Japan – day 5
Well, Steve had to go back to work so we decided we would take the shinkansen, yes the bullet train, down to Hiroshima and Osaka and see some cool stuff along the way. From the train we finally got a good view of Mt. Fuji, but I could not take any decent pictures. Don’t worry though, I’ve kind of invited myself to go back to Japan next summer and climb Fuji-san with a group of PGS people so you’ll see photos of Fuji around August 2009.
Dave on shinkansen. If he looks tired, it is because he is. We got the 6:00 am shinkansen which meant we had to leave Steve’s at 5:00 to get to Tokyo station.
Front of the train. Everyone asks how fast they go, and I’m not sure how fast the one we were riding actually went. I think they regularly go 300kmh which is like 188mph. Test speeds have been up to about 280mph I think.
The side of the train. Yes, the conductors wear uniforms with hat and gloves.
This is the ‘carp castle’ in Hiroshima. Of course it is a reproduction of the original, but it was still pretty interesting.
Looking out at the city of Hiroshima.
This is a tree that survived the nuclear blast.
This is the A-bomb dome. This building was left standing after the blast as a memorium. It was not flattened because the explosion actually occured almost directly above it rather than to the side so it did not get any of the shear waves. Unfortunately we didn’t get to visit the museum. We planned to take a boat ride to a nearby island called Miajima and visit the museum when we returned. We spent longer on the island than we intended so by the time we got back the museum was closed.
This is what Miajima is famous for, the shrine gate. When the tide is high the bottom of it is under water making it very picturesque. Of course when we visited the tide was low so it was just out on a mud flat but it is still very beautiful and the entire island is a peaceful, natural place. A great getaway when you’ve been in big, hectic cities for a while.
Pagoda on Miajima.
Looking back at the island.
Ok, so this was kinda funny. I saw this guy walking a huge white Great Pyrenees and had to run over and ask if I could take a picture of the dog. I mean, imagine going all the way to Japan to find a Woody look-alike.
Tags: japan, Travel
Sissy
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