Japan Week 3: Memorials, Mountains, and Matsuri

Week three was the most hectic week (in a good way) so far, we visited Hiroshima which  was quiet, reflective, and emotionally heavy. Kyoto was crowded, energetic, and full of temples, festivals, lanterns, and a ridiculous amount of walking. 

Our first major stop in Hiroshima was the Peace Memorial Museum. I already knew the basic history of the atomic bombing, but the museum made it far more personal than any textbook ever could. Instead of only giving dates and casualty numbers, it showed what happened to individual people and families. There were stories of burned victims, people searching for relatives, and survivors who continued suffering physically and mentally long after the bombing itself.

At the same time, there were also stories of people trying to rebuild almost immediately. Engineers began working to restore the water system the day after the bombing. Survivors searched for relatives, helped strangers, and tried to return to daily life in a city that had almost completely disappeared. I would not describe those stories as uplifting exactly, but they showed how people continued moving even when there was very little left to move toward.

Outside the official excursions, Hiroshima felt calm compared with Tokyo and Kyoto. I visited Hiroshima Castle, walked through gardens, and spent time near the rivers. After the constant movement of Tokyo, the slower pace felt like a break. 

Kyoto and Nara had a completely different atmosphere. We visited Hōryū-ji, one of Japan’s oldest Buddhist temple complexes, built long before Kyoto became the political and cultural center people associate with traditional Japan today. Walking through it did not feel like visiting a reconstructed historical attraction. The buildings and statues had existed through generations of rulers, wars, disasters, repairs, and ordinary visitors. We also visited Tōdai-ji in Nara, home to the enormous Great Buddha. What interested me was not only the size of the statue, but the idea that parts of it have remained there for more than a thousand years. Outside the temple was a large bronze lantern that has also stood there for centuries. It has remained in the same place through rain, heat, political change, and thousands upon thousands of visitors. Every generation has approached the same temple, stood near the same lantern, and looked at many of the same objects.

My personal time in Kyoto was much less quiet. I hiked the full Fushimi Inari trail, which took around three hours and involved far more stairs than I expected. The lower section was packed with people taking photos under the famous red torii gates, but the crowds became thinner the higher I climbed. By the time I reached the quieter sections of the mountain, it felt completely different from the tourist entrance below.

I also visited Kiyomizu-dera and explored the streets around it. The area was crowded, but in a good way. There were traditional buildings, small shops, food stalls, people wearing yukata, and constant movement. It felt vibrant rather than chaotic. Kyoto is often described as a city of preserved history, but it did not feel frozen in the past. The old streets were still full of people eating, shopping, praying, taking photos, and simply enjoying themselves.

The highlight was Gion Matsuri. On the night of July 16, I somehow got the chance to climb onto one of the festival floats. From the street, the floats already looked huge, but standing on one made me notice the woodwork, fabric, decorations, and effort involved in maintaining them. The next morning, I watched the main procession and saw the floats being turned at intersections using bamboo and water. It was loud, crowded, hot, and exhausting, but also one of the most memorable things I have experienced in Japan.

Later, I also went to the Mitarashi Festival, which felt more local and relaxed. Between the festivals, temples, shrines, gardens, and the Fushimi Inari hike, Kyoto felt like a place where history was not only stored inside museums. It was still being used. People continued praying at old temples, carrying out festivals, maintaining floats, and walking through spaces that had existed for centuries.

Hiroshima and Kyoto preserved the past in very different ways. Hiroshima asked visitors to stop and confront destruction. Kyoto and Nara showed history continuing through buildings, rituals, festivals, and everyday use. One city felt peaceful because it had rebuilt after catastrophe; the other felt alive because old traditions were still moving through crowded streets.

By the end of the week, I was physically tired, especially after Fushimi Inari and Gion Matsuri, but it was probably the most varied week of the trip so far. I went from reading the diary of a bombing survivor to standing on a centuries-old festival float, from quiet Hiroshima rivers to packed Kyoto streets. More than anything, the week showed me that history does not survive in only one form. Sometimes it is preserved behind museum glass. Sometimes it is a temple, a lantern, a diary, or an old float being dragged through the city while thousands of people watch, there is about 2 weeks more left, and so far this trip has been a very educational and eye opening experience, I am a bit sad that we are already done with more than half of the trip but the memories I made are something that I could never forget.