What is Peace??? Japan Day 7... the blog :) || Rylen & Bo

Kyoto Day 7 | Rylen & Bo

Gomenasai for such a late blog post, as it's nearing the end of this amazing trip. My name is Rylen Koshi and I am a rising junior at Waimea High School on the island of Kauai. People such as I (Rylen) are feeling quite sick, tired, and generally exhausted. However, our blog post will focus on our last day in Kyoto. My name is Andrew “Bo” Lasher, also a rising junior at Assets High School on Oahu.

I, Rylen, will cover the first half of the day as I felt the best then and really got to experience this. Bo will cover the later half along with lunch. Then we asked students what “Peace felt like to them”. 

The day started with rainy weather which was quite beautiful whilst also being quite inconvenient. We took the bus to the golden pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) which was supposed to be a place of peace and quite but ended up being more of a loud, busy, tourist attraction which was quite interesting to me. As the pavilion was beautiful and all of the plants and foliage were serene. The people however were all fighting for their Instagram photo was the exact opposite of calm. Reflecting upon this I like to think that some places should have more rules to retain the original intent of the place. As pretty as the temple was, there was very little time to reflect and slow down.

The next destination was the Ryōan-ji, a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto. There are 15 rocks arranged strategically so that only 14 rocks can be seen from any given angle. [theories on what that means] This was the main attraction of the temple but I found the most enjoyable and introspective time I had at this temple was on the other three sides of the building. These sides allowed me to view nature and reflect on my time and thoughts in a place that was actually peaceful. Even though this place was crowded everyone spoke softly just enjoyin
g the area around us and the beautiful nature that surrounded the building.

After the Ryōan-ji, we took the bus and walked over to Kura Sushi - Nijo, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. There are small plates of sushi going around a belt enclosed by tables, each plate of sushi costing ¥120, and if you eat five plates you have a chance at winning a free Gacha. On the side of the table is a tablet where you can order and select specific sushi, sides, drinks, and desserts. My (Bo) table ate a total of 38 plates and we only ended up winning once 🥲. Marc and Joshua alone ate the most amount of plates, roughly being a combined total of 40! All of our table bills came out to a little over ¥10,000! That may seem like a lot, but for some decently good sushi in my opinion (Bo), and each table having six people, that’s pretty cheap.

With our spirits high and bellies a little too full, it was a short walk through Kyoto’s less bustling streets to get to our next destination: the Kyoto Museum for World Peace. Sadly we couldn't take any photos for legal reasons, so we encourage you, the reader if you haven't already, to come to Kyoto and see the Museum yourself. 

Here is a link to the website: Link Here 

We had a conversation with Dr. Kazuyo Yamane, who is the daughter of both sides of the war. Her father was from Japan and a survivor of the Hiroshima bombings whilst her mother is a Japanese-American. After this short introduction Dr. Kazuyo opened up the floor for us to ask questions. A plethora of questions were asked but one that stuck out to me was about how Japan with-holds major events from reaching a normal citizen. The example used was the Fukushima nuclear dumping incident was not reported by news companies, they work closely with the government, and because the normal Japanese citizen tends to work long hours they do not have time to research these events themselves. You could tie this in with the peace of mind of a Japanese citizen; imagine finding out information that could possibly affect your everyday life is being with-held by the very government that you work your butt off for. Especially when the nuclear waste could be treated to be safe but the politicians are cheap. - Rylen

For dinner we went to eat at a Kushi Katsu restaurant. If you're like me (Rylen) then you probably don’t know what Kushi Katsu is. This meal was one where you had a buffet of ingredients that you got to batter, bread, and fry yourself in front of you. It was really fun and I got to watch as the people who had more cooking knowledge helped out the people who had less experience in the kitchen. After this meal the others went to play at the nearby arcade and I passed out on the dinner bench (because I was sick). 

While going to dinner we passed by multiple Gachas, claw machines, and arcade games that stuck in the back of my (Bo) head all dinner. After dinner we asked the chaperones if we could have some fun at the arcade and they said yes, but we only had about 20 minutes before we had to leave. Myself (Bo) went straight to the Gachas and claw machines. Wasted about ¥1000 on claw machines, bought some candy, and got some Gacha for my friends. It was rough trying to get everyone back into a group on time to go to the hotel because many split up. Didn’t help that we had to pack our check-in luggage that night before curfew due to lack of hotel staff and that we wouldn’t see that luggage until we got to Fukuoka the day after Himeji.

In conclusion today really looked into the idea of "Peace" and what it means to feel at peace. Wether that be internal (calm, relaxed, not threatened, or how you feel when you think of peace) or external (lack of war, violence, safe in your home or community, or how you are physically). Because it seems everyone has a different idea to what peace means to them we asked our peers and also ask the reader to comment on what peace means to them.

"I felt peaceful when walking in nature. it made me take a step back from my personal life and focus on the bigger things in life. my idea of peace is the absence of conflict and uncomfortableness" - Ari R.

"I felt at peace during dinner time when I went out to the balcony by the bathrooms; I just needed the fresh air." - Hayden T.

"I felt at peace during the bus ride while looking at the different buildings & the rain falling down." Allison I.