Busan -- Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival

Daeboreum, (대보름), which means Great Full Moon, celebrates the first full moon of the lunar calendar.  Originally, farmers burned away the dry grass between their rice fields in order to rid them of insects before planting new crops.  Nowadays, large piles of bamboo and straw are burned for good health and fortune in the coming year.

There were bonfires to be found everywhere in Korea, but we, (Caroline, Kristin, Josh and myself), opted for Gwangalli Beach in Busan.  The festivities were not set to kick off until the evening, so we decided to walk around and enjoy the scenery.

just building a bridge

who put that hill there?

this is probably 1/3 of the total length

Josh and I really had our hearts set on getting to the top floor of one of these shiny buildings.  His plan, which I fully supported, was to just show up and knock on doors until someone answered.  We'd then tell them that we were English teachers and we wanted to photograph their condo for a lesson about the different rooms in a house.  We never made it to the buildings though because they were much further away than they originally appeared to be.  We started out walking in their general direction but then gave up when we realized that swimming there was probably the quickest option.

I'm not sure who this guy is but I'd like to shake his hand

Back down at the beach, the final preparations were in place, and the pile was set to become a torch.  I should mention that before the fire is lit, people offer something to the fire.  Some offerings consisted of fruits.  Others were written messages that were tied to a rope.

Some offerings appeared to be empty bottles of water, soju, and makgeolli, (or maybe just trash).

Caroline and Kristin tying one on

The beach became a fireball, as ash and god knows what else rained down all over us.  Some people began to join hands and dance around the fire while others rushed in to hurl their final offerings into the inferno.  Police officers formed a perimeter and politely blew whistles if anyone approached the blaze, (they didn't stop anyone, they just blew on their whistles to let the perpetrator know that it was being passively frowned upon).  We hung around for a while, (until the scent shifted from bonfire to garbage), and then made our way back to Daegu.

A Chance Encounter

I almost forgot about our encounter with an extremely rare, (thought to be extinct and certainly not indigenous to this part of the world), Blue Toed Wild Josh.

This poor little guy was more afraid of us than we were of him so we did the best we could to release him back into the wild.

Osaka

Osaka marked the end of our short journey through Japan, and we were really beginning to feel the effects of consecutive ten and twelve hour days.  There were only a few things that we had really planned to do in Osaka, visit the castle, scoop the aquarium, and sample the food, (Osaka is known for being Japan's culinary capital).  It was nice to retreat to our hostel, (which was really nice and centrally located), for some afternoon reading/napping before heading back out for dinner at night.

Osaka Castle

Completed in 1597, Osaka Castle became the headquarters for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and played a key role in Japan's unification.  All eight floors of the castle now serve as a museum and most of the exhibitions serve to highlight the Siege of Osaka.  I love history, but I was a little disappointed that the entire museum focused mainly on the siege and eventual fall of the castle.  I was hoping for a semblance of what life was like inside of the castle while it was still being used to house the Shogun.

The Siege of Osaka

Freaky Deaky

Osaka Aquarium is one of the largest aquariums in the world, with 11,000 tons of water, also home to one of the largest Pacific tanks and a whale shark.  I like sea creatures because they look really strange.  It's almost like going to the circus or walking on the boardwalk at coney island.

What are you?

not freaky.  just coral

Grow some limbs.

no face

clown fish

Highs and Lows

When we weren't busy mingling underwater, Caroline and I were spending our time going to top of things.  Such things being the Umeda Sky Building and the world's (2nd) largest Ferris Wheel.

You ascend from the 35th floor to the 40th floor on an escalator that spans the gap between the two buildings.

The Ferris Wheel wasn't as scary as we wanted it to be.  It was so smooth that we hardly noticed when we'd reached the top.  Not as exciting as the one in Chicago where 40 mph winds are peppering the carriage the whole way round.

We didn't ride this but I wanted to post a picture of the half roller coaster/half Ferris Wheel that was situated on top of a 5 story building.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima.  The name alone carries a weight that's grown heavier since my visit, but I'm not going to use an internet blog as a podium to speak out against war or nuclear weapons or horrific acts of violence.  The Peace Museum did an excellent job painting the full picture, not solely focusing on the horrors of the bomb and it's aftermath, but also denouncing the atrocities carried out by an imperialistic Japan.  The museum simply presented the facts and I aim to do the same thing.

In the picture above, you can see the Atomic Bomb Dome, which stands about 500 feet away from the bomb's hypocenter.  The skeletal remains of this building, where all of the people inside were instantly vaporized, is the most recognizable symbol of Hiroshima and The Bomb.

"Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death"

-Japanese radio broadcast

-- The radius of complete and utter destruction was 1 mile

-- Fires covered close to 5 sq miles and ravaged the city

-- Almost 70% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed

-- 70,000-80,000 people, roughly 30% of the city's population, were killed**

**This was the worst statistic for me.  Most people are led to believe that the bomb instantly killed it's victims.  This is false.  Most people suffered for 2 or 3 days before succumbing to their injuries and the injuries were horrific.  The fireball that swept through the city burned some people alive, melted flesh, flash burned dyes from clothing into skin.  The photos were horrific and difficult to look at.  Because of the hypocenter's proximity to downtown, 90% of the city's doctors and nurses were killed instantly.  Of the 80,000 casualties, only 20,000 were soldiers, the rest were women, school children, the elderly, and Korean laborers.

Although the museum offered some harrowing tales and images of the victims, it's true mission is imagining a world without nuclear weapons.  Whenever a country carries out a nuclear test, Hiroshima's mayor writes a letter of protest to that country's head of state, pleading for disarmament.

-- This part was particularly embarrassing as the US dominated this section with 232 letters total, nearly 50 greater than the next highest total, Russia, (though only a handful of letters have gone to Russia since the Cold War ended, the US remains consistent).  

-- In one term, Obama's presidency has accumulated only one less letter than G.W. Bush did in two terms.

-- Only 4 countries received letters since the year 2000, USA (16), Russia (4), UK (2), DPRK (3).

-- Both Iraq and Iran have never received a letter of protest

The United States and Russia are the only two states with significantly large numbers of stockpiled nuclear weapons, (no doubt because of the Cold War).  

-- The US has approx 2150 active weapons

-- Russia has approx 1740 active weapons

-- No other country has more than 300 (France)

-- To this day, both Iraq and Iran have 0 active or inactive nuclear warheads

-- It's believed that Israel has approx 300, though they continually refuse to confirm or deny this

I realize that complete disarmament would require a very specific level of peaceful existence between nations; one that has probably never existed for as long as man has been civilized. But after viewing the atrocities of The Bomb, (which has evolved into an even more calculated machine of death and destruction), I hope we never witness those horrors again.