A Japanese cherry blossom cruise.

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So it turned out to be a very good sunset-

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We awoke next morning about to anchor of Miya-jima.It will be our only zodiac landing.Oysters are obviously important here as well as the tourists-

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Edited August 4, 2016 by drron29

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Couldn't really persuade myself to try oyster curry bread but oysters on a stick-yummy.

Now who else got the wooden spoon if naughty?

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Our first sight of the famous tori gate-

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That is a temple of a new Buddhist sect.The positioning wil make sense later.

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The deer were not as numerous as Nara but more aggressive.That fellow very nearly got a map out of my pocket.He did however teach me of an effective way of disposing of used tissues!

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Now the reason for the siting of the new temple.From the centre of the shrine through the tori gate to the new temple is a straight line-

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Whilst we were at the shrine a Shinto wedding was taking place=

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A maiden leads the bride and groom in-

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And the families face off-

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We are now allowed to walk back to the zodiac landing site independently-

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I did try an oyster cake but I think any oyster was left out.We had our peach icecreams in cones not bread.This poor fellow looked bored and should have been asleep-

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Now back on the zodiacs-

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Back on board and time for lunch.As we ate the ship steamed to Hiroshima.It was then off to the Peace Park.It certainly has changed over the last 32 years.

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The mound covers the unidentified remains of the victims-

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But amongst this is still beauty and the Japanese were having their hanami celebrations here-

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And the iconic symbol of the Hiroshima bomb-

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And this was the main difference from 32 years ago.Then we were able to walk through the dome and a lot of the displays were there.But apparently some were taking stones or chips of bricks so now it is fenced off.So never delay travel if you can help it.

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Roses not yet in season and of course one obvious variety-

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That is another building that survived the blast.A fellow survived as he was in the basement.It was not far from the epicentre.Our local guide is from Hiroshima.Her parents house was very close to this building and our guide was in utero the day the bomb was dropped.Fortunately her parents were on a train back from Kyoto that day.The train was stopped some distance from the city.Her parents though walked back and were at their house site the following day.Nothing was left so they went to the grandmother's house some 40Km away.

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It is pointed out that this is not an eternal flame as it is to be extinguished the day there are no more nuclear weapons.

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Another difference was that police were everywhere.That may be because John Kerry was due in 5 days time.

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A school visit or maybe rehearsals-

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And now to the museum with the clock showing days since the last bomb was dropped in anger and the days since last nuclear test-

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Now this is Japan's memorial to it's dead and is to be respected.It also serves the purpose of educating the world on why nuclear weapons should not be used.However it has also become much more confronting and with dubious use of figures.It used to present the figures for deaths in the Hiroshima attack as 70-145,000.It now says 145,000 killed.In fact going to the original reports it was 70,000 killed and 145,000 total casualties ie counting the wounded as well.No one will know the precise figure as children were being progressively evacuated from the city and no one knows how many Korean workers(slave labourers) were in the city.

The Korean story reflects badly on the Japanese as it was only in 1999 that the Korean memorial was moved inside the Peace Park.

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Another thing I take from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the way both have bounced back.Originally the experts believed nothing would grow here for 75 years but it is a thriving city with quite wonderful trees.As well there are examples of trees that survived the bomb blast and are still alive today-

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Now to end with more beauty-

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We cruised overnight to Uwajima.Awoke as we were approaching-

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Once again a welcome but with a couple of fierce fellows-

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Didn't seem to worry mrsdrron though-

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Today we went different ways with mrsdrron going to a pearl farm-

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From her pictures I don't think the pearls were big enough.

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The garden is known for it's wisteria and irises but we are a little early.

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It was now off to the Date museum where we got our first look at the castle-

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The lady of the manor was carried around in this.

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The museum garden-

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Now we began the climb up to the castle looking out for the flora-

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Getting to the top there were great views-

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You could enter the castle and climbing to the top gave even better views.

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