~*=recollection of japan=*~

3/6/2005 金:
Peace Memorial Park 平和公園
Toukasan (Yukata Festival) とうかさん大祭(ゆかた祭り)
my marketing dept has promised to bring mi and tsepeng to the Peace Memorial Park one of the days. been looking forward to it! finally i can get to visit the site where the historic atomic bomb landed. (and also escape from the boring office for a few hours! =P)

so in the morning, Tateishi-san, tsepeng and mi walked to the Peace Memorial Park which is juz a stone's throw away from ANA hotel. we first visited the museum. got a lot of high sch students visiting as well, so i was half looking at the exhibits, half looking at how prettily made-up those high school girls were! =P aiyo, those curly dyed hair, super short skirt and thick make-up... looked like they juz walk out from fashion magazines sia. and coincidentally, we also saw a group of students from Mayflower sec. yes... mayflower... Singapore students!! mi & tsepeng were so excited abt meeting ppl from our country. but we too shy to approach any of them to talk.


on the 2nd level of the museum, we got to see the sufferings the ppl went thru as a result of the bomb. Tateishi-san was quite affected by the sight. but mi, somehow i was rather neutral. i tot abt the 中国抗日战争纪念馆 i had visited in Beijing last yr... and in there i also saw how brutally the Japanese treated the Chinese. but of cos, all those stuffs were nv mentioned in this museum. all i can say is tt i really sympathise all the innocent lives who suffered... and am glad tt there r no more wars now. Peace~ (^.-)Y


after the museum, we took pics in the park. saw the cranes ppl fold for the little girl Sadako, as well as the famous Gen-Baku Dome, the only standing building left from the bomb. then go back to ANA to continue our day of work.

after work, it was another interesting part! us 8 girls have arranged to to go for Toukasan together! this is the festival where girls wear their Yukata (light kimono) to Hondori. it's an annual event tt takes place during the first weekend of june.


mi and tsepeng walked to Hondori. along the way can already see all the various food and games stalls. so exciting! after some confusions, we finally found rachel and alice. we ate this "ice kacang" sorta dessert in a restaurant while waiting for the rest of the girls, who were changing into the yukata they had bought. after tt the 8 of us went to another restaurant for dinner. (but i din eat cos i wasn't hungry)


Ice kacang?? 1 small little bowl shared by 4 ppl... how pathetic~. =P
but can't be helped cos it cost like SGD10!!
and finally it's walking along the busy and colourful street of Toukasan! the whole street was lined with stalls selling food such as candied strawberries, yakitori, hot dogs, lollipops and more. also got many games stalls, and a ghost house! the main road was blocked too and performances were being put up. many girls and little children were in their yukata. really にぎやか! everything so so cute and fun!! the first time i found myself so immensed within Japanese culture!



during the walk, somehow we got split up, reunited and later got separated again. mi was left with sharon, kaisi & sookwhai. when we decided to go home, the last streetcar has already gone! so we called Kajiwara-san to come fetch the 4 of us from the station. it was dark and quiet... we waited and waited... after abt 1 hr, we realised tt the station we were at was an interchange station. there were 3 stops with the exact same name! prolly tt's why Kajiwara-san had prob finding us. too poor to take taxi, we ended up walking 1 hr to get back! really an experience sia~ us 4 girls (3 of them in yukata some more), stranded in the middle of Japan in the middle of the night and had to walk all the way home... really pathetic!

by the time we got back it was already passed midnight. really tired from the day's activities, but was also v happy and enjoyable! =P