Yasukuni Shrine

On my last full day in Japan, I took the train from Takamatsu back to Tokyo, from which I would fly back to Beijing the next day.  I got into Tokyo in the afternoon and decided to make an effort to go and see the Yasukuni Shrine.  As you can see, I made it to the first torii right as the sun was setting.

The formal entrance to the shrine takes you along a long path as you pass under three torii.  This is the second.

You can see the third torii and then in the far background Main Hall of the shrine.

So why does the Yasukuni shrine cause so much controversy amongst Asian nations?  The Yasukuni shrine was built in the 1870's by the Emperor Meiji.  The emperor, wishing to honor the memory of those who had died for their country (or at that time empire), built this shrine.  Any Japanese person who has died in a war for the country is enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine as a deity.  At this point there are about 2.5 Million deities.  The controversy stems from the fact that in the 1970's in a secret move, the major war criminals from World War II were enshrined here as deities.  This particularly angers the nations of China and South Korea.  Additional anger is brought forth when Japanese leaders make a visit to the shrine.

The military tribunal for the Far East found a number of Japanese leaders and military leaders guilty of crimes against humanity.  However,  Dr. Radha Pal was the only judge who did not insist all defendants were guilty.  Because of that, he is given a memorial in the shrine complex.

Also honored are the women and children who suffered because of the war and the consequences of the war.

The last morning of my trip, I met up with Uncle Nino, who is my Dad's high school classmate.  We ate brunch and talked about, guess who...my Dad!

Soy Sauce....How it's Made

Another thing Shodoshima is famous for is it's soy sauce.  The island is the home for the Maruchkin brand of Soy Sauce.

Right around the factory, the air smells like soy sauce.

At the factory, there is a small museum that details the history of the company as well as the process of making soy sauce before the introduction of machines.

So, you start with your wheat.  You have to separate it.

And then roast the wheat.  Then grind it.

Simultaneously, you are fermenting malt.

Then mix together, the malt, the wheat, soybeans and salt water in a large vat.  Let it sit for a long time, stirring occasionally.

Next step is to mash the slurry...

...then strain the soy sauce to clarify it.

The soy sauce to be consumed drips into these vats.

These days.....a factory!  Much easier.

Each visitor is given a complimentary bottle of soy sauce.

And you are given the opportunity to try soy sauce flavored ice cream. It actually just tasted like ice cream...the soy sauce flavor was very faint.

Shodoshima

Outside the front door of the hotel I stayed at in Takamatsu was a small hole-in-the wall restaurant that served traditional Japanese Breakfast.  It was run by a woman and she charged 530 Yen (about 5 dollars) for this massive tray of food!

I chose to stay in Takamatsu because it offered a regular ferry to the island of Shodoshima, which is in the Inland Sea between Shikoku and Honshu.

Why did I want to go to Shodoshima?  Well, this is a testament to the saying that little things parents do or show their kids when their kids are young, stick with them.  In this case, when I was young, my Dad had us watch a Japanese movie called 24 Eyes.  I remember being moved by the movie and so I wanted to come to Shodoshima to see where the movie was based and to see the museum that honors the movie.

This is the iconic photo that everyone knows from 24 Eyes.  The primary school teacher, on crutches, and her 12 pupils (24 Eyes).

There are two sites that are related to the movie "24 Eyes."  The first is the movie set of the 1980's remake of the movie.  The famous movie was the original, filmed in 1954.

On the set, the 1954 edition of the movie plays at all times.  Since the day was rainy and cold, I took an hour to watch part of the movie.  The movie was in Japanese without subtitles, but I remembered some scenes.  This is the teacher, the main character.

This touching scene is where a couple of the students go and visit their teacher.

This is a building that was used in the 1980's remake.

Just a few hundred meters down the road from the movie set is the location of the primary school that was used in the original film.  The school was actually in use for students until the 1970's.

This is the first and second year student classroom, which is where a significant portion of the movie takes place.

The original desks and chairs.

So it turns out that Shodoshima has a climate that can grow olives.  Therefore the island is famous for olive products throughout Japan.

To finish my afternoon on Shodoshima, I spent an hour at an onsen.  This was the view from the onsen.

Back in Takamatsu, I made my way to another udon noodle shop.

While I was eating, I got talking to a guy named Ken.  Turns out he spoke excellent English because he lived in the United States for work for a decade.

Shimanami Kaido

Leaving Kyushu from Beppu, I got up early to take the 5:35AM boat to Yawatahama on the island of Shikoku. In the map above it is the red line on the left side of the map.

This was interesting.....the second class ticket doesn't buy you a seat....but it buys you the chance to grab a place on the floor to lay down!

From Yawatahama, I took the train to Imabari.  At Imabari station, I rented a bike for the afternoon because I wanted to ride along the Shimanmi Kaido, which is a series of six bridges that cross five islands which link Shikoku to Honshu.

So there is a nice bike path along the six kilometers between Imabari and the southernmost bridge of the Shimanami Kaido, the Kurushima-Kaikyo.  So when I got to this sign, I took the right hand turn.

A small winding road led me up to a viewing area from which to look over the expanse of the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge network, which is the longest suspension bridge network in the world.  When they say network, they refer to the three separate suspension bridges which are linked to form one full "network" bridge.  Two of three bridges themselves are the 19th and 20th longest suspension bridges all on their own, but put together, the three suspension bridges form the longest network.

Now that right turn I took before to get to the viewing area did seem suspect to me and when I got to the viewing area, I no longer saw any signs with bicycles on them.  Stupidly, I forged on and ended up riding on the shoulder of what turned out to be the automobile portion of the bridge.  I figured out things were bad when I had cars were beeping at me.

So I turned back and decided to ride back down to the road where I made the turn.  But as I was cruising downhill, I approached a toll booth and a number of Japanese bridge police came and stopped me.  Not speaking Japanese they thought I had ridden across the entire bridge in the automobile lanes.  They called in other police and at one time there were 8 police and me.  They asked for my passport, which I had left back in a locker at the train station.  If I had been in China, I would have been worried, but in the end, we got it straightened out and the police let me on my way.  

I found my way back to the path that led to the bicycle lanes on the bridge.  Here's the approach.

The bamboo trees were in bloom.  This was the only day during my six days without Onions that the weather forecast had as being sunny.  So, I planned to make sure I rode on the bridge on this day to be able to see these clear views.

The path up to the bridge has to climb up 100 meters in elevation, so riders have to slowly gain the elevation with the circular ramps.

Here we are, finally, the First Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge.

Then the Second Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge. Both the first and the second are just over one kilometer in length.

The towers form these whirlpools in the water, which I bet when there is more wind are much more dramatic.

And at the northern end of the network, the Third Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge.

The ramp to descend off the northern side of the bridge.

It turns out that not only is there a bicycle path on one side of the bridge, the opposite side of the bridge is dedicated to motorized bicycles.  This is the split in the ramp.

I biked most of the next island to try to get to the second bridge, but I ran out of time and turned back.  Before I rode back to Imabari, I sat here along the water and took the the sight of the six towers of the three bridges of the Kurushima-Kaikyo network.

After returning the bike, I took the train to Takamatsu.  This town is famous for its handmade udon noodles.  I found a restaurant that served them for dinner.

A few days later, I left Shikoku from Takamatsu and took the train to Okayama on Honshu.  The bridge that links the two points on the islands has train tracks built below the automobile deck!