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Hiroshima, Japan
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This place was Great
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I suppose everyone who visits Japan comes here, and its easy to see why. Not much to note when first arriving (not even a nice train station!) but a 20 min walk up the main street brings you to what its all about. Firstly is the A Bomb Dome, the bare remains of a once huge building that stood only 140 metres from the blast site. Its truly an awesome thing to stand in front of, especially when you read the accompanying notes. Moving on from here is the memorial area. A marble arch sits in front of a torch that will burn until the last atomic bomb is disarmed (could be burning a while). The whole area is surrounded by running water. Its actually quite emotional, especially when Japanese people stand and prayer at the shrine-its hard to be unmoved at the sight of an 80+ year old man standing in silence with his head bowed. On from this is the childrens memorial, a curved dome with a young girl stood on top releasing a bird. The area below is festooned with thousands of oragami works, sent here by local schools to remember the dead children. A wander round the Peace Memorial Museum was a quite harrowing ordeal-pictures taken in 1945 on the walls and other items from the time. Perhaps most poignant was a mans watch taht, though still in one piece, had stopped at 8:15, the time of the blast. I didnt stay here too long as it was really depressing and I didn`t wanna seem soft in front of the Germans and Americans (wonder if they feel even a little awkward-probably not!). Last stop was a look around a small undergound place dedicated to those who died-the walls were built from 140 thousand tiles (number who died)dipicting a panoramic view of the area before the blast.
On a lighter note, here are somemore observations about Japan:
*Taxi doors open and close themselves-you just get out and walk off
*Coca-Cola company makes soup and you can buy it in tins from vending machines (sweetcorn flavour and its very nice)
*Its the year 18 (though I cant elaborate as to why, or indeed 18what?!)
*All Japanese schoolgirls dress like extras from Britney Spears` video `Hit me baby one more time`. And no, its not attractive
*On the other hand, all schoolboys look like hotel porters!
*Despite being very technologically advanced, the automatic doors on japanese buildings open much slower than ours as you approach them (dont ask how I know this).
I think that`ll do for now!
Posted
Jan 22, 2006
by jeffcoe
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