Day Twenty-One: Car Chase

Every once and a while I spot a sign in English and have an “oh, that sign’s in English, I can read it!” moment.

It’s like I've grown so used to just scanning over signs and not understanding a word that it takes a couple of minutes for the fact that I can understand something to register.

Today, the day began on a rather depressing note when we visited Hiroshima. I’m sure most of you know Hiroshima, the site of the nuclear bombing in 1945 (which is far more recent than I’d thought it was). Before going into the museum, we stopped to talk to a guide whose grandfather had been killed in the bombing. Between him and the museum, I learned a lot. (As I'm sure you can infer, this first section won't be as light-hearted as I normally try to make these. But if you power through or even scroll down, it goes back to normal about a paragraph after the second safe).

For example, the bomb was dropped by the government of the United States as a test. They were trying to figure out how many of these bombs it would take to destroy the major cities, and at the same time, discover the effects of radiation on the human body, as this was not known at that point.

The bomb itself actually exploded above the city, and the entire area was totally leveled. Those too close to the bomb were killed.

And this is the point that you stop reading if you’re kind of squeamish or easily creeped out. Just scroll past this stuff until you see this: ***SAFE***

Or suppose you can stop reading altogether if you’d really like. It’s your choice.

Many people were severely burned, and many of those also died of these wounds. People lay wounded and dying everywhere, and because of the burns, many had an intense, desperate need for water. This is why they drank the black rain when it fell.

When I say black rain, I literally mean black rain. The water in the clouds reacted with what I believe was the radiation to form a horrible black rain. But people were so desperate that they didn't care. Drinking the rain caused diarrhea that lasted months afterwards.

Although honestly, diarrhea was probably the least of these people’s worries. The effects of the radiation began to strike, and it was not uncommon for people to die because of this. Symptoms included things like large purple spots, hair loss, and cancer. The effects could strike without warning, and continued to appear months afterwards.

Now, if you kept reading this anyway thinking, “hey, I’m squeamish, but this doesn't sound so bad,” this next part is definitely where you stop.

Children who’d been in the womb of mothers too near the bomb began to be born with extreme mental and physical disabilities. A common symptom was the child’s head being far too small. This obviously hindered brain development and was one of the key problems. Some children were born so incredibly mutated that they could not survive. For example, the guide outside the hotel showed me a picture with a newborn baby bearing only one eye, a strangely-shaped mouth, and no nose. There were two other pictures as well, but I don’t really remember them. I just recall looking at the photos and feeling sick. That was how horrible it was.

One man had a rather odd reaction to the radiation. When the bomb had struck, he’d been sitting with his hand on the windowsill and his fingers folded slightly over. The last centimeter or so of his fingers got the full-force of the burn, and as a result, they had to remove the ends of two or three fingers. But radiation presented its own horrible twist. From that day on, the stumps of the man’s fingers grew black nails from the center of the finger end. The main difference between these fingernails and regular fingernails was that the black nails were actually filled with blood vessels, and would bleed profusely when broken. The man is no longer alive today.

***SAFE***

Okay, I’m sorry that I had to include those rather disturbing mental images (or maybe they’re just disturbing to me because I was there), but I really want people to understand exactly how serious this was. In fact, the number of people killed when the bomb fell is still unknown.

I walked away from Hiroshima with a lot to think about. Peace has always been a pretty big thing for me, and visiting Hiroshima just enhanced my understanding of exactly how much the human race needs it.

And with that, the daily dose of sober has been administrated.

The next place we went was Miyajima Island. Like Nara, Miyajima also has deer wandering around. Unlike Nara, you aren't supposed to feed or touch the deer. According to the signs, they’re trying to “re-introduce them to the wild”. I have my doubt about how well this will actually work, but hey, not my choice.

On the bright side, I got to pet a deer and admire his sawed-off antlers (maybe so he didn't gorge people) before I noticed the signs and had no valid continuous excuse.

Later, on the walk to the shrine gate located in the ocean (know what I’m talking about now?), I stopped to buy ice cream from a vending machine. I guess Otosan and Okasan didn’t see me stop, because the juts kept going, so when my ice cream fell out, I sprinted after them.

As it turned out, I’d forgotten to close my little coin-carrier, and coins went flying everywhere. Of course I had to stop to pick them up (I had hundreds in there!), and I nearly lost Otosan and Okasan in that time. By the time I caught up, I was too warm, sweaty, and questioning my choice to get ice cream. Otosan and Okasan hadn't noticed my absence, so I just started to eat my ice cream like nothing had happened.

And then tragedy struck.

The entire top section of my ice cream broke off, fell, and rolled away.

Yes. It actually rolled.

Feeling annoyed, I finished up my ice cream and looked around for a garbage can to throw the wrapper in. I didn't find one, but I did see a sign requesting no littering. Well, people-who-own-Miyajima, if you don’t want me to littler, supplying some garbage cans would be a good move.

That’s not to say that I littered, but theoretically I could have. Out of spite.

After going through the Miyajima shrine, we started walking back. I stopped in one of the souvenir shops to purchase something, and when I stepped out again, Otosan and Okasan were gone. Because- as I mentioned earlier in my blogs- I have problems, this didn't bother me, and I just figured I’d catch up with them at the end of the street. Then I remembered I had a phone, so I called Otosan and he told me that he and Okasan were going to go sit down and I should just go nuts. Okay, he didn't say those exact words, but he did tell me to keep shopping.

So I did. I shopped until I had no money left in my wallet. Saying it like that makes it sound like I spent a lot; but really, I only had about five thousand in there (the rough equivalent of fifty Canadian dollars).

It was really exciting to finally find a nail clipper. That turned out to be the thing I forgot, and I didn't realize how much I liked being able to cut my nails until I just couldn't anymore.

Once I’d met up with Otosan and Okasan at the ferry station (a phone call process far more complicated than it should have been, but language misunderstandings struck again), we went to our hotel. On a walk to find dinner, and interesting thing happened.

I heard a siren building in the distance, and a couple of minutes later, a gray car with two red lights on the roof flew by. Several minutes later, a police car tore passed in the same direction. I didn't really connect the two in my brain until they both screamed by again about ten minutes later much closer together this time.

Now all I want to know is what that gray car though it was doing in a car chase with screaming red lights on its roof. Really not the brightest or most advisable move. Plus he was heading towards a red light. I'm pretty sure those ninja jumping moves only work in movies.