And so to a somber part of the journey, or so you'd think.. We arrived in Hiroshima after another trip on the bullet train, and headed to the Peace Garden and A-bomb dome. The dome is one of the few remaining buildings left from 1945's attack - the gnarled metal and rubble walls speak for themselves. The museum here gives the full history of what lead to the bombing, how many thousands died and how the city has been rebuilt. They've adopted folded origami cranes as a symbol of peace - there were thousands of them...
We strolled on up the river, and started to hear some chanting. That became singing of sorts - the noise coming from the baseball stadium, where the Hiroshima Carp were playing.. their fanatical supporters were all around, dressed in red, waving their little blow up bats and meeting the mascot you see above. Apparently the team are perennial underachievers - but it doesn't put off the fans - sound familiar? Having been completely rebuilt, the city centre is very modern - with a very bustling nightlife. It would have been rude not to join in, so we ended the night in a 'Big Echo' karaoke booth. After 20mins just trying to work the machine, and find some songs we recognised, we did our own very special versions of hits by REM, Britney and Michael Jackson. Sadly Gwenfair's not keen for me to post the video evidence on the blog for you to judge the results...
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