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Published: November 15th 2010
Hiroshima
We caught the local train from Kanzawa and switched at Shin-Osaka for the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Once checked in, some of us caught the tram to the Peace Park. At the entrance to the park is the building above which the first atomic bomb exploded leaving the building partial damaged, but the surrounding area was completely flattened. The museum is well laid out with the before and after story, coming out you feel a bit depressed. From here we decided to walk the couple of miles back to the hotel. We'd not had lunch so followed a sign for an indoor market. Here there was plenty of choice to eat but decided on McD's (I don't like visiting chain food outlets but I have to say you know what you're getting at Mac's). The area behind the hotel is very lively but a bit seedy. That evening we got tickets to go to a baseball match being played at the Mazda stadium. This was good fun, a real family affair, the crowds were well behaved.
30.08.10
This morning we visited the Mazda museum. Some really nice cars (never thought about buying a Mazda).
One question the tour guide couldn't answer was if their revolutionary rotary engine was more powerful and fuel efficient why wasn't it used in other cars apart from the V6 something or other. I was a bit disappointed with the semi-automated assembly line as we were high on a gang plank and didn't really see much we couldn't take photos either.
In the afternoon we travelled by local train and ferry to visited the island of Miyajima, specifically the Daisho-in temple. Izi and Amy had forgone the Mazda trip and come to the island earlier and had hiked up one of the hills for the views, we'd have liked to do this but didn't have the time. The part of the island that we saw looked really good and probably needed a day or so to fully appreciate. We were told not to leave anything loose in our hands as the local deer would eat it. On this note I do remember a babies pram with a magazine left in it that the deer had a go at.
That evening some of us ate in a curry house called Coco's, it's a national chain. You choose the ingredients
i.e. chicken or fish or prawns etc. then you select the chilli level. Most people selected level 3 I think, and I had 4, The scale went up to 7. The curry was "chip shop" quality but OK. Once back at the hotel Tom took off somewhere. We are guessing he has a girl friend in every town/city as in every location he has one night where he doesn't join us for dinner, on the other hand maybe he need to get away from us.
Observations
• Nicole thinks I'm an alcoholic
• Ian and I are always up for some plum wine
• We all seem to be getting along very well
• The JLR trains have monitors that display adverts, can't recall the full advert but some of us were puzzled over the one with the gorilla.
• Tom explained that the trains have the next destination in Japanese, Chinese and spoken Chinese
• I'm not to taken with Japanese food
Next stop is Kurashiki.
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