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Sayonara - the land of the rising sun !

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Our three week tiki tour around Japan is about to finish - 

But first of all we take a day out and catch the Shinkansen ( Bullet train) down to Hiroshima for the day. 350 km in an hour and a half - faster than the Redhead 

Well, what can you say about Hiroshima. Moving, sobering, - it is hard to express it in words. Let the pictures do the talking -

The city commercial centre was 600m from Ground Zero and is now a UNESCO Heritage site.




Ground Zero itself. ( the Hypocentre  ). The actual A bomb detonated 600 metres above the city 




At the children’s  memorial  in the Peace Park.  Very moving. 
Children  bow their heads in silence. Some schools were totally obliterated bu the blast.



And in the Peace Park 




We head back to Kyoto on the Shinkansen 

As we approach the hotel I see a bus driver polishing his bus wheels 



I get an extremely good idea. I will buy Diana some cleaning compound and a cleaning rag.for work on the Redhead......... Could be a belated birthday present I think. Not sure I could fit the folding chair in the bike though ! Will work on it. 

Next day is our last riding day as we leave Kyoto and head to Sakaiminato. “ Houston- we have a problem !”  Elizabeth in the GPS refuses to work. So it is a case of navigation across Kyoto using Mapsme on the cellphone, the bike compass and some guesses at what the road signs might mean. Not good for the blood pressure and it takes 2 hours to clear Kyoto 

For those who don’t know Mapsme is a mapping system that you preload. This means you do not need an internet connection and it works off the cellphone GPS 

Road signs are only of limited help. You only have about one second to digest a sign such as this 



And this is Mapsme  being helpful as we are instructed to turn right 




After about 3 hours of sulking Elizabeth starts working again. It starts  to rain. 



We arrive in Sakaiminato- a pretty fishing town that is the ferry port 

And thus  arrives boat day. We go to check out of the hotel and ask for an extra hour after normal checkout. That will be an extra NZ$38 we are told. . Now just for the record I have never rented a room by the hour before ever in my life. Diana tells me sweetly that it is not worth it ! 

And down to the ferry terminal we go 

So it is Sayonara to Japan. We have ridden 4,000 km. We have learned to eat soft tofu with chopsticks. We have Onsened. We have had no encounters with the constabulary. We have mastered Japanese super high tech toilets. And Davies of Arrowtown,  you are hereby under notice that I will require a high te h Japanese toile installed  at your place before our next visit. 

So it is Sayonara to Japan - we have enjoyed it much more than expected

And on the GPS !



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