Kichijoji and then Home

5/30/16

Today we took the eight hour train trip back to Tokyo, then the local to Kichijoji. 

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Kichijoji is a more or less suburban area of Tokyo though it is very much a city in its own right. There are department stores, a shopping street and wonderful restaurants and entertainment. Our hotel room was tiny. The bathroom was a pre-fab affair so small that I could reach across the room and retrieve a towel from a shelf on the opposite side of the shower. 

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 We met up with the Takanishis later for our last dinner in Tokyo. We had unagi (freshwater eel) at a nice place near our hotel. Yoshio had scoped it out earlier and then rented a small wheelchair ramp so Dina could access it.
After, we went to a little pub for Mojitos. In the morning the Takanishis took us to Narita. Our goodbye was bittersweet. We were sorry to be leaving Japan, but happy to be going home.
A great trip.

Atomic Bomb Museum and Ropeway

5/27/16

Today we made our pilgrimage to the Nagasaki Atom Bomb Museum. Some people know Nagasaki as the place where the United States dropped a nuclear bomb in 1945. The end of World War 2 was a crazy time in history and there are many arguments as to whether the bomb should have been dropped or not. My personal opinion is that we should not have dropped it. Japan was already on its knees and the bomb was dropped in an act of experimentation and vengeance. That being said, what's done is done and we can learn from our mistakes. The museum seems modern and somewhat sanitized. We went to Hiroshima 13 years ago and the old museum there, built by the survivors of that atomic blast, is very graphic and emotional. This museum is not at all like that. It shows the destruction like a science project. It is sanitized.

Outside the Bomb Museum

The Fat Man Replica

After visiting the museum we wandered until we found a great little lunch place. We both shared a box lunch.  We had heard some good things about the Nagasaki Rope-way so we headed over on foot to try it out. At the top were great views of the city. Unfortunately, it was socked in so visibility was limited.