The Korean Tea Experience

 Today's first tour in Korea took us to a tea plantation in Boseong called Daehan Dawon. It is the most historic and the oldest tea plantation in Korea, established in 1939. It produces almost one-third of all the green tea sold in South Korea, and was opened to the public as a park in 1957, after the Korean War.

The bus ride was a long one, over an hour, but it was both scenic and an opportunity to take a nap, whichever was more to everyone's liking - except, of course, that the tour guide had to be giving us information about Korea almost the whole way.

Our first stop was for the tea tasting at the Tea Museum, Tea House and Shop called Botjae not far from the plantation. Our guide rightfully suggested we do this first as it would get busier through the day and some teas might also sell out at the shop. She explained that there are three types of green tea, the quality dependent on how large the leaves are when they are harvested. The tiniest leaves make the tea called 'Ujeon' or 'pre-rain tender buds'. This is the highest quality and is only picked before mid-April. The next type is 'Sejak' or 'early spring sparrow-beak leaves', picked late April to early May. After this come the 'regular' green teas.

We had pre-ordered a tea set on the bus and once we arrived our orders were placed and we picked up our trays. Our tray for two included the pot for brewing, extra hot water, two small cups and some Korean confections to have with it. At first we couldn't figure out what the second cup in the middle was. The instructions for preparing and drinking were a little confusing, but we finally understood that the tea should only steep for 2 minutes and then be poured into the large cup. Then more water went over the tea leaves while we drank the first pour into our small cups. It was quite interesting and delicious.

Our Ujeon tea steeping

After our tea we went into the shop and discovered that there are more uses for green tea than we had ever imagined, everything from hand cream to shampoo. And our guide suggested that we could use steeped tea leaves chopped up in pancakes or even as a facial pack. We did buy some Ujeon and Sejak loose teas to drink at home. After this interlude, we headed back to the bus and across the street to the tea plantation, Daehan Dawon.

The view of the plantation from Botjae

Once we arrived at Daehan Dawon, there was a bit of confusion about bus parking, and our driver wouldn't admit that he didn't know where he was supposed to be. Too bad that some of our other guests saw that he was using a navigation app all the way from the port. Our guide got some spotty information and it was a few more minutes, and a disembarkation and re-embarkation of the bus, to finally get us to the right place to enter the plantation for our walk.

We certainly weren't prepared for the hills at the plantation. Our guide had been instructed to take those who wanted to go to the highest point. We got most of the way up, but when the path and stairs got so steep that we wondered how we would get back down, we gave up and did our own walk along the pathways.

Small leaves on the tea plants. We were just at the end
of the Ujeon season; they were probably picking the
Sejak tea leaves by this time.

Larry making his way down the hill from a higher
path. It is quite steep everywhere!

The tea leaves are picked early in the morning, before the dew has a chance to evaporate. Huge numbers of workers come into the plantation and pick for a couple of hours every day.

It was a very interesting tour, although we had thought we'd see how the tea leaves were processed after picking, so that was a bit of a disappointment. On the way back to the bus, however, we stopped at one of the shops and bought some famous green tea ice cream and ate it as we walked.

You all know we don't like to take selfies -
except in certain circumstances!

Once we got back to the bus we had another hour and a bit to get back to the port. Time to rest our legs and try to nap a little.

Our next stop was Jeju Island. Unfortunately on the drive back from the plantation I developed a dry throat, and by the next morning it had turned into a head cold, probably related to the rainy weather in Hiroshima. We didn't really want to start giving a cold to anyone so we stayed on board, missing the Tae-kwon-do exhibition, which, according to reports was very good. Oh, well. We hoped we would both be good for the all-day tour to Seoul from Incheon.

Shimonoseki Samurai Heritage

 We were hoping to have left the rain behind by the time we reached Shimonoseki; it turned out to be a perfect day. The captain had announced before we left Hiroshima that instead of docking at Moji as originally planned, we would be on the other side of the Kanmon Strait that separates Japan's largest island of Honshu from Kyushu.

Our excursion was the Shimonoseki Heritage Tour. We lucked out with our guide - she was married to an American who taught English at a school where they preferred that he didn't know Japanese so he wouldn't be tempted to talk to the students in their native language. Her English was great, and she had some amusing stories to tell.

Shimonoseki is the hub of Samurai heritage in Japan, where the Samurai rule was established, and where it ended. We visited two temples, one with significance to the beginning and one to the end.

Our first stop was at Kozan-ji temple, founded in 1327, and it is the oldest example of the Zen Buddhist architecture style in Japan. Its main temple or Butsuden, is the oldest building of this design in Japan.

Main Gate to the Temple

The temple's claim to fame is that Samurai Takasugi Shinsaku used it as a base to collect and train a rebel army to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate. Recall from earlier posts that this was the family that ruled Japan for over 200 years and kept it in isolation from the rest of the world.

The temple bell and the statue.

A statue of Takasugi on horseback to 
commemorate his work for Japan's
freedom from the Shogunate

A side temple on the site along
with some lovely blooming wisteria.

Takasugi was the first to create an auxiliary militia, allowing everyday Japanese men of all classes to own weapons. Only samurai who would have to be loyal to the shogunate were allowed to do so under the feudal system. He saw the advantages to using the financial wealth of merchants and farmers to support improving military strength without depleting the domain's finances to do so. After Japan was invaded by an international fleet of warships in 1864, the leaders of the shogunate realized that their military was woefully inferior and called on Takasugi to lead its reform, and also to negotiate peace with the British, American, French and Dutch who had invaded. Ultimately after much fighting between the conservative factions and the modernized military led by Takasugi, a civil war broke out between two of the domains or provinces in the shogunate in 1865 and led finally to victory over the shogunate's forces. Their discredit was strong enough for other domains to adopt Takasugi's military framework and the Tokugawa dynasty was overthrown. After this Emperor Meiji took the throne and the Meiji Restoration began in 1868.

Takasugi died at age 27 in 1867, so he never saw his dream of defeating the shogunate come true. He certainly achieved a lot in such a short life, and should possibly be more celebrated than he is.

So this visit defined the end of the shogun rule for us. Our walk back to the bus took us through a residential district that had been occupied by samurai warriors in the 1800s. It is a very interesting neighbourhood with some of the houses dating back from that time.

Everyone associates Japanese gardens with the colourful koi fish. They are actually a species of carp and are bred to have different colorations. They are considered sacred in Japanese culture, so they are always found in the ponds near temples and shrines. In this case they were also in a stream that runs alongside the road in this samurai neighbourhood. Koi fish are known as 'living jewels', and some of them can have the price of a substantial sized diamond. If you manage to raise a large multi-coloured koi you might sell it for up to one million dollars!

We found a couple of other interesting things in the neighbourhood as well. When we left the temple we found a vending machine outside a nearby building, decorated on the side with a samurai warrior.

Japan is known for vending machines selling everything from drinks to ready-to-eat noodle bowls. Quite often you'll see banks of 4 or 5 machines together on a street corner, and many convenience stores are famous for having aisles full of them. One of our tour guides mentioned that there is approximately 1 vending machine per 23 Japanese people. Considering there are 122 million people in Japan, that's 5.3 million machines!

The other thing we discovered was that Shimonoseki is the pufferfish capital of Japan. Our guide told us that it takes quite a total of 7 years for someone to become licensed to prepare it, known as fugu fish for those who consume it as sashimi. There are major exams to be taken and at least 3 years of on-the-job-training under a licensed chef before you can be trusted to remove the poisonous parts of the fish and serve it. Apparently about 5 tons of pufferfish is brought in every day to support the demand in Japan. We found all sorts of puffer-related things in the area:

A Japan Post mailbox in the samurai area
with a pufferfish on top

The manhole covers in the area with
pufferfish on them

And even the upholstery on our bus
seats had pufferfish on it

and ultimately, a lovely pufferfish platter
at the local fish market. The price converts
to about $108 CDN.

Our next stop was at the Chofuteien. This garden once belonged to one of the vice-leaders of the Chofu clan, the conservative shogunate leaders that Takasugi fought against. The gardens were only opened in 1993, but some of the buildings date back to the 1600-1800s.

The Shōin, or old residence

The whole garden is quite beautiful, especially
in the sunshine!

Stonework depicting all sorts of 
Japanese motifs like dragons and lanterns

More views around the pond

These storehouses date back over
200 years

Yes, we were here!

It was a lovely interlude, especially after the rain we had at the garden in Hiroshima. After our half an hour here we headed for the bus again and our final stop at an important shrine by the strait.

As we sailed in to the port, I noticed
a bright red temple and took some
video and photos...

...and then I discovered that it was one of the places we would be visiting on our tour! But first, our guide gave us some interesting information about the Kanmon Strait. Not only is it very narrow, but when the tides go in and out every 6 hours, the direction of flow of the water changes from eastbound to westbound and back again. And the current can be quite strong. Along with the standard navigation aids there are signs indicating which direction the water is flowing and the strength of the current on a scale from 1 to 10. Anything above 8 and no ships are allowed into the strait as it is dangerous for navigation. We've never seen this anywhere else.

Our final visit here was the Akama-jingu Shrine. The significance of this place has to do with the beginning of the samurai period in Japan. According to our guide, the legend is that in the late 1100s there were two warring clans in the Imperial House of Japan. The problem for 8-year old Emperor Antoku and his regents was the the clan of his cousin, who was only 2 years old himself, and excluded from the line of succession, wanted to fight for his right to rule. After a number of skirmishes, the cousin's side began to gain strength and, rather than have her grandson be taken by the enemy and killed mercilessly, Antoku's grandmother took him into the Kanmon Strait and drowned them both. A fisherman caught the small emperor's body in his net not long afterward, and the shrine was erected to him at that spot. The cousin's clan was the first to establish a shogunate in Japan not long after Antoku's death. The Shogun were the military rulers of Japan and the samurai were their retainers, maintaining control over the country.

This fresco on the shrine gate is of Antoku on horseback

Antoku's grave is behind these doors. The chrysanthemum motif
on the doors is reserved only for the emperor as we've seen
in other places. The ONLY person ever allowed beyond
these doors is the current Emperor of Japan.

Before we left the pier, we were treated to some local music and dance. It was interesting to watch the drummers take turns about every five minutes beating out the rhythm; it must be quite a strenuous job!

Another very interesting port! Next up was Yeosu, South Korea, our first stop of four in that country.

A Sombre Visit to Hiroshima

 The Crystal Weather Bubble finally broke as we headed toward Hiroshima. The captain had said there was rain in the forecast, but we think he may have understated the amount. It wasn't raining really hard, but it was constant, and it didn't take long for our feet to be soaked through our shoes. Good thing we had rain jackets and our umbrella with us! Larry was looking forward to this visit, so he'll start us off.

Our sail in to the harbour. Those flat floating docks
are oyster beds. Hiroshima is the capital of oyster
production in Japan

Sitting in the bus as we waited to leave for the tour

As the bus drove us into the city, our local guide, a pleasant young lady, explained some of Hiroshima's history, and also some of the wartime experiences, as well as what to expect from the tour. I had recently re-read a book, 140 Days to Hiroshima, so the history was fresh in my mind. 

The Enola Gay's "aiming point" for the bomb drop was a very distinctive T-shaped bridge. As we stepped off the bus beside the Atom Bomb Dome, I realized we were standing on that bridge, in almost that very spot! I had seen pictures of the Dome, but had no idea of its relative position. The bomb exploded 3,800 feet above ground about 500 yards to the right of the bridge, not bad aiming from 35,000 feet. 

The actual "Hypocentre", or Ground Zero was directly over a building whose roof is now painted robin's egg blue for easy identification, and about 250 yards further to the right of the Dome. That building, and the Dome were among only five buildings to survive within a five kilometre radius of the blast, and all were heavily damaged. The bomb exploded with a force estimated at 12,000 tons of TNT, and because it was an air blast, the force of the downdraft hit the ground and "bounced" over the buildings, instantly killing everyone in them. It is estimated that 80,000 people died instantly, or within hours of the blast, primarily from burns, with total casualties of approximately 140,000 by the end of 1945.

Some stone markers on the riverside nearby. We
don't know exactly what they commemorate.

After the war, when the government started to think about rebuilding the city, the plan had been to tear down the Dome, but it was decided to retain it, and reinforce it, as a monument to those who died in the attack. Interestingly, the building with the blue roof was saved and is now an office building for an insurance company!

This upside down pagoda is the Monument to the Mobilized Children. In 1944 there was a labour shortage in Japan, so students at high-school level were required to perform labour service as part of their school time. After November, 1944, many of them were sent out to tear down old houses, most of which were made of wood and paper, to create fire breaks in case of air attack. About 6,300 of these students died in the blast. As there was no place to commemorate these children, especially those who couldn't be identified, the bereaved families started a movement to collect funds and built this tower.

This is the Sadako Memorial, named for Sadako Sasaki, a young survivor who later contracted leukemia. Japanese tradition says that if you fold 1,000 origami paper cranes your wish will come true. Sadako folded 1,000, and when her disease persisted, she folded over 1,000 more before she died. Now every year school children from all over Japan are brought to Hiroshima so that they will understand the cost of war and they bring paper cranes to adorn both monuments.

Some call this the Eternal Flame, but in fact it is the Peace Flame, meant to be extinguished when the last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed. Maybe Eternal Flame is a more realistic name, given the current state of the world.

The Hiroshima Memorial is at the end of the path through the park in front of the Peace Museum. The box under the arch contains the names of all of the known victims of the attack, including ironically, the names of three US POWs who were killed in the blast! Why Hiroshima?? The Americans had four cities listed as possible targets for the first bomb and required four conditions; surrounded by mountains to concentrate the blast, military significance, had not previously been attacked, and had no known POW facilities nearby. Hiroshima best fit the criteria, except for the 12 POWS. Ironically the surviving POWs were taken to Nagasaki after the attack where they were bombed three days later, and actually survived!

After our sombre "walk in the rain", we next visited The Peace Memorial Museum, which contains the records of the attack. The first thing you see is a picture of a clock stopped at 8:15 AM, August 6/45, the exact moment of the explosion. This is followed by a  floor mounted "video simulation" that starts with an overhead shot of Hiroshima that morning, followed by the sound of aircraft engines, with the Little Man bomb, named for FDR, falling through and exploding, followed by film shot from the B29 Enola Gay of the mushroom cloud as it boiled into the sky!!

This is a dioramic picture taken days after the attack. I have seen similar pictures taken from the air, and they do not do justice to the total destruction.

 

We had decided that, much like our visit to Auschwitz back in 2019, that we would not take pictures in the museum. It just did not feel right to us, though many were taken by others. This one was the exception as I had read about its existence. What many do not realize is the in the moment of the initial explosion, anyone within the immediate area of Ground Zero simply ceased to exist, vaporised by the heat of the blast, estimated at over 2,000 degrees Celsius. It is speculated that this shadow is of a man sitting on the steps of a bank waiting for it to open. He disappeared, but his shadow remains etched in the marble of the steps and it is much more obvious in this picture than it was in person!

We spent more than an hour slowly walking through the displays, some more than a little painful to look at, especially pictures of the survivors and the burns and injuries they suffered in the attack.

Our guide was excellent, and she did not shy away from the hard question, how do the Japanese feel about the United States and the A-Bomb attacks. She said that for the most part the Japanese know that it was probably necessary to end the war. She pulled out a picture of an eight year old boy in a "samurai-type" uniform standing at attention with his brother's dead body strapped to his back. He stares straight ahead, back and shoulders straight. She said that had the US invaded Japan, civilian casualties would have been in the thousands -I have seen estimates of over 1.5 million - and she pointed at the boy in the picture and said, he and other children like him would have paid that price.

A fountain outside of the opposite entrance to
the Museum and Peace Park.

We could call this photo that I took through
the rain spattered bus window
'The Tears of Hiroshima'

We're not sure of the specific meaning of this
monument, but it is situated along 'Peace Avenue'
and seems also to be dedicated to children.

Our second stop for the day - yes, we had yet another walk in the rain - was at Shukkeien Gardens, a large Japanese garden around a pond in the centre of the city. It is beautifully laid out, with a number of walking trails around the pond in the surrounding hills. We're sure it would look spectacular on a sunny day; even in the rather heavy rain - just take a look at the surface of the pond - it was lovely.

This garden actually dates from 1620, but it was destroyed during the atomic blast. The Hiroshima Prefecture Board of Education instituted the restoration of all of the buildings and plants to how they were prior to the bombing.

We wandered around the pond for about 45 minutes and then returned to the bus to head back to the ship.

If we had to have a rainy day, it was appropriate that it should be this one. We will also be visiting Nagasaki next week on the second leg of the cruise.