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First full day in Fukuoka, and we decided to go to Hiroshima. Its a 280km trip, but the high speed trains for 300 km/h so it took about an hour. So we got more use out of our JR pass, napped in the train, and popped out in Hiroshima.
We went to Hiroshima specifically to visit the Peace Museum, unfortunately a good portion of the musuem is closed for renovations, but it was still totally worth the train ride, and the 200 yen entry fee.
We came into the daylight from the enormous trainstation/mall and the bus to the museum was about to pull away from the station. We jogged our way to the bus, and one of the bus/station employees spotted us and waved the bus down, telling us which stop to get off on.
The busdriver was also pretty cool. Anyways, the museum is on an island that has since been turned into a park.
If you didnt know Hiroshima was the site of the first bellicose use of a Nuclear Weapon. WWII was winding down, Hitler had killed himself and Nazi Germany had surrendured, the US redoubled their efforts in the Pacific, considering way to end the War in the Pacific quickly and with minimal loss of US/Allied life.
Taking the Islands in the South Pacific had been horrendous, the Japenese were tenacious defenders, and were all the more vehement in the fighting as the US approached the mainland. Okinawa was one of the hardest fought battles of the war. All of this did not bode well for the invasion of the Japenese mainlan. US planners figured it was going to cost tens of thousands of American lives, and presumed the Japenese peoplew would fight literally to the death.
Concurrently the Manhattan Project was churing out usable results, fear of the Nazi Atomic Bomb had led to a herculean effort by the US to develop the bomb first.
The growing gulf between US and Soviet interests, the difficulty of invading Japan, and justifying the expense of developing the weapons culminated in the Enola Gay and sister B-29s took off on August 5th 1945 to usher in the Atomic Age.
Hiroshima had been mostly spared of the firebombing wrought on much of Japan (see earlier entry about Osaka), given it relative intactness, industrial capacity, and use as an army depot Hiroshima was selected as the target.
The actual visual target was a bridge in the center of the city, the bomber missed the bridge by a few hundred meters, the bomb detonated at an altitude of 600m, creating a fireball over 2000 degrees C.
Conflagration enveloped the city, many thousands lost their lives instantly, many thousands more over the course of the following weeks as a result of burns and crush injuries, thousands more died of long term conditions as a result of radiation poisoning.
Ultimately this still didnt break the resolve of Japanese leadership, and another Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
The museum is about 500m from the target point, the island that its situated on was the industrial heart of the city, and was annihilated by the second most powerful single weapon ever used in combat. THe musuem was very sobering. It was a little different from the Osaka museum, as this tossed the museumgoer right into the thick of it, turning the corner into the exhibits and being struck with a scene of a woman and 2 child mannequins, chothes and flesh in tatters, traverssing a collapsed building. From there you continue around the room observing artifacts from people living in the city, surrounding a scale of the city immediately after the dropping of the bomb.
The musuem was made up of mostly text, and artifacts from Hiroshima, another section had history and development of the atomic bombs, the science behind it the nuclear weapons and radiation, the long term effects of radiation, and finally video testimonials from people that survived the blast.
Then you went down a long hall, which skirts the building that is now closed for renovation. This was the most interesting part for me, I plan to come back sometime after 2018 when they open it up. This section had the history of further development of the bomb, proliferation, conflict between US and USSR, the various treaties and attempts to abolish nuclear weapons.
The museum was great, it really impressed the gravity of the use of nuclear weapons, providing macro examples of their capabilities, and individual stories of living and dying as a result of their use.
We wandered our way from the musuem back to the Shinkansen Station, stopping for some Indian food on the way. This was the first time i think we have been taken advantage of. The our meal should have been about 2100yen, and some how he charged us 2500. We didnt really realize until we were too far away to go back and cause a stink, so we just accepted it. Honestly we certainly ate 25USD worth of food.
Hopped another train, and was back in Fukuoka in 62 minutes. We walked to Canal city. which is an unnecessarily large mall with a waterfeature woven through it. On the way to the mall we saw the site of the Fukuoka sink hole ( https://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=0ahUKEwiE1pfK2qrQAhULoJQKHW0RBKAQqUMIJzAD&usg=AFQjCNF1sHlk2z9QIx28jtvfnGP_UlkifA ). The mall was not particularly impressive, it was much like all the other malls, we went because we heard there was a water show in the canals throughout the mall, but we didnt end up seeing any water show.
After the mall we walked back home, stopping at a few more hobby shops and, and checked out what to do for dinner.
We decided on a Gyoza shop in a basement down the street from our hotel. THey had GREAT panfried gyoza (which is the traditional way of preparing gyoza here in Fukuoka), and really good kimchi. This place was a good appetizer for our later meal intentions.
We wanted to eat at the famed food stalls of Fukuoka. They are these semi-permanant kitchens on the street, with a half dozen stools for costumers. They have all the things necessary to prepare food, hot plates, referigerators, clean dishware, water, electricity, but they can be packed up at the end of the night, and actually disappear, only to reappear tomorrow night full of drunks and food.
They typically have ramen and Yakitory. We found one that had just that, intending to get grilled meats on a stick. around the time our grilled meats were ready a gaggle of about 10 chinese speaking businessmen rolled in, and ordered a whole bunch of food and beer. After a few minutes Keith (as we later learned) and his friend engaged us, asking us where we were from, talking about the election, and congratulating us on our honeymoon. this congratz came wth beer, they didnt let my glass go empty.
Turns our they are from Hong Kong, here representing some metal stamping/machining companies looking to get involved with Japanese businesses.
I got to ask them about how they see the relationship between China/Japan, and finally had a serious question answered; If the Japanese got their written language from China, can modern Chinese people read Modern Kanji?
Yes, they can, the HK guys were adamant, firstly they were impressed we knew of the relationship, but also assured us, that it is basically their written language, and they can figure 70% ore more of what is going on.
They had an early morning, so after clearing their beers, they left us with their leftover grilled beef tongue, and bid us goodnight.
We thanked our chef, went ot a corner store for ice creams, and went home to go to sleep.
