Hiroshima

This morning woke up in our Rokyen and rolled up our little mats..   I don't where the notion that sleeping on the floor can be good for your back.  I  hardly slept and my back was sore and felt like I had been playing football the day before.

There seemed to have a been a reasonable rain event that had settled in and it didn't look like easing.  We walked into the main centre near the peace park and split up and got lost finding a starbucks for a morning coffee.  

Still raining later that morning we met up again at the peace park, which is a big park dedicated to remembering the atrocities of the Atomic Bomb that wiped Hiroshima off the map in 1945.

There is a "A Bomb building" which from the photos was about the only part of the city left standing.  I   can not begin to describe the utter devastation from the photos and footage you see, however it is one of the most sobering experiences and for me even more so than visiting Omaha beach in Normandy which I did a few years ago.

Add caption

Picture of Hiroshima after the A Bomb and also shows the building above which is one of the only remains that wasn't completely obliterated.

Another thing that also stands out is the fact the entire city has been rebuilt in the last 60 years.  Like other japanese cities it is certainly modern, organised and well laid out. The message from the peace park memorials is that humanity should never use this type of nuclear weaponry again as it has potential  to wipe out life on the planet. We didn't get into any deep discussions with the locals but for the older people living here they must have been affected through family members lost etc etc  and it must be hard to accept.

Still raining we got our bags and headed for the bullet train bound for Tokyo...