Arrived in Hiroshima

Hiroshima, Japan

Quick intro: We took the high speed train from Kyoto to Hiroshima yesterday. Today, we toured the Mazda factory, and then paid a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum. Hiroshima is a beautiful city, with many bridges, excellent restaurants, shopping, and over 4000 bars!!!

More info to follow…

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We took a highspeed train from Kyoto to Hiroshima. These trains go so fast, that it feels like you’re taking off in a jet airplane. Very smooth and quiet too. Within 1 3/4 hours, we were in Hiroshima.

We spent 2 nights in Hiroshima. The main purpose of our visit was to see the Hiroshima Peace memorial, but we were also impressed by how beautiful the city has become, and how hopping their entertainment district is.

The peace memorial museum has been set up to commemorate what happened leading up to, and following, the A-bomb. It was very moving. We were very glad we went. Some of the exhibits really hit hard with their graphic display of the aftermath, but that’s the truth of nuclear war. It’s ugly.

Hiroshima as a city is very beautiful, with its two rivers, many bridges, and long pedestrian malls. The entertainment district consisted of about 5×6 blocks, of multi-story buildings, totalling ~4000 bars! Quite intimidating trying to figure out which ones are suitable for foreigners. We thought it would be great challenge for the amazing race: “Teams must search the bars of Hiroshima to find their next clue”.

01 Hiroshima A-Bomb DomeThe Atomic Bomb Dome is the permanent memorial to the unimaginably horrific event of Aug 6, 1945. This building was roughly located at ground zero. An estimated 200,000 people died and 80% of the city was destroyed in the first atomic weapon to be unleashed on a city. Several 10's of thousands died in the weeks, months and years after the blast from radiation sickness and cancer. Hiroshima has been completely rebuilt today and has created a Peace Memorial below the blast that serves as a powerful reminder to the world what must never happen again.

02 Peace BellA solemn moment of contemplation as Jo rings the Peace Bell.

03 Hirsoshima pubThis was a cool little pub in the heart of Hiroshima's bar district. You have to see Hiroshima's bar distric to believe it. Apparently 5000 pubs in a 10 by 10 block area. The bar tender in the back ground could speak perfect English from working 20 years behind the bar serving the many tourists that popped in. She also had a selection of several thousand CD's and took our requests without missing a beat. The only thing not so great about the pub was that was infested (and I mean infested), with cockroaches. Egad, they were scurying everywhere.

04 Mazda MuseumHiroshima is also home to the mega-Mazda plant. It's got it's own power plant, water purification plant, and private traffic bridge along with a mighty impressive flexible assembly line. They let us in, but wouldn't let us take many pictures. The rotary wenkel engine is king!