Hiroshima
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I wanted Tony to see Hiroshima as an educational experience, knowing he had little or no prior knowledge of its historical significance.  I felt odd visiting Hiroshima as an American tourist, feeling very self-conscious about going there, quite aware that in the sky above us as we arrived in the city was where we had dropped the bomb.  I didn't expect Hiroshima to be such a nice place to live; all the guide books say there would be no reason to go there if it weren't for the Bomb, but I came away thinking this was a very nice, livable city.  Given an opportunity to live and work in Hiroshima I would love to reside there someday.

We stayed two nights in Hiroshima in what I take to be a typical, Japanese businessman's hotel, the Hotel Silk Plaza.  The room was small but more than adequate for our needs. 

That night we explored downtown Hiroshima, eating in a good Italian restaurant and finding a really nice SegaWorld, where we actually beat "House of the Dead 2" after playing it what seemed like at least 2 hours a day every day for the past week.   This photo of Tony shows him in our moment of triumph, as the game credits scroll in the background.  Hiroshima has a lively covered shopping district (similar to the one in Kyoto) called Hondori.  One amusing memory of exploring this area was of a Japanese teenage girl calling Tony "cute" as we walked by each other on the sidewalk.

As it got late we were losing our sense of direction.  I knew we were within walking distance of hotel but was unsure about which way to go.  We stood around a tram stop studying our guidebooks and studying the trolley map, quite obviously lost.  Later, when we got to Tokyo, in two similar situations we were helped by men who offered unsolicited assistance in English, but at this moment I could sense that the various individuals waiting at the trolley stop were all shyly watching us, wondering what they should do and whether we would ask them for directions.  As I approached a young woman at random I had the feeling that I was asking her to jump into the mouth of a volcano with me, "sumimasen..." ("excuse me...")  I said as I motioned to her to look at the map on the wall with me, "watakushi-tati koko desu nee" ("we are here, right?") pointing to the spot on the map that was our location, "hatchobori asoko desu ka?" ("is hatchobori over there?").  To which the reply was "hai hai so desu" ("yes yes it is"). 

The next day, our first full day in Hiroshima, we visited the Peace Park, which is essentially the center of the city and the target of the atom bomb.  There is a good virtual tour of the peace park on the web, which identifies many of the sights we saw (the Children's Peace Memorial, with its millions of paper cranes, is location number 10 on that webpage).  

We went to the Peace Memorial Museum which is very modern and well done.  Tony found the experience scary; my own reaction is difficult for me to describe.  Somehow the museum made it all seem more real and less scary than I had imagined, as strange as that seems.  Without a doubt, the most provocative exhibit I saw there (which I wish I had photographed) showed a selection of history textbooks from various East Asian countries, with some commentary (in English) to the effect that true peace and understanding could not be achieved among all nations until other East Asian countries revised their history books to take a less belligerent and negative view of Japan (I am paraphrasing, and really wish I had photographed this text).  Another exhibit seemed to describe Japan as a reluctant participant in World War II, having been drawn into conflict in China by the Manchurian Incident.