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Mark awoke early this morning. He wanted to get some Osaka Railfanning in before the trip to Hiroshima. He grabbed an umbrella and was off by 6:00am. Mark rode a portion of all 7 subway lines in Osaka, grabbing a couple of photos from each line.
He also went to Tennoji to see the throat of that busy JR station, plus see the terminal of one of the Hankai Tramway Lines. Another stop was to Ebisucho to see the terminal of the other Hankai Tramline. All this was accomplished and returned to the hotel at about 9am. We all went down to the Hotel lobby to have a free continental breakfast. It was a nice setup. By 10:00am we were off to Hiroshima. We walked to the Awaza station on the Chuo Line. We transferred at Hommachi for the Midosuji Line to Shin Osaka. We got seat reservations on the next RailStar to Hiroshima.
Even though Hiroshima is almost as far away as Tokyo, we get there much quicker. The reason is that we are on the Sanyo Shinkansen line which was built after the Tokaido Line. Therefore it was built to permit much higher speeds. This is where the trains really strut their stuff. 90 minutes later we were at Hiroshima! The Tourist office at the train station was closed for lunch, so we had lunch at McDonald's. It was busy for lunch. A young man with a portable computer took our order. I tried to order for the 3 of us, but he got confused and made 3 separate orders. Then we walked to the cashier. I tried to give her all three order numbers to pay at once, but I could tell this was a big problem. I wound up paying for our three orders separately, a real pain with change. After lunch we paid a visit to the now open tourist office. There was a bloke from the UK in front of use making hotel arrangements. Apparently he was staying in Japan for 3-months to just roam the country with just his backpack! After her left we got the maps and information we needed to tour the city.
We walked out of the station to the Streetcar terminal. We purchased 3 day passes to make it easy to get around the city. The Hiroshima Streetcar system is a great way to get around this city! We boarded a very crowded #6 car. In about 15 minutes we jumped off a the A-Bomb Dome stop. We walked around the "dome" which was a industry office before the war. It is preserved in it after bomb condition as a memorial to never let this atrocity ever happen again.
From there we walked through the Peace Park. We walked by the flame that will remain lit until all atomic weapons have been eradicated from the earth. The next stop was the Cenotaph which list all the dead as the result of the Bomb. Each year more names are added as more victims succumb to cancer and such from the nuclear fallout. Through the Cenotaph the Flame and the Dome are framed, a very sobering sight.
Next stop was the Peace Museum. Admission to the museum is very cheap at just 50 Yen/person. The English audio headsets were only 300 Yen rental. All 3 of us used the headsets. The museum is a very inspiring, sobering, stomach wrenching at times. BUT, it is very necessary to go through this. We know that wars are very bad, but use of nuclear and its immediate and long term effects on humans and wildlife in general is just plain wrong. Maybe dropping this bomb was necessary to end WWII in the Pacific, but with what has been learned from the aftermath, may no country ever use this sort of weapon ever again.
After going through the museum we rested from the severe emotions felt in the museum. Then it was time to move on. We decided that we need to do a little more shopping. We walked down Peace Blvd to catch a Streetcar and Chuden-Mae stop. It took about 10 minutes before a sleek new and long tram showed up, but it was still crowded. We took it two stops to Kayicho. We went to the Sogo Department Store and purchased gifts for people. We then stopped in a ice cream shop and had great desserts.
Mark then disappeared for a while to get more photos of the Streetcars as well as the Astram, light Metro line that operates underground right next to the department store. Cyn and Richard did some more shopping. At 5:30 we met up again. Cyn still wanted to get a few more items for family members. We hoped on another tram heading toward the train station. We jumped off a few stops down in front of more Department stores. The first store we tried had nothing, the second store had what she wanted! We got back on the streetcar and headed back to the train station. We got tickets to a 7:45 train to Osaka. We had some time to kill so we took Richard to a Pachinko Parlor. He had never been to one before. We put 1000 Yen in the machine and let him play. About 15 minutes later all his marbles were gone, but he had a lot fun. We walked back to the station, got a light meal from a convenience store and boarded our train to Shin-Osaka. Once at Osaka, Mark got tickets for our journey to the airport for tomorrow. Then it was off to the Midosuji Subway Line for the quick trip to Hommachi station and 10 minute walk to the Hotel which we arrived at about 10:30pm. Mark went through everything and got 95% of everything packed and ready to go home the next day. Then we all crashed asleep! Total walking today 8 miles, Mark a little over 10 miles. |
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Day 9B | > Kavanagh Family > Trips/Vacations > Japan > Trip 2003 > Day 8 Page last edited on: 03/25/17 |
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