Greetings!

After 2 days in Kyoto, we once again took a bullet train to go to Hiroshima and Osaka. My love of the bullet trains continues to grow! Not only are they always exactly on time, they always pull up precisely to a numbered gate by a corresponding numbered car. Once you are on the train, you are given a wet wipe to clean your hands.

In fact, we have found so many examples of a focus on cleanliness here. Before every meal, you are presented a towel or wipe to clean your hands, and even the cabs have been super clean! The cab we took to the train station had white seat covers, had freshly vacuumed floor mats, and the driver wore white gloves while driving. I now have a new level of cleanliness upon which to aspire. 🙂 After the bullet train arrived at Hiroshima, we tossed our bags into lockers (they allow that here!) and headed for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum.

In case you get lost, there is a full map of the bathroom!

This was an incredibly moving museum. We have now been to three of the most major World War II sites in the world in less than 6 weeks – Normandy, Berlin, and Hiroshima. It has been so thought provoking to hear the different perspectives from three separate vantage points – Allies, Germany, and Japan.

A watch that stopped at the moment of the atomic bomb detonation

The Atomic Bomb Dome – preserved as one of the few buildings that survived at the center of the explosion

The incredible part about the Hiroshima Museum is that the City of Hiroshima has dedicated itself to peace and preventing future nuclear attacks anywhere in the world. In fact, every time that a nuclear test occurs anywhere in the world, the mayor of Hiroshima writes a peace letter trying to persuade the area to abolish the use of nuclear weapons. It was especially interesting to look at all of this as my Grandfather fought in the US Navy in the Pacific Theater.

We then headed back to the train station to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka. As we grabbed our bags, we were serenaded by a floor cleansing machine which played a cute version of “Whistle While You Work.” In fact, we’ve noticed all of the tones here on machines, trains, and subways always play a pleasant little tune for you.

Our last fun observation at the train station was the use of the MLB Cincinnati Reds logo on the local Japan Major League Baseball Team called The Carps. Ha!

Thanks to a great corporate rate, we got to stay very affordably at a Ritz Carlton in Osaka. :). For dinner, we went to a steakhouse to enjoy Kobe beef. It’s quite expensive in the US but was much less expensive here. The restaurant was quite fun as they brought us raw steak and we cooked on a grill ourselves at our table! We finished off with mango desserts back at the hotel. 🙂

My final fun fact has been the toilets! At both hotels, here have been the features:
– Heated seat
– Deodorizing fans built into the toilet
– Automatic open/close of the lid when you enter/exit
– Bidet with massaging water, temperature control, and jet direction controls – if you like that kind of thing…
– Dryer
– and… One even had flush sounds with volume controls for privacy

What can I say but wow! Maybe I will have to order one for our house!

We are now off for Tokyo!