Imabari Castle

Imabari Castle

I started out on the Shimanami Kaido around 3:30 pm

The Shimanami Kaido connects 9 islands with Shikoku and Honshu. It is like a 70 km long Seawall!

Some of the bridges are about 1 km in length

Day 5: May 3rd, 2015

Day Five was a bit difficult. I was going from Onomichi, in eastern Hiroshima prefecture to Okayama Prefecture. I guess I was just frustrated with the bad state of the roads and the drivers. To top it all off, it started raining around 3 or 4 pm so I decided to get to Okayama city quickly to find a place to camp. After I got my tent all set up I went to Arashi no Yu which is an onsen and ganbanyoku. Ganbanyoku is like a hot sauna where the floor is warm stones, and you just lie and relax.

Before I got to Okayama city I passed through Kurashiki which is a city with a famous historical district. It is also famous for Bizen pottery.

 Day 6: May 4th, 2015

According to my iPhone, it was going to rain on this day too, so I put my camping equipment in a large Air Canada bag before packing on my bike rack. However, the weather was quite fine and by noon I stopped and took everything out to dry. I continued on from Okayama in to Hyogo Prefecture (home of Himeji Castle, Kobe city, and the Hanshin Tigers).

In Himeji I considered skipping the castle to save on time, but I figured why not since it is a world heritage site and literally only hundreds of metres from where I was riding by. I decided not to go in, but just take a picture because the crowds were insane (that's Golden Week for you).

Himeji-jo Castle, a world heritage site which was restored last year

Me outside Himeji Castle

Day 6: May 5th, 2015
CINCO DE MAYO!!!!! Just kidding, this is the last stretch of the trip so I rode over 200 km! I could have split it and got home on the 6th but decided to push myself.
So in the morning I started from my campsite in Miki, Hyogo and went through Ibaraki, Osaka; Kyoto, Kyoto; Otsu, Shiga; Inabe, Mie; and Aisai, Aichi (just to name a few of the cities I passed through).
To date, this is the only double century I've ridden with a tent and gear. It's also the first time I've cycled 6 prefectures in one day!
I didn't do much on this day except eat rice at convenience stores and try to figure out how much longer it would be.

Next Tour

I am hoping to possibly do another tour in August, of Tohoku.

A Public Service Announcement from Emma

When you are a bicycle tourist, or simply meandering around the countryside in Japan, always take your garbage with you! Since there are convenience stores everywhere, you're never likely to be more than 10 km away from a garbage can. So DON'T throw it even if there are other pieces of trash lying around. That trash has been thrown by some stupid Yanki kids. (Perhaps I will make a blog post ranting about them later)

On this trip I threw every little bit of my garbage away. (except for the time I forgot my bike bag in Kagawa... oh and my hammer in Okayama...) And now I'm really cool and you can be too by throwing your garbage in the proper receptacle. 

Love the earth and the earth loves you too!

a trip to Hiroshima prefecture, and some thoughts.

at our classroom in Arida, we don't have summer vacation, so I decided to take August 5th-8th off to go to the Chugoku and Kyushu regions. (as it happens, we decided to take a week off for vacation anyhow... so no class this week!)

from the 5th-7th I stayed in Hatsukaichi city, Hiroshima. it's about a half hour train ride to Hiroshima city. I got to Hiroshima city by bus at 4:30 am on the 5th. then I went to a manga cafe and slept for 2 hours, and got washed up, etc. (the combination of night bus and manga cafe is a great trick for time-and-money-wise people travelling in Japan :)

then I went to my hostel in Miyajima, Hatsukaichi and right at 9:30 I went on a kayaking tour to Itsukushima shrine. along with Kinkakuji, it's one of those famous Japanese sights you have probably seen in a calendar.

I returned on the night of the 6th... because the ferry there and back was only 300 yen!

well, obviously the main reason I wanted to go to Hiroshima was to pay my respects to all the people who suffered during August 1945 and many years after at the hands of the American army. it was quite moving to stand at the ruins and think about the past. 

this is one of Hiroshima's famous sights, the Genbaku dome. people gathered here for peace rallies and to display origami cranes.

It was beautiful to see so many people in one place, all wishing for one thing, world peace. there were people from all over the world there. One thing I was really happy to do was float a paper lantern on the river, at 6pm. 

my wish was to overcome what Canadians have done to the Japanese in the past and live in peace! the atrocities of war are something we mustn't forget. 

all of the lanterns and the people watching made a lovely sight. (taken with my SLR)

after going to the genbaku dome and before returning in the evening to float my lantern, I wandered all over Hiroshima...

went shopping

 found some interesting parts of town...

 hiked up a small mountain

 through a small wood with some crazy trees

to the other side of the mountain

Hiroshima is a beautiful city and prefecture... hopefully I'll be able to return someday :)