広島

The Kanji reads: Wide Island, but the world knows it by it's Japanese name: Hiroshima. Yes, THAT Hiroshima. Note: pics will be up later.

The semester had just ended, I had to deal with heartbreak and stress because of bad news back home. I could have gone back home, but I had to do this to provide clarity from all the new stuff I was learning about the war. I actually remember breaking down one day because of the many attacks that America had done to this country that I have become attached to. Anyway, on with my experience.

I left at 5 o clock on the bullet train taking a 3 and a half hour long ride from Tokyo. I had saved up by not taking the train at all over the summer. I bought a bike. I tried looking for a cheaper way but the shink (bullet train) is relaxing. On the ride there, I tried learning new Japanese but the window is a HUGE distraction. The sight of Japan being blanketed with darkness is an awesome sight. To kill the time, I drank beer and ate ice cream.

When I arrived, I literally yelled, "Oh my God, the air is soooo fresh!" with a big smile on my face. Embarrassed, I apologized to everyone haha. Being boxed in in Tokyo really wore me down from all of the cramped city air. It was almost 9 at night and I was getting hungry so I went to look for Ramen, but no stores were open, so I just decided to walk around. I refused to eat crappy convieniece store food, so I just thought, I'll eat tomorrow. Hiroshima had a very different atmosphere from Tokyo, I walked down alleys with no fear, no working girls, hardly any pachinko parlors, and mildly different Japanese in terms of tone and stuff. I could smell the ocean perfectly too. I passed by 3 mcdonalds but I refused to eat there. I stayed the night at an internet cafe, watched some movies, took a shower, and slept. I could understand the clerk very well for some odd reason.
I woke at 6 in the morning, full of energy, and with my shoulder killing me from the bag I was carrying. I headed to the memorial park on foot, ready for heavy emotions to attack me. But first breakfast. Because nothing was open, I ate at a chain restaurant. Some locals were there, they smiled and bowed at me. That was cool. As the sun fully rose over Japan, I approached the atomic bomb dome. I took a picture to show I was there, but I couldn't smile at all. The feeling was extremely overwhelming. A lot of locals smiled at me, handed me some literature and spoke english with me. Surrounding the dome was many people saying "give peace a chance" "No more nukes" and monks chanting as well. The right wingers were there in low numbers saying America is scum. I ignored them. I proceeded down the river to the spot where the bomb dropped. There was what I had come for, a peace ceremony that I have heard much about. The cicadas were louder than ever, practically sonic. As I baked in the sun, I listened to those who had lost relatives due to the bomb and its aftereffects. At 8:15 in the morning, they asked us to remain silent in rememberance of the people who faced the bombs peril. I bowed my head and shed a few tears for those who died, military or not. After the ceremony, I went to the site of the bomb to place flowers by it. Behind the bomb site, there is an eternal flame that will not go out until the world rids itself of atomic weapons. The flowers were given to me by bubbly old women who just smiled and bowed at me as had a sad look on my face. I approached the memorial, school girls smiled at me and told me, "good morning"... that always cheers me up. I laid the flowers, prayed and took a break. Lots of people wanted to talk to me, it was so moving, I just couldnt stop smiling. I then proceded to the famous hiroshima museum. Before I went in, I was expecting to see a war museum like at Yasukuni Shrine. But this was a museum that told the dangers of nuclear weapons. As soon as I walked in, I felt very uncomfortable, but I had to be strong. This museum showed how Hiroshima was and how it became, there were left over scraps from the aftermath, pictures of charred bodies, and tiles soaked in black rain. The museum was completely anti-war. I was glad to see that. After doing the tour, I sat on a couch, and I guess I dozed off, because my emotions were all over the place. When I came to, I signed the guest book. I can't remember what I said, but I signed it, "On behalf of all of my family and friends who could not make it, with high hopes that peace will reign, yours truly, Rory S Rutledge Jr." After the museum, I took a walk to the trollies that hiroshima are famous for and took most of my friends advice and went to a gorgeous island called Miyajima (next blog, sorry). When I left Miyajima, I had a local specialty called okonomiyaki and watched the baseball team, the carp take on the orix buffaloes. I left the next morning with a heavy heart, because I found Hiroshima to be one of the awesomest places I've EVER been. I spit, a lot, it's a bad habit I picked up from managing my high school's baseball team. I tried my best not to spit, but I was tired that I accidentally did before I slept. I slapped myself, because I felt that was extremely disrepectful. When Hiroshima was mentioned to me in the past, I always thought of the fucking bomb. I'm tired of that. I wanted to create a new memory and bring peace in thw name of all my family, and I feel that I went beyond it, because I loved it, and now I am not reminded of the Enola Gay, Little Boy, and total incineration to Hiroshima. It is a very peaceful city with wonderful people, awesome food, and excellent weather. I love it. The war is a subject that I'm supremely interested in because of the mysteries surrounding it. But I am glad that I no longer have to think that in accordance to Hiroshima. War is stupid, we all should just talk it over with a beer. I feel that by doing this, I have honored the last name Rutledge by showing that we want peace just as much as the next guy. I'm definitely going back.

I'm an asshole. Sorry

Hey, I'm sorry for not posting recently. I've been very busy and filled up with so much stress that I just want to kill everyone. This semester was supremely rough and I put my heart and soul into a final paper, and apparently it wasn't gfood enough. But I seriously don't care because I had to over come two deaths and my family and that weighed me down to the point where I lost my mind. In two days, Im journeying to hiroshima. This is going to be tough, and I hope Ill be able to stay strong.

There will be more blogs coming I promise.

麻雀

The kanji reads: mah jan, MAHJONG

For starters: I'd like to point out that the mahjong you play on your computer where you match up the tiles is not the true mahjong. It is a good time killer, but I hardly see much of challenge to matching a pair.

 DA-ME! (No good)

On the flight over here from Seattle, I became bored, so I played some of the games on the in flight entertainment center (technology huh?). I wasn't too keen on playing stupid card games or dumb space shooters, so I clicked on the foreign games section. I was expecting to play the solitaire mahjong when I clicked "MahJong". After getting my ass handed to me several times, I thought to myself, "why am I so keen on the solitaire one?" I had been at the time. I became intrigued with the game all in all, and wanted to continue on. I decided to begin a little side project which was to be awesome at it.

Even though the game is of Chinese origin, it has made a huge impact here in Japan. You can find:


Mahjong arcade games practically everywhere,

Pachinko (next topic) machines based around it,

MahJong parlors everywhere (I haven't played live by the way)

And it's even a topic in anime and manga.

I find it fascinating how a foreign topic got the limelight in that sense.

I'm sure you want to know how to play it now don't you?
SCREW THAT!
I'm not typing that out, it would be a 10 page essay.

So I'll let her describe.

See how easy it is?
LOL
JK


These dudes explain it way better anyway:

I have over 5 Mahjong apps on my phone, and I usually turn the volume off and play in class when I'm bored. It is my mission to become the king of mahjong, it's highly unlikely that it'll happen soon but I'm keeping my eyes on the prize.

イエス クリスト

The katakana reads ii-esu ku-risto, which is the latin pronunciation for Jesus Christ. Please note this blog is not intended for slamming beliefs or anything. This blog shall speak of the interesting ways that christ is viewed here.

First things first, I have no problems with Jesus, I just really do not like it how there are people in this world who go to great lengths to push the messages. As a philosopher, I believe that people should be self-motivated to start believing in something... oops almost went a little far there, sorry. Nah, Jesus I'm pretty sure is/was an awesome guy. If he were alive today, I honestly think he and Buddha would be chilling and living an average human life... that brings me to my first view, the manga (comic) Saint Young Men.

In this manga series, Jesus and the Gautama Buddha live in the modern day world, and just want to live like normal people, but they keep getting recognized for who they are. It's a funny manga. Don't take it as blasphemy.

My second view is an interesting find in the Aomori prefecture in a small town called Shingo.

In the Bible, it chronicles the events of what Jesus was doing from the age of about 1-24 then skips somewhere to when he's 33 and the last supper, good friday, et cetera. We know all about what he did in the bible, but there's most definitely stuff that happened that wasn't written. In this town, lies what claims to be the actual tomb of Jesus. The story goes: Jesus got away from the holy land, migrated to Siberia, traveled east, and ended up in Japan. When he arrived he learned Shintoism and mostly everything about Japan's lifestyle. After a while, Jesus returned to the Holy land, and taught his disciples about Shintoism. They did not like that so he fled back to Japan. The one who took the fall and got crucified was Jesus' brother, Isukiri. Jesus lived in Shingo until he was 106. Sounds like something out of the Da Vinci code.

I have encountered many people who have been pushing the message of Jesus here. I was stopped once on the street after getting some curry, when I was approached by three nice old ladies who wanted to speak to numero uno here, that never happens. They told me that I would get some free food (yeah I was still hungry) if I went with them to their choich. I was brought in, given a cup of tea, and talked to a pastor with the 3 women. They started chanting.... I was supremely freaked out, so I masked my feelings by joining them. After a small lecture about Jesus, I was told that I should be baptized, they told me to go in a room, change into some robes and get dunked... NO WAY WAS THAT GOING TO HAPPEN. I slammed the tea and ran out of there... OH MAN DID I FEEL DIRTY. I guess these pentecostals we have in America have influenced some believes here.

South Korea is full of Christians in order to rebel against the highly Confucian North Korea. In the bible they have the part that says to spread the good word. In Japan, churches that are run by Koreans have begun to take over. Back in March, I was approached by some in Takadanobaba and they told me that I should come to their church because there are English speakers, and FREE FOOD. (I was poor at the time). I went the next Sunday. These past few months I have been going to it, just because Sundays are boring. I was coaxed into going mainly because of one of their missionaries. He's a cool guy, but he was calling me practically everyday and asking me the same things over and over. I enjoyed meeting new people, and the food was good. Soon came a retreat to Nagano. I was asked continuously about going and thought about it and overall I went. I stayed on a mountain in a tent for 4 days doing nothing but hearing lectures about Jesus. When I hear camp and Jesus, I think of the camp I went to when I was ten. We went on hikes and did lots of activities. I told them that I only wanted to go for one day, and they kept me there, it really made me angry. But the Nagano air was very nice and peaceful, so that kept me going. Met some truely wonderful people too. I am always curious to see how people believe and such. 

Overall, Christ was introduced here in Japan by a missionary named Francis Xavier who came and forced some to believe. There was backlash and many suicides happened because of that. The anime Samurai Champloo tells about this loosely in the last few episodes.

I have just one final rant here: I live in a country that is dominated by 2 beliefs: Shintoism and Buddhism. They are equal, they don't strive to push the messages of their believes forward, and don't argue as to which is better... I think I know a country that could greatly learn from that.

Japanese Pop Music or J-Pop

Hey people, it's been long overdue and I'm sorry about that. I've got topics galore coming so don't be disappointed.


This Blog here is an overview of Japanese Pop Music and my honest thoughts about what should be done with the current state of it.

Here in Japan, music is playing practically everywhere. It plays in highly populated areas, and sometimes even on small dense streets. When I first came here 2-3 years ago, I knew something like that would take place so I brought my mp3 player full of heavy metal and stuff.

After spending a year in Japan (yeah it's been a full year!), I've come to know the ropes, and get a feel for what's up.

This is the Japanese pop group AKB48. They are a huge sensation here in Japan. The group consists of 64 girls within the age range of 14-20. EVERYDAY I see at least one advertisement for them, even one day when I stayed in my apartment all day doing homework, I went out to a vending machine to get a canned coffee, and there was a sticker promoting AKB48. As soon as I saw that, I chucked the can down the street. 100 yen well spent. Like I was saying, they are promoted everywhere, the other day, I was taking the train from school, and found myself aboard a train that was dedicated to AKB48.

 There is something very unsettling about this, it's almost as if there's something psychological behind all of the advertisements and such. AKB has many shops, including one in Singapore with merchandise galore.

 I may be digging way too deep into this, but I feel as if the conglomerate behing AKB48 is trying to tell you what to like, and I really don't like that. In America, if you were a full grown man who's obsessed with a pop group like this, then you'd be considered a pervert. Here in Japan it's almost normal.
I have no problems with the music (it's really catchy) or the people who sing the songs in general, but the way they advertised just disgusts me, which is why I am trying to get a job at a concert venue that plays only Japanese underground punk bands. I am almost seeing how the songs J-pop groups lure in fans, and I wanted to be clear of all that.

(RANT OVER)

MORE ON THE WAY I PROMISE!!!!!!

相撲

The Kanji reads: Sumo. As in Sumo Wrestling.

Sumo is widely known throughout the world and is a one of the most recognizable martial arts (yes it is a martial art) from Japan. Back from it's origination, it was considered a part-time job and form of entertainment for wandering samurai. Aside from that, it's a shinto practice.

The wrestlers are pretty much royalty here in Japan. They get fed, are given certain guidelines to follow and are basically holier than thou. Beginners are put through a series of extenuating  tests in order to show loyalty, for example, they basically are hazed by the upper class sumos and even are obligated to wipe their asses after chili night (NO JOKE).

 

I saw this event in Ryogoku, which is a total sumo town in Tokyo. The arena was Ryogoku Kokugikan which is supposedly the big dance for Sumo. 

The Sumo gather in the dahyo, which is the clay area for sumo combat.(No women are allowed to set foot on it according to tradition). to introduce themselves (remember back in my blog about mma). And the tournament begins. 






The rules are simple nothing but the soles of your feet can touch the ground. 
Very fast paced. I dig it!!

Update

Happy New Year!

I'll be away from blogging for a while, primarily because I don't have internet.
I moved to Nishi-Ogikubo which is western Tokyo, just on the outskirts of the city. It's a chill neighborhood and I like being away from all the crap that surrounds Tokyo.

I went to Dynamite!! 2011 so I'll blog about that too.
I have 2 blogs on the way, but since I have no internet, it'll be a while. Hang in there.

Also artwork on the way too.