14
2012
japan » day 6 » the a-dome in hiroshima
The building is almost under the place of the a-bomb’s explosion, hence the name. It was serving as prefectural industrial promotion hall. Because of the downward force some part of the building remain intact, but everybody in the building was instantly killed.
14
2012
japan » meanwhile in japan » the english language
Was it mentioned that they use a special English?
13
2012
japan » day 6 » okonomi-yaki
Some call it Japanese pizza, some not, but one of the best food in Japan is okonomi-yaki. It works even better if you are full of rice, shushi, sea-things and noodle.
13
2012
japan » day 6 » the manga society
You think that the whole Japan is reading manga everywhere all the time. And you are right! Threre are eceptions of course, but if a Japan person enters to a kiosk to grab some food (there will be one in every 100 m) he will stop in the newpaper section where there are a serious amount of manga magazines or phonebook-size anthologies. Not sure if they are reading those books or just checking if they have it already or not, but I don’t remember any kiosk without at least 3 person at the manga corner.
There are also bigger shops and bookstores. Photos were taken in one of those. The size of that shop is hard to describe, but at least 10 rows of bookshelves, two sides in every. Rough estimation is that 5-10% CD-s and DVD-s, 5-10% console games and old consoles, maybe 10% conventional book and the rest: manga!
13
2012
japan » interesting » black tea or green tea?
- would be the obvious question after finding these small bags in the hotel rooms. Let’s make one black and one green! - sounds the ultimate solution. But the result is devastating: the green bags contain tea, but the other one some noodle soup taste (minus the noodle). Scandal!
13
2012
japan » day 7 » all exclusive indeed!
08:49 Plan for the day: checking-out from Hiroshima hotel, taking a street car (=tram) to the railway station, taking a train and visiting Mazda museum, taking another train and boat and visiting Miyijami island. All is covered by our JR Pass
08:50 It turnes out that one JR Pass is at an unknown place. Cancelling Mazda museum and the island trip. Hotel recptionists does her best, calls the museum and also Shin-Osaka station’s lost & found department.
10:09 Arriving to Hiroshima station. About 4 persons doing their best to find the ticket: calling again Shin-Osaka station and the other Shinkansen’s end station as well. No success. Buying a ticket: Shinkansen costs about 10000 yen to Osaka (not even half way to Tokyo), quite a lot compared that the whole JR Pass was 28000. Buying normal ticket (for so-called local trains) which costs about 5000. Yaay, we just saved 5000 yen (50 EUR). Sounds like a deal.
11:48 Hopping into a local train which should take us to Osaka. Only way of communication is sign language + repeating the word ‘Shin-Osaka’ + showing our tickets.
11:50 The train leaves and so do we. It is definitely NOT a Shinkansen.
14:20 Arriving to Itozaki. The train has arrived to its end station. Taking off. Heavy sign language and the result is: we have to change to another train.
14:34 Taking another train, which is going to an unknown place, hopefully closer to Osaka. This other train is not a Shinkansen either.
15:02 Train stopped at Fukuyama. Fukuyama is not Fukushima even thgough it could be.
15:14 It turnes out that old train is not bad train. It is going faster then one could guess by its age, it has nice atmosphere and it is possible to change the position of the seats.
15:35 Kurashiki station and suddenly the train is full with Chinese Japanese people.
15:50 It looks that we arrived.
15:51 We did, but not to Osaka. Changing to the next train at 16:10.
16:10 Changing went well, train packed with students: lot of skirts and suits everywhere.
16:40 Next station: Kumayama, Lord, kumaya.
17:17 Next station where we change: Aioi. Direct train to Osaka!!
18:50 Shin-Osaka, here we are!
DAMN!
12
2012
japan » day 6 » hiroshima memorial park
Hiroshima is a new city. The old one was vanished by American device, called Little Boy on 6th of August, 1945. It was exactly 08:15 when the first nuclear bomb was used in human kind’s history. It exploded 600 meters above the city instantly killing about 70000 people, mostly civilians (including many students who were working outside). The target was carefully chosen by US Army: there was no prison camp where they kept allied soldiers and it was big enough. The air force stopped bombing the city months before to observe the destructive power of the bomb.
This is only a small a part of the whole story you can learn in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Beside the historical facts there are many photos taken before and after the explosions, melted bottles, deformed lunch boxes, children bicycles, watches stopped at 8:15, fingernails, clothes, books, and many many other items. Not so many things to see in Hiroshima, but this memorial museum makes the city worth visiting.
The museum is located in the Peace Memorial Park which is packed with more than a hundred statues, monuments, flame of peace and one cenotaph. Do you want to know what is that? Google it just as we did!
12
2012
The end.
(japan » meanwhile in japan » the yelling book)
11
2012
japan » day 5 » the shinkansen
Sooner or later it will come the moment when a tourist tries the famous japanese express train, the Shinkansen (bullet train). When the first line was open in the 60s it was definitely the world fastest train. It was planned to use the same tracks as normal trains (however, in some cases it has own dedicated lines) and it was reaching a speed of 200 km/h. Due to continuous improvements nowadays even the 300 km/h speed is reached on some lines. The maximum speed on our line (Tōkaidō Shinkansen) is 270 km/h. This was the first Shinkansen line opened in 1964 and it is connecting Tokyo with Shin-Osaka. There are many different services on these lines, the fastest one being the Nozomi. The famous JR Railway Pass is not valid on this, so we had to use the one called Hikari. Main differences are that Nozomi trains leaves in every 10-20 minutes (Hikari only twice in an hour) and it stops in fewer stations.
Comfortable, fast and hassle-free. No wonder why nobody uses airplanes here.
Of course the Tokyo Station would worth some words because it seems bigger and more complex than many airports around the world. It must be easier to orientate for the ones who can read Kanji, being not the one the best thing you can do: search an informational desk, hope they can speak English and tell them what you want. Likely they give you the answer.
11
2012
japan » meanwhile in japan » soft drink
AKIRO: Ok, we have this drink. Do you know a good selling name for it which has three letters and no electronic company is using it yet?
MASASHI: TBC?
AKIRO: OK, that sounds great!
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