At nine o'clock on Friday morning, I made my way to Tokyo Station with the other volunteers (who were going to Nagoya).
Tokyo Station is huge. With the largest number of platforms in Japan (about 10 of them alone being for bullet trains) it's easy to get lost. Luckily, we were with Tomoko, who showed us the right gate to go through.
But first we had to get lunch! There are stalls selling bento （弁当）(elaborate lunch boxes) which are known as Ekiben (駅弁) when you buy them at a station. (It combines the kanji for station and the first kanji in bento).
They're quite expensive (starting at around ￥1000) but they're definitely worth it. You can get all different types of bento, even ones that are self heating. I bought a 'Makunouchi Bento' before heading for the bullet train platforms.
Tokyo station is a terminus for the bullet trains, so everyone gets off and the train is cleaned by an army of workers in pink. They were pretty much standing at attention a few minutes before the train came in, just so that they could get on and off as fast as possible and keep the trains running immaculately on time.
The view coming out of Tokyo was amazing. Skyscrapers were whizzing past and I even caught a glimpse of Tokyo Tower, so I decided to film it. However, I didn't press the button properly so my camera was doing nothing for about 5 minutes as we were whisked through the heart of Tokyo (-_-) I'll have to retake it if I'm ever passing through that way again...
The staff were astonishingly polite. Whenever a woman selling food or a person checking tickets walked through the car, they would stop just before they went through the doors, turn around and do a very low bow.
My ekiben was delicious:
The box is divided into compartments for the different types of food. Of course, the largest compartment was for the ever ubiquitous rice. There were seeds of some sort artfully scattered on top with a very sour pickled plum (called umeboshi). The furthest compartment on the right had some salmon, a prawn, some breaded chicken (I think, I can't really remember) and the yellow thing is tamago, a Japanese style sweet omelette. The two smallest compartments contained various pickles (the white thing with holes in it is a lotus root) and the small white package in the right compartment had some sort of minced meat in it.
I've never had food on a train that tasted this good. I've actually contemplated going to Hiroshima Station just to buy one of these; the price is the only thing holding me back!
We passed Mt Fuji, and although it wasn't a very clear day I got a photo.
I also took a short video. I pressed the button this time...
Make sure you watch it in HD
The other volunteers left at Nagoya, and I tried to sleep (I was still very jet lagged) but my nerves were getting worse by the minute. The two days in Tokyo were over; everyone was going off with their partners to where they would spend the next 6 months and I was all alone on a train hurtling towards a city I had only ever seen in pictures.
How was I going to fare on my own? Will I be able to make any friends? Is someone going to try and make me sing karaoke!?!
All these questions and more were racing through my mind as I got off the train at Hiroshima. Ueuchi-san, a man who is responsible for my position at the hospital said he would be waiting on the platform for me, but I saw no one holding a sign with my name on it - just a lot of Japanese business men in suits.
I made my way down the stairs from the platform and still I saw no one. I passed two women in grey uniforms with a red trim and they started frantically whispering to each other before walking further into the station, past me, and holding up a sign with a red cross on it.
This was the first time I met Ohashi-san and Yoshimura-san. I went up to them:
初めまして、マシューといいます。Hajimemashite, Matthew to iimasu. (Pleased to meet you, I'm Matthew)
I was finally using Japanese in Japan. I realised this just as they introduced themselves to me, so I didn't catch their names. Lucky for me, Japanese people rarely address people using names (or ever the word for 'you') so it didn't matter. I asked again a little while later and I've now got a growing collection of names to memorise on my ipod.
We spoke in Japanese from there on as we made our way into the shopping complex above the station. I didn't understand a few of the things they said, and I wasn't sure why Ohashi-san kept wondering how to get to the roof.
I was exhausted from jet lag and carrying my laptop and some bags and it was boiling hot. We got into a lift and at the next floor a group of school girls got on. They all kept looking at me and I heard one whispering 'kawaiiiii'. That's another thing I'd have to get used to, being the only westerner and having blue eyes was starting to draw attention...
We got off the lift and it turned out there was a viewing platform on the roof, where I got my first view of Hiroshima.
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| The Mazda stadium; home to Hiroshima's baseball team the Toyo Carps |
It's hard to imagine something so dreadful ever happened here. It just looks like a typical Japanese city with people jostling for space and the buildings growing ever higher.
We then took a taxi to the hospital where I would be working for the next 6 months: the Atomic Bomb Survivors and Red Cross Hospitals (原爆者と赤十字病院 Genbakusha to Sekijyuuji byoin).
I was taken to see the section chief for the volunteering department (Ueuchi-san). He was very warm and welcoming, and I was introduced to some of the nurses, but I can't remember any of their names! I didn't get a chance to write them down...
Yoshimura-san then went round the hospital with me, trying to find suitable places to take my picture.
After the picture with the woman at the temple in Harajuku, I went through a period of clasping my hands together without realising it. I think that was bad - I think it's what women do for formal photographs in Japan...
Afterwards, Yoshimura-san showed me to my apartment. It's in a building that also houses relatives of people staying in the hospital, so it's about a three minute walk away (give or take a few minutes for the traffic lights, which take an age to change).
Yoshimura gave me a 25 minute break (precisely) to rest and read the apartment rules before returning to the hospital.
That evening, I went out to a yakiniku restaurant with Ueuchi-san, Ohashi-san and Yoshimura-san. I forgot to take my camera, so I'll have to describe it instead.
We had to take our shoes off as we went in, and then the waitress offered us a table. But Ueuchi-san was very picky - he walked around looking at them all until he found an appropriate booth with sliding trellis doors made of wood (I realise now that he's always looking to make a restaurant outing with me as authentically Japanese as possible). The table and seats were sunk into the ground and when we were all seated the waitress moved the trellis, closing us in and making a gap at the end of the table where she knelt down to take our order.
She then lit a stove, which was sunk into the middle of the table and had a circular grill. We each had tray, which had different compartments for various dipping sauces.You grill the meat and vegetables yourself.
It was great, even with Rhianna singing 'Woah na na what's ma name?' in the background.
I was already feeling at home. Everyone I met was so friendly, all my worries during the journey to Hiroshima had vanished and I had a great nights sleep and the best lie-in of my life.
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