2008 Tour - Part 13
Thursday 20th March, 2008 at 17:28:00 Posted in: Location: Home| Comments [0] |
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.
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Day 31, We have had a great time in Wanaka extending our stay to 6 days. The weather throughout was fantastic and we had a relaxing time staying in our very luxurious accommodation. Tony and Simon forced me to climb Mount Roy, a grueling 4,500 climb up a steep farm track known by the locals as "The Stairmaster™". I didn't stop complaining throughout the arduous 3 hour climb but I have to admit the views were stunning as can be seen from the pictures attached. After Wanaka we headed down to Dunedin which I am sure is a nice place, however, when we got there it started raining and hasn't stopped since, so no pictures I am afraid. We are now heading up the east coast on our way to Christchurch and from there to North Island, I will post more when we get there. 
Day 13. We are just about to leave Viet Nam to wend our way to New Zealand. Viet Nam has been fantastic, we took a trip to the Mekong delta and had a great day cruising down the river, watching the locals make popped rice and rice paper plus a quick trip to a brick factory which was unfortunately closed because of the Luna new year. The roads here are mad, full of mopeds and bikes, crossing the road is an experience. I have added five pictures at the end of the album i like to call "Spot the most over-laden moped" competition, enjoy :)
Day 9. We have been spending the last couple of days exploring Siem Reap, okay, mainly exploring the bars, but it is nice to have a couple of relaxed days just to sit and watch the world go by. We are leaving Cambodia tomorrow, it has been an interesting trip, not at all what I expected, more modern and tourist driven than I would have liked but the people have been friendly and accomodating and it was definitely worth the effort to see the Temples. I have attached a few pictures of Siem Reap.