Christine and I took a weekend trip to Hiroshima for the 60th anniversary atomic bombing ceremonies. To cut back on expenses, we opted for the cheap but slow 7 hour local train trip as opposed to the 2 hour bullet train travel experience. Friday evening was spent at Miyajima - the site of one of Japan's holiest shrines. All day saturday we participated in abomb anniversary events and explored hiroshima. Perhaps due to the amount of people, but the entire experience was not quite as solemn as I expected. In addition to crowds of tourists, extremme political and religous groups (Raelians) were vocal and prominent. The morning ceremonies featured local and national politians (Koizumi made an appearance and Koffi Annan was on the program but was a no-show), a procession of abomb survivors (accompanied by eerie march style classical music), and a multitude of doves. The evening ceremonies were more to my liking: lanterns were set adrift across from the abomb building.
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