Day 49. Hiroshima. It is probably best to tell the story of our visit to Hiroshima by explaining the pictures in the album. Firstly note the incredibly complicated remote control for the toilet, I especially liked the fact that the seat automatically lifted when you entered the room, a uniquely Japanese concept.

There is then a set of pictures from the Hiroshima Memorial Park, and A-bomb Dome monument. You will see a set of pictures of a statue with a small girl holding a paper crane aloft (see inset picture) and then the visiting children hanging their folded paper cranes at the monument. This is the Hiroshima A-Bomb Children's monument which was inspired by the story of a little girl called Sadako Sasaki. She was 2 when the bomb dropped but she survived the blast. At the age of 10 she developed Leukemia, a fate of many children exposed to the radiation. She became sick but believed that if you fold 1000 paper cranes your wish will come true (the crane is a symbol of good fortune in Japan). She set out on her task folding paper cranes every day whilst in hospital, each one inscribed with the wish to get better, she achieved her goal of 1000 cranes but died shortly afterwards. The children from her school were inspired to create a permanent monument to all the children who had suffered from radiation from the blast. Other schools joined the campaign and the monument was created in 1958. The monument has become a focus for children around the world against nuclear weapons and every year millions of paper cranes are sent and hung around the statue. It was a very moving place.

The A-Bomb dome was one of the few buildings to remain standing after the bomb and now serves as a permanent symbol for peace. You can also see a monument with a burning flame, this is dedicated to peace and disarmament and will remain lit until the last nuclear weapon is decommissioned.

The bomb was dropped by the Enola Gay B-29 bomber and exploded at 08:15 (see the final picture in the album) on 6 August 1945. The Enola gay was supported by two other aircraft which observed the explosion. Hiroshima had been left unbombed by the Americans so that they could study the effects of the A-bomb explosion. No warning was given.

The peace Museum was very disturbing and upsetting (as it should be!) The images of children and adults burnt by the heat rays and irradiated by the bomb were very graphic. The destruction that took place in 2 seconds was incredible. The whole city was intact before the bombing and only a handful of buildings were left afterwards. The A-bomb at Hiroshima was equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT (16,000 one ton bombs) and only 10% of the nuclear material was consumed by the chain reaction. Around 100,000 people died instantaneously and a total of 140,000 were dead by the end of 1945. The largest nuclear bomb exploded by man, so far, is 16 megatons, 1000 times as destructive as the American bomb over Hiroshima. Let us hope that we come to our senses and decommission all of the nuclear weapons we have as soon as possible.

Could someone please explain to us why we are spending £50billion on upgrading Trident between now and 2020?

Tony and I both wrote this entry in the blog.

Off to Kobe to eat beef.

click here for the full album

Day 46. We spent a couple of days in Osaka, touring the markets and the Jo (Castle) We were also able to find a English style pub to watch the rugby. This is not as easy as it sounds. Finding stuff here is quite hard, you have to think in three dimensions, a bar or restaurant or ATM may be on the 20th floor of what looks like an apartment building. We spent 40 minutes looking for a specific Irish pub but could not find it but were lucky enough to stumble on the Pig & Whistle, by the way.... WELL DONE ENGLAND  :)

We then spent a day in Tokyo, enjoying the thrill of the fantastic Shinkansen (Bullet Trains). It makes our trains look utter rubbish. The Tokyo trip was an unscheduled sojourn to meet up with DS Elliott Of The Yard, who was in Tokyo on business. We had lots to drink and went to the "Lost In Translation" bar in the Park Hyatt (not the Grand Hyatt Ash!!!!!) .  We also had a late night Karaoke session, what fun :)

click here for the full album

Day 44. It's been a while since my last post, we have had trouble getting internet access.

We managed to go to the Test match in Hamilton, it was great. There had been three and a half days of total tedium, we turned up for the last session of day 4 and we watched the NZ batting collapse. The last day was eventful but for the wrong reasons as we saw England fall apart. We were also able to catch a Super 14 (rugby) game and were temporary members of the Hamilton Chiefs Supporters Club (cheap beer, great pies). It was a great game and our side, the Chiefs, fought back to win magnificently in the second half. After Hamilton we went to Rotorua where we spent time in the Geyser Wonderland (Ha. Ha. Dance, Geyser Wonderlaaaaand) and Waiamango national park, surrounded by hot springs and geysers. After that we went to a Maori village where Tony was chosen as chief of our bus (canoe) and had to face the Maori warriors and accept a gift of a leaf to prove we were friends. We then had a great time watching Maori dance and music and a great meal cooked in the traditional way by burying the food in the ground with hot stones. We are in Japan now, in Osaka... but more of that later. 

click here for the full album

click here for the full album

Day 25. We have moved on to Wanaka, a nice town overlooking lakes and mountains. I have uploaded some pictures of our time in Franz Joseph and Wanaka. There are some good pictures of our hike up to Alex's Knob (honest) a 4000 ft climb to overlook the Franz Joseph Glacier and surrounding countryside.

click here for the full album

Day 22. Staying in Franz Joseph in NZ. We have a great cottage on a farm just outside the farm overlooking the mountains. The only down side has been the fact that i have had tonsillitis for 5 days but it has not stopped me having fun. Here are some pictures as promised.

click here for the full album

Pictures will be added later. 

click here for the full album ]]> http://www.xmm.com/JBBlog.nsf/dxcomments/Round-The-World-2006-Part-IV---New-Zealand-Pt1 http://www.xmm.com/JBBlog.nsf/dx/Round-The-World-2006-Part-IV---New-Zealand-Pt1?opendocument&comments Wed, 7 Nov 2007 22:27:00 +0700 http://www.xmm.com/JBBlog.nsf/dx/07112007153648XMMLBK.htm Jeremy Braithwaite http://www.xmm.com/JBBlog.nsf/dx/07112007153648XMMLBK.htm?opendocument&comments http://www.xmm.com/JBBlog.nsf/dx/07112007153648XMMLBK.htm We only had a couple of days in Auckland on our way to Fiji but as can be seen from the pictures we encountered plenty of mad Kiwis throwing themselves off tall buildings. It seems if there is a tall bridge or high building there will allways be a queue of Kiwis willing to leap off said structure with only an elastic band to prevent certain death.

click here for the full album

click here for the full album

click here for the full album

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