I have been to Hiroshima only two times so far, but it is my favorite City here in Japan.  Being in Kansai, the West, people are very laid back and certainly more interesting than their uptight neighbors here in Kanto, the East.  Plus, it has nice wide roads that make some sense for a change, mainly because the whole city was leveled like Tokyo, but in this case someone actually made some strict changes.  Tokyo was just rebuilt the way it was.  Anyway, the second time I went with Emiko, Adam, and Jeremy on a 12 hour road trip.  Below are some pictures of the Peace Memorial, which is truly amazing and shocking.  It shows just what horrifying effects the A-bomb had, which Americans just don't wanna hear (take the Smithsonian controversy a while back).  I got a book I will bring back to show everyone.  It has every piece of info from the museum.  Also below is the A-bomb dome, which was directly under the blast but still stands.  This bomb was very weak compared with modern ones, which makes them even more frightening.  Under the arch of the memorial is a big stone box of sorts with names of everyone who died from that day until the present.  The inscription on the outside of it was written by the professor who taught my Japanese professor from BU, Mrs. Campbell.  It basically says, let's not repeat the terrible things we did.  It blames the Japanese as well as those who dropped the bomb.
 

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