Japan - July 28, 2003

Hello Ya’ll:

This past week has been a bit more on the work/research side of things but I was still able to get out for some fun over the weekend. Saturday evening I was out with the post doc I work for and his lovely wife (Dr. Tetsuo Tobita and Mrs. Satoko Tobita). We had quite a bit of fun walking through the Gion district in Kyoto, which is the most well known Geisha district in Japan, on our way out for a Korean BBQ dinner. As it turns out many tourists line up and down the street to snap pictures as the Geisha go off to various restaurants in the early evening. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so I have no Geisha photos to share. I was especially sorry as I could swear that one of the Geisha I saw was featured in a Discovery Channel special on the subject I happened to see this past Spring. My hosts found this very funny and were rightfully inclined not to believe me. Ah well, such is the life of an American tourist.

Sunday I made my way by two trains up to the village of Kurama which is located in the hills (roughly 600 meters in height) North of Kyoto. The two main attractions were the Kurama-dera temple and the Kurama-onsen (hot springs). Kurama-dera temple is built into a hillside and is comprised of long trails that connect the main hall, museum, and many small shrines dating back to 770 A.D. The monks there practice there own style of Buddhism called, aptly enough, Kuram-kyo. The hills are heavily wooded, rutted with streams, and with summer in full swing are absolutely beautiful. I hiked up to the main hall and arrived in time for what I think amounts to afternoon prayers. I guess Buddhists prefer toworship on Sunday as well. I don’t know much about Buddhism but I was certainly affected by being surrounded by the low hum of monotonic chant at the main hall and practically everywhere else I walked in the temple complex. Had I had my wits about me I would have pulled out the digital camera, put it on video mode, and recorded the sound of it all; next time perhaps.

The favorite Kyotoite thing to do (or so my guide book tells me) after visiting the temple is to hit the local onsen or “hot spring” in our vernacular. For a reference most onsen in Japan seem to resemble the type found in Steamboat Springs, Colorado i.e. it’s a natural spring but they’ve built a large building complex around it. Japanese onsen differ in that there are separate baths for men and women. Yep, you guessed it; the only suit you need is the one you got on your birthday; when in Rome right! Interesting thing that; it seems that I was a bit harrier than every other male at the bath and drew some pretty funny stares. Even funnier were the little tikes that would run and hide behind their fathers when I came walking out of the locker room. Most folks seemed pretty friendly though and I found the whole experience to be very relaxing. The best part of course was the Swedish component to the bath; get out of the blisteringly hot spring and jump in to the adjacent ice cold bath. Zoinks! Sorry though folks; no pics from the hot spring.

The train ride back turned in to quite a bit of fun when some fellow tourists asked me to snap a photo for them. One of them turned out to be a former Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program employee from Wexford County, Ireland. Ms. Mary Green was on the last day of her holiday in Kyoto after having been absent from Japan for eight years. We chatted up a stormand she was kind enough to relate stories of the Kobe earthquake that occured during her last year in the JET program. Why is it that most of the teachers I meet are so darned nice?That’s all for now.

Hope everyone is diggin’ life. Take care.

Matt


Kurama-dera Shrine, Kurama, Japan, July 2003


Dragon Hand Washing Station, Kurama, Japan, July 2003


Tall Tree Torii (Gate), Kurama, Japan, July 2003


Drainage Channel, Kurama, Japan, July 2003

Japan - July 21, 2003

Hello everybody, Yes it’s that time again; yet another Japan update. Things here in Uji are status quo; i.e. fantastic. Lot’s of work in the lab and plenty of sightseeing and travel.

So, last week I went to a local festival called “Gion Matsuri”. I’ve received a few different explanations as to the reason for this celebration which is quite understandable as it’s thought to be over a thousand years old. In general Matsuri Festivals have agrarian roots dating back to the Yayoi period (300 B.C.) Explanations include hope for a good rice harvest, the end of the rainy season and hence the end of the mosquito/cholera season (this used to be quite a problem so it’s likely that they were celebrating having lived through it another year), and just because it’s summer. Basically, local community groups sponsor the construction of different wooden carts that are built and put on display over a week long period. At the end of the week these massive 2 to 3 story carts are hauled hand and foot (via the folks that built it) through down town Kyoto in a Parade. Some of the carts are simply frames with large hanging lanterns while others are very elaborate and hold a group of musicians on the top that play the special gion festival music (basically bells and drums with some chanting); see the photo below.

This past weekend I hooked up with some of my “old” NHMJ buddies (these are engineers from the first part of my trip) to travel to Hiroshima and Fukuoka. Hiroshima is of course the site of the first use of an Atomic Bomb (in an actual attack rather than a test) during World War II. Regardless of weather or not one agrees with the use of the first atomic weapons, the impact ofvisiting the International Peace Park and ruins located at ground zero is a bit beyond description; aside from that I don’t feel it appropriate to use this website to force my opinions on anyone. Even if I did express an opinion, given the magnitude and significance of the history of this city and as is typically the case, some one has almost assuredly said it better and more wisely. I’ll simply quote the plaque located at the A-bomb dome:

“The A-bomb dome is the ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall which was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever to be used in the history of humankind on August 6, 1945. The atomic bomb was detonated in the air at an altitude of 600 meters almost right over the hall. The explosion by a single bomb claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and the city area of about 2-km radius was turned into ashes. In order to have this tragic fact known to succeeding generations and to make it a lesson for humankind, the reinforcement work of the ruins has been done by the contributions of many people who desire peace within and out of the country. The ruins shall be preserved forever.

August 6, 1967 Hiroshima City”

One of the great things about being human is our ability to heal both physically and emotionally. A good portion of the Peace Park and Memorial Museum are dedicated to chronicling the effects of the bomb and the remembrances of the people that did and did not survive. However an equal portion is dedicated towards a sense of hope that history will not repeat itself and that atomic weaponry soon becomes a thing of the past. The photo of the paper cranes is at a children’s memorial dedicated to children killed during andafter the blast. The memorial in particular is meant to reflect the story of a little girl who died of leukemia a few years after the attack. During her sickness she began to fold paper origami cranes in keeping with an old Buddhist custom of granting a wish for folding 1001 of them. When she eventually passed away the story of the cranes had spread and became a symbol for all the children lost in the attack. Today visitors to the memorial either purchase or make strings of cranes and place them there. The photo of the dragon is on the side of a massive drum donated to and located at the museum; I just thought it looked really cool.

Our next jaunt was to Miyajima Island in the Inland Sea of Japan across from Hiroshima. We took a cable car to almost the top of Mt. Misen and then hiked through a dense forest to the top and back to the main town. The photo is of me at the O-torii (big gate) to the main temple on the island (Itsukushima-jinja). According to legend the gate was constructed over the water as the island was considered so holy that only select monks were aloud to set foot on it. In fact the walkways of the temple are still pile supported and over water not land; this was also taken to the extreme that no one was to be born or die on the island i.e. no elderly or pregnant folks aloud. However, these days the tourist dollar prevails and you can “walk all over” the island.

There isn’t much to report on Fukuoka other than that I wasn’t swept away in the flood that hit the city the day we arrived. We had a great time tooling around town but were pretty much drenched the whole time; I can just imagine what my shoes will smell like if/when they dry out. We also stayed in a traditional Japanese style hotel (Ryokan) because they’re fun and typicallycheaper than anything else; we had the distinct pleasure of sharing our environs with about forty 10 year olds from a visiting little league team (they sure did run around a lot, very late, and very early).

That’s all for now; hope everyone is well; miss you all very much.

Matt


Gion Matsuri, Kyoto, Japan, July 2003


O-torii at Itsukushima-ji, Miyajima, Japan, July 2003


River Hike down Mt. Misen, Miyajima, Japan, July 2003


A-bomb Dome, Hiroshima, Japan, July 2003


Side of Peace Drum, Hiroshima, Japan, July 2003


Children's Peace Memorial, Hiroshima, Japan, July 2003

Japan - July 12, 2003

Hello all:


Just trying to keep in touch with another update from Japan...


This last week has been busy with all sorts of work to do in the lab; the testing program we've started is going well though and we are, for the moment, ahead of schedule. The folks I work for through a party welcoming me and wishing a recent departee from the lab well. We had a traditional dinner and drinks at a former sake (Japanese rice wine) factory; I finally got to give all the gifts I brought for them from Oregon which was a real hoot; the favorites were the OSU baseball hats; I didn't realize how big baseball is here is especially with the local team (Honshin Tigers) currently leading the league.


I was able to do some site seeing this weekend in Nara; a city to the South of Uji/Kyoto and yet another former capitol of Japan. All three of the photos are at one of the temples we visited called Todai-ji. This temple is the largest wooden structure in the world and houses the largest Buddha statue (Daibuhtsu-den) in Japan. Other cool sites in Nara included a park with hundreds of tame deer; they're considered to be a sort of national treasure and there are little old ladies all over the place selling packets of crackers to feed to the deer; very interesting to pet a +200 lb. buck with a full set of antlers. We also visited a stamp shop (not postage); as it turns out, in Japan stamps bearing one's family name are used in the same way we use our signatures in the states; on bank documents and the like your personal stamp is required; apparently forgery is "avoided" by having your stamp custom made with subtle variations in the characters. Having an Angloname I had to settle for something close but not exactly my name (Mathew = Mashu in Japanese). The closest the proprietor could come to Mashu was Masio (pronounced basically the same way) meaning "true" (ma) "salt" (sio); you can interpret that any way you like :)


The international dormitory I've been living in has been working out great; I'll post photos of that next time. Incidentally I can receive phone calls there free of charge (to me anyway) so please feel free to email me and I'll send you the number. Well, that's all for now. Please enjoy the pics and keep in touch. Cheers.


Matt or Mashu or Masio (take your pick)



Todai-ji Daibutsu-den Temple, Nara, Japan, July 2003


Namee, Adam, and Matt at the Daibuhtsu-den, Nara, Japan, July 2003


Daibuhtsu or "Big Buhdda", Nara, Japan, July 2003

Japan Travel Log 2003

Hello and welcome to the Japan Travel Log for Matt Donahue.

The purpose of this website is to provide my family, friends, and colleagues with an easy way to keep in touch and up with my travels in Japan during summer 2003. A special thank you to all of them for their continued support.

The reason for my visit to Japan stems from acceptance to the East Asia Summer Institute 2003 program sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). My host institution during this program is the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of the Kyoto University Geomechanics Division directed by Dr. Susumu Iai with great assistance from Dr. Tetsuo Tobita. I was also able to participate in a joint program sponsored by Notre Dame University entitled Natural Hazards Mitigation in Japan (NHMJ) for the first two weeks of my trip. NHMJ is headed up by Dr. Yahya C. Kurama of Notre Dame University.

The information contained herein is a combination of anecdotal travel stories, technical information on my research, program reports, and photos concerning all of the above. In addition to participating in NHMJ/EASI I'm also currently a graduate student at Oregon State University (OSU) pursuing a masters degree in structural/ earthquake engineering and should be finished by November 2003. My work at OSU is supported by Drs. Tom Miller, Steve Dickenson, and Solomon Yim.

So, enjoy and please feel free to drop a line with any comments, corrections or questions.

Matt Donahue
Uji, Japan
July 2003


Nijo-jo, Kyoto, Japan, July 2003