Okay, it's now the 40th anniversary of my 21st birthday, and my 21st was MUCH more exciting, believe me. But considering the rate at which I've been losing friends and co-workers, I guess I should just be glad I'm still here. But DAMN, I hate this getting old thing...

We took our whirlwind trip to Japan -- left the morning after Thanksgiving and came home Monday afternoon. It turns out there's even a term for this: mileage run. Apparently there are a lot of people who need one more trip to get or maintain a frequent flyer status.

Japan -- at least what I saw of it -- is lovely, much more mountainous than I realized. It was immaculate, and very safe. People park their bikes and don't put a lock on them. They are so friendly and can't do enough for you. And polite! Even the police did a deep bow when they had to stop the traffic. I noticed that people there can have a cell phone conversation right next to you, and you don't hear a word of it. I made a terrible faux pas -- I preceded the Professor off an elevator, while all the other women waited for him to exit first -- but even though I'm sure they were shocked, they did not show it. The Professor had to explain that to me later. In all the restaurants, he was served first; everywhere we went, I was expected to follow him. (Let me tell you, ladies, we have it a whole lot better here than we realize.)

Japan seems to have a love affair with the west. There were Christmas trees everywhere. My favorite was decorated with Hello Kitty cutouts. Store windows were showing white wedding gowns and formals. We saw a wedding party in one hotel; a couple of the guests were wearing kimonos with obis, but for the most part everyone was in western dress. And apparently if you don't have a pair of knee-high, high-heeled, black boots, you are totally out of style. I saw those boots with everything from skirts and sweaters, to frilly pastel dresses, to pants, to cocktail dresses. (You can bet I was scrunching down so my pants legs would cover my Reeboks. I was SO out of style!)

Now we all know that Japan is THE place for electronic gadgets. How do you like this one?

This little gem allows your ordinary everyday toilet to become a bidet or a -- um -- backside washer at the touch of a button. But I don't think this is found in every household. On the trains, the bathrooms are labeled "western style" and "Japanese style", Japanese style being a hole in the floor.






We didn't have time to do a lot, but we did get down to Hiroshima. ( For the record, the people there pronounce it He-ro-she-ma, not Hirosh-ema.) We went to Peace Park, which is very moving. I know in my brain that dropping the atomic bomb saved at least a million lives, and that ordinary bombs and even refinery accidents melt people's skin right off them, but when you see the pictures of Hiroshima before and after the bomb, and the victims, and the clothes some of them were wearing ... well, let's just say I cried my way through another museum. The most touching thing is a statue of a child which is covered with folded paper cranes in bright colors. A little girl got leukemia as a result of radiation exposure, and she believed that if she could fold 1000 paper cranes, she would live. She eventually folded over 1300, but she died nonetheless. The children of Japan made her into a symbol, and they replenish the paper cranes around the monument every week. This is 60 years later, mind you, and still they are folding those cranes in hopes that peace will come to the world.




I'm sure you've all seen this before, but this is one of the two or three buildings that withstood the bomb. It wasn't very far from here that a 3 year old boy was riding on his beloved tricycle. His father thought he was too young to be buried away from home, so he buried the child and his tricycle in his back yard. A few years ago, he dug them up and gave the tricycle to the museum. (They didn't allow pictures, but I doubt I could have focused through my tears, anyway.)

The reason the Allies picked Hiroshima as the 1st target was because it was thought to be the only place without prisoners of war. There were also weapons factories here. Japan takes full responsibility for Pearl Harbor, and for their treatment of Chinese and Korean captives -- slaves -- forced laborers -- comfort women -- any and all of the above. The Professor said he could take me to a museum in Tokyo where the mea culpa's are noticeably absent, but at least in Hiroshima they are not acting like innocent victims. They are just showing how awful war really is.

Well, aren't I cheerful on my birthday! Oh, and for anyone here by way of Guppyman, except for the times his sisters dressed him up in their old dresses, he only wore a dress and makeup once (that I know of, anyway!), and that was to a Halloween party. He did look adorable, though...