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The robot in the Canal City shopping centre. Since our last blog entry we have experienced some feelings and seen some places that all world leaders should see and feel. This may sound like a dramatic opening and for someone who doesn’t normally take life too seriously it probably sounds sarcastic, but I’m being honest!
More of that later…..
After being templed out in Kyoto we were planning on heading to Nagasaki. However an 11th hour change of plan saw us stop off at Hakata and base ourselves there for 3 nights.
Hakata itself was dull. The main sightseeing activity as listed in the Lonely Planet is a shopping center! Admittedly this shopping center was quite funky, and had a robot that rumbled around helping shoppers by having a touchscreen information center in it’s chest! So very Japanese!
From Hakata we were able to take a day trip on the train to Beppu, which is famous for it’s Hells (geezer like hot water pools) and onzen (natural baths). We visited a couple of the Hells which were all very nice although did have a certain theme park air to them (this was after I’d make a complete idiot of myself on the bus!).
After lunch we
thought that we’d visit, just as a break from the touristy things, a sex museum. We thought that this might have been a bit of fun…….it wasn’t! In fact it was the worst museum I’ve ever been in. Although there was an interesting scene that involved Snow White and the 7 dwarfs! It’s officially ruined Disney films for me (if anybody wants to see the scene then I have pictures which I can e-mail! You sickos!)
The following day we caught the train to Nagasaki and spent the morning wandering around the European quarter in an attempt to remind ourselves what Europe is like. However, I think we must have missed it, because we couldn’t find it anywhere!
Later that day we went to the Urakami area which was the hypocenter for the 2nd Nuclear bomb dropped on Japan.
We walked around the Peace Park and filled out various high school children’s questionnaires (when the English version was available), we also visited the monolith which stands below the exact spot where the explosion took place. The whole area had a chilled and peaceful vibe to it.
After that we went to the Memorial Museum which was both harrowing and thought
Peace Statue in Nagasaki
Situated less that 200m from the Hypocentre. The upward hard points to the threat of nuclear weapons, while the outstretched hand points towards peace. provoking at the same time, as it included lots of artifacts and accounts from the survivors and also gave lots of information about nuclear war and the dangers and consequences.
Our next stop was Hiroshima, and we thought that we’d have a break from the terrors of nuclear war and visit the island of Miyajima, just south-east of Hiroshima.
As the ferry crosses to the island you pass the floating Torii. This is an entrance to a shrine on the island that at high tide gives the impression that it is floating. As we were between the tides, it didn’t quite look like that to us but was still very nice to look at!
Once on the island we saw the world’s largest rice scoop (how jealous are you?) and then set out to climb Mt. Misen which stands a meager 535m high. However due to the winding nature of the path in took an hour, in the hot, humid, sticky summer weather - good idea! And as it was so humid the view was slightly obscured by the haze! Nevermind! We had heard that there were monkeys at the top so we set of to find them! But,
The floating Torii
The third most photographed place in Japan. they weren’t there. Apparently they were in the forest eating - likely story!
So, downhearted and very tiredly we headed back to sea level. And would you believe it, the monkeys really were in the forest as we saw, and scurried up the hill after, a load of monkeys! So our day wasn’t wasted afterall!
Today (after a wild goose chase to find a market) we visited the bomb memorials located around Peace Park in Hiroshima.
The main focus of this area in the cenotaph that frames the Eternal Flame (which isn't to be extinguished until the last nuclear weapon on Earth in destroyed) and the A-bomb dome (the remains of a building which was largely destroyed by the bomb). There is also the Children's memorial and many others dotted around the park.
We went to the Memorial Museum, expecting a very similar place to Nagasaki and were surprised to find a lot more detail about the build up to the bomb being dropped and a lot of thought provoking information about the world and the current nuclear weapon status - which makes very scary reading!
Tomorrow we're off on our last stop before returning to Tokyo to
fly home. And as we haven't visited any temples for a few days we thought that Nikko (North East of Tokyo) would be a good place.
That's it for our penultimate blog. Thanks for reading!
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Matt
non-member comment
Loving the Blog and sounds like you are still have an amazing time. Glad that you will be back soon though! Beers are required. Love to you both.