ADVENTURES OF NIXON WEKU AFRICA

The first time they told the name Nippon/Nihon means 'the land of the rising sun' I just thought it was a nationalistic slogan, but as I stepped on to the train form the airport i saw the beautiful Japanese women in their Kimonos sitting next to women in modern business suits. The dance of modernity and tradition that i have only seen in Japan convinced me. Not only that my Hotel room in Shinjuku, had no bed but a traditional Japanese 'futon' on a read mat they call 'tatami' yet still the room was comfortable and air-conditioned keeping me safe from the August heat. The romantic blend of modernity and tradition made me feel like I was in the past and seeing the sun from the future rising in my full view. The men in traditional attires served 'ramen' in tiny alleyway restaurants of modern Tokyo. I had timed my visit so that i could be in Hiroshima on August six to commemorate the atomic bombing. On the bullet train I watched the city scape and the countryside as the train cruised on the magnetic railway lines like a giant snake sliding on the savanna grass in the plains of Africa and i said to myself " Africa has been in poverty for years yet Japan was just 60 years ago in the rubles of the war yet they have shaken off the dust and now they are watching the ever rising sun of prosperity on their horizon" I watched the peaceful Japanese people and I dosed of as I fantasized the 'African dream'. I was woken up by the hostess who served me "sushi". I enjoyed it and I reached for my phone and sent a picture of to my mother. who replied with a short text of surprise at me eating raw fish which in Zimbabwe is considered the worst food one can ever eat. I replied telling her how nice it was as we approached Hiroshima station. The night before the memorial I went out and walked out by the river seeing the leafless cherry trees and I thought they had been affected by the bombing only to be told they bloom only for one week in a year they are only indigenous to Japan. I ate a special type of food form Hiroshima called Okonomiyaki which they said was an adaptation food after the war. I talked to some random Japanese guy at the public bath/onsen and to my surprise though he was from Hiroshima to him there were many more things about Hiroshima than the bomb which he described as just a sad incident. He talked more about the industrial history of Hiroshima and its magical rise from the ashes of war and the famous Shinto temple which is a world heritage site.