Fom Tokyo to Nagasaki

We've had a busy few days on the trains in the past week here in Japan, and it's been fantastic. We organised a Japanese Rail Pass for ourselves before we arrived here and it's been so easy to use it's almost unbelievable. You just show up at a station, reserve your seats if you want to and go where-ever takes your fancy!

So far we've visited Kyoto...
Such a beautiful and Japanesee city. If you catch my drift. We wandered around the Gion district looking at temples and shrines and we even caught site of some Geisha as they moved through the streets. Unfortunately I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture... You can't win them all I guess!


Here are some girls in Kimono as the next best thing.


Shrine in Kyoto

We also spent two nights in Hiroshima. The city was completely destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945 and the people there chose to leave a partially destroyed building insitu as a reminder of what happened there. It's very striking.



But it's not just all about death and destruction when you visit either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It'S an important thing to note about both of these cities. Life has gone on here, buildings have been rebuilt and there is a huge amount of pride on view.


Castle in Hiroshima

In fact in Hiroshima we saw our first baseball game! Once we figured out what was going on it was really good fun and the cheer leaders made it very exciting!

In Nagasaki there is a concerted effort to showcase the cities fascinating history. It was the only port in Japan to have any contact with the west for close on two centuries. Also not all of the city was completely destroyed when the bomb was dropped here so there are plenty of shrines to visit. It's a very beautiful place and both here and Hiroshima are a high light of coming to Japan.


The spectacle bridge