Japan: mobile phones

One thing absent from the guide books (or any online searches) was an economic way of getting a mobile phone for a few weeks in Japan. Don't buy an expensive phone at the airport!


The answer we discovered (or our friends told us about!) was to buy a prepaid mobile from 7-11 shops. These cost about 3000 yen (maybe you need to be Japanese to buy one?), and we used one for local calls (and to receive an international call... thanks Geoffrey) and keep in touch with our local friends.
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Hiroshima: Italian food then trams and trains

We tried to go to the famous Marios as recommended in the Lonely Planet but they were full, so we went to another Italian restaurant just round the corner and had a fine spaghetti marinara and lasagne.





Then we climbed aboard a tram (a true sign of civilisation) to take us to the Hiroshima Station

and waited for the Shinkansen to carry us at gliding speed back to Tokyo

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Hiroshima: World Friendship Center

We stayed one night at The World Friendship Center, highly recommended to anyone wanting to explore the Peace Park and Museum and other parts associated with the Atom Bomb.

The World Friendship Center is a nonprofit organization run by a Japanese board of directors and operated by two American volunteers. It was founded 40 years ago by Barbara Reynolds, the wife of a doctor who was studying the effects of radiation on A-bomb survivors. The center arranges peace exchanges, offers English language classes, and organizes a peace choir.

Barbara Reynolds wrote:
"World Friendship Center is based upon the belief that an individual can and must do something to create peace, and a faith that there is an ultimate power of truth and love that can help each of us to develop a center of peace within ourselves which will be highly contagious."

Visit the website at http://wfchiroshima.net/
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Hiroshima: Crane on dome - Iraq war protest

Paper Cranes are the symbol of Hiroshima so it seemed approprate that we saw two cranes atop the dome


Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Pavement art on the Promenade of Peace

... and a contemporary protest against the Iraq War (part of world wide demonstrations on 24th September ... we heard of large demos in Washington, London as well as small ones in Tokyo)

the demand for peace never rests ....

.... below is the poster for this years rally in Sydney

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greetings