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Japan trip
Day 11 - 16th June - Hiroshima (Part 4)
The Peace Museum (the first one) was very good and cost only 50 yen.
More people died in the Battle of Okinawa than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki - combined.
Woman and dog
Chinese parasol tree exposed to the bomb 1.3km from the hypocentre
Bizarre music coming from the plaque in front of the tree. I have no idea what this was about. Damn Japs.
Monument of Prayer
Flame of Peace. It will only go out when all nuclear weapons are destroyed. Good luck to them.
Cenotaph from Flame of Peace
Next was the Sadako memorial:
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Children's Peace Monument. Sadako Sasaki was exposed to radiation from the bomb at 2 and got leukemia at 12. A Japanese tradition had it that folding 1,000 paper cranes would grant her any wish, so she starting folding them. Though she exceeded more than 1,000, she still died (probably she didn't have enough Faith).
The cranes are housed in the buildings you see behind the statue. I wonder what happens when they're full - maybe they send them to other parts of Japan (indeed, I'm quite sure I saw cranes from there elsewhere).
There are regulations regarding paper cranes people submit to the memorial. For example, you must attach a name tag to your cranes. Gah.
At about this time this Japanese man whose limbs flailed uncontrollably came up to talk to me for almost an hour (yes, he spoke English!). He said he used to be a professor at the university there, and IIRC said he'd visited Indonesia in the past. His voice was very raspy though, which made communication difficult.
Bell of Peace and poem. I inferred you were supposed to strike it, but the clapper (a wooden rod) was chained (maybe I was doing it wrong, here's a picture of a schoolgirl doing it right: oh well!)
Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound
Peace Clock Tower. It looked quite normal.
With all the monuments dedicated to Peace, it got overwhelming. Less is More. There were lots on the park map, but some others which weren't. Many also seemed duplicated, like “記念樹”，“記念植樹” and “世界平和の樹”.
Me and A-Bomb dome
A-Bomb dome, 160m from the hypocentre
A-Bomb dome and river
Across the river
Aioi Bridge
2 bridges
World Heritage Plaque
A-Bomb Dome
Dome plaque
Snoozing woman with kid
Good way to get donations: "Please put some donation. and push the button... This will operate From 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. during the summer. (When the temperature becomes 50°c this will not orerate due to heat.)"
If the temperature hits 50 degrees, they'll have more than a non-functional tourist scam to worry about.
Memorial Tower dedicated to the Mobilized Students. Notice the paper cranes (maybe they're extras from the Sadako Memorial).
Topless angel ("Statue of a Prayer for Peace")
Reliefs
World Heritage Cruise to Miyajima. They know how to capitalise on it.
REAL street lamp (with fire). I'm guessing it's gas.
Vile Islamophobia
Dogs
Plant growing in front of flag pole. Maybe they won't remove it because it was exposed to the bomb too.
Monument to Korean Victims and Survivors. My favourite bit about this memorial was that there was Japanese and English on the monument - but no Korean. Wth (unless it's Hanja, but that's almost as bad since many Koreans probably won't be able to read all of it). Curiously, the Korean victims are commemorated a day early - probably so the main event doesn't distract people from this one.
What should be Japanese chess [Addendum: Shogi]
After 6.5 hours I was feeling quite bombed out, so I headed for my hostel.
On the way back I saw "中国新闻" signs all over. Must've been a cover for CCP spies.
My hostel had a sundeck, so I went up and saw:
"hotel ADULT". I wanted to find out just what it was, but the streets were hard to navigate so I unfortunately failed.
I headed out for dinner, and had:
Yum yum. I didn't know what it was, but it looked good. And Y620 too (good Japanese food is one of the few things cheaper in Japan than Singapore).
Yum yum x2. I still didn't know what it was, but it tasted bagus: Udon in brown sauce, with pork, brown fungus, carrot, beansprouts and thin garlic slices.
Japanese food portions tend to be big. I wonder how the girls maintain their sizes (not fat, and there seems to be less anorexia and quasi-anorexia than in Singapore).
Back at the hostel, I entered the toilet, which was the second last place in Japan I expected to find a Japanese toilet (since they're cheap places):
There's a remote control panel, and you can vary the strength of the
For some reason, my hostel had at least 5 Singaporean girls (one group of 2, and one of 3; the second were all over 25 but I could've sworn they were of JC age - as I told them, after Japanese girls, Singaporeans look very young). I also met groups of Singaporeans (they don't like to travel alone) every few days - everyone loves Chikan land.
The hostel beds had clip-on curtains to create private space, which was interesting though it reduced intra-room interaction, which is one of the draws of hostels (it wasn't hot because of air conditioning).
Bonus:
Something I saw this day:
Japanese U15 catalogue. GAH DAMN JAPS.
For the uninitiated, Wikipedia:
"In Japan, a junior idol (ジュニアアイドル, junior idol?), alternatively Child (チャイドル, Child?) or Low Teen (ローティーン, Low Teen?) idol, is primarily defined as a child or early teenager pursuing a career as a photographic model. Child actors, and J-pop singers (whose musical genre is often termed idol pop) can also be considered junior idols, and are often featured in photobooks and image DVDs...
Within this group there are several subcategories designated by a simple code in the format of U-[N] where U is short for the English word "Under" and [N] represents the maximum age. While U-18 is a clean division, all other divisions can overlap by as much as a year. This is slightly counterintuitive when using the English definition as even a model who has technically passed their fifteenth birthday can potentially still be referred to as "U-15". The primary divisions are divided by years U-18, U-15, and U-12 but there are also more recent partitions designated as U-10, U-6, and U-3 to reflect changes in the marketplace and idol fan communities."