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  Hiroshima, Chugoku, Japan
Monday, October 6, 2008

I am writing this from Kyoto at the swishest of our youth hostels so far, where we will be for the next three nights.  Unfortunately, it isn't quite swish enough to allow me to upload photos to the blog so I will hope to find an internet cafe at some point in Kyoto to add some colour.  If not, it will have to wait until Tokyo - but in the meantime you can get all the 'colour' you need from my Mum and Jon's comments about Hidden Dragons.

We spent last night and today in Hiroshima.  It was quite a small place but, because of its tragic history of human-caused destruction and needless death, it was slightly depressing yet endlessly fascinating.  A bit like Aldershot.

We started our time in Hiroshima at a bar called Bee at the top floor of a high rise, playing electronic darts.  Exactly like reals darts, but ELECTRONIC.  Awesome.  Actually we started the evening in the lift where we visited every floor to decide where to stay, some accidently a few more times than once, much to the hilarity of the waitresses on floor 4.

We also had our first taste of local sashimi, tempura and sake and it was brilliant.  We then went to the only bar we could find that was open - an English sports bar called BLKS showing the Liverpool-Man City game live.  Not exactly traditionally Japanese but I do hear Kurosawa was a huge fan of Robinho.

After truly mastering the Hiroshima tram system, our next destination was the A-Bomb Dome, the exact spot where the atomic bomb hit during WWII.  The building is still standing but is completely gutted and has been strengthened to remain in that state forever as a reminder of what happened.  It was awe-inspiring that it even still stood at all when you read the plaques explaining exactly what happened and it was strange how what was essentially a run down building could affect us in such a way.

We also rang the Bell of Peace in the memorial park next to the Dome which is supposed to signify ongoing peace and end to all human suffering in the wake of the bomb.  I haven't seen any papers since, but I'm pretty sure it didn't work.  I'll check BBC News after this.

From Hiroshima we headed south-west to see Miyajima, a small ferry trip to a shrine and an orange gate in the water which is one of the most photographed sights in the world.  You've seen it before but I'll post an image soon.  The shrine was visually stunning and the gate is undoubtably the best orange gate in the water I've ever seen but the best part of Miyajima were the wild deer around the shrine that would come up to you for attention (and food).  One Japanese man fed a small bit of apple to one deer and literally got followed the whole way down the Miyajima coastline by a crazed deer.  It was like Bambi meets The Terminator.

A short but brisk jog back to the ferry port in order to make our train and we made it to Kyoto.  I will report back tomorrow but, in the meantime, in toilet news: the ones here have the option of making a flushing sound, without actually flushing.  Presumably to drown out the sound of any potential Dragons as they cease to remain Hidden.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

A-Bomb Dome At Night	Attack Of The Killer Deer	Electronic Darts	Erm, nope.
Orange Gate In Water	Ringing The Bell For Peace	The Lift Of Dreams

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