The Prettiest Trash Facility In the World (Maybe)

After making sure Onions got on a bus to the airport to fly back to Beijing, I decided to visit Hiroshima's incineration plant.

The incineration plant was placed at the end of the main road that leads south from the memorial park, which is on the coast of the Inland Sea.  The architect recognized that the enormous plant would block the view to the sea, so he cut out a walkway to be able to get a peek at the sea.

This is looking back towards the main part of Hiroshima.

A model of the incineration plant, unfortunately most of the explanations were in Japanese only.

The public can go up into the plant and walk through that cut through walkway.  The entire plant is "green" in it's operation and that is emphasized that trees are planted within the plant.

So, in a very simplified explanation, trash is brought to the plant and burned.  The smoke is then run through a number of different scrubbers and cleaners to remove all the toxins.  This round cylinder is a wet scrubber which removes Nitrous Oxide.

This tube carries the air into the machine that cleans the air before it gets to the Nitrous Oxide scrubber.  I can't remember what it removes.

A cutaway of a trash truck!

Here we are at the far end of the walkway looking back towards Hiroshima.

This is the view from the end of the walkway.

Before I left Hiroshima, I found a place that specialized in Hiroshima's famous dish, Okonomiyaki.  It's noodles fried on big grill and the covered in your sauce and items of choice.

Fugu!

Onions last dinner in Japan and since we were in the western part of Japan, which is known for "fugu" or pufferfish, we found a restaurant that served it!  Why is there a bit of "macho" in eating fugu?  It's because without the correct preparation, it has toxins that can kill you if ingested.  Fugu specialists have to be certified to be able to prepare it.  We each took a set course in which each course, except for the ice cream dessert, incorporated fugu.

First up, a salad consisting of fugu skin in a type of Japanese vinaigrette.

Then came a plate of slices of raw fugu!

Next came lightly battered fried pieces of fugu.  This was the most tasty. Onions and I concluded that it was the deep frying that we liked about it.

The main part of the meal was a fugu hot pot!

After hot pot, the server came over and used the water in which we cooked our hot pot, seasoned it...

....then he poured in some rice....

....added some seasonings, green onions and a raw egg.....

which turned into a fugu flavored rice porridge.

Non fugu ice cream for dessert.

In Japanese restaurants, the server walks you to the door and bids you farewell!  Awesome.

Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima

About an hour south of Hiroshima is the town of Miyajima.  Just off the coast of Miyajima is the island of Itsukushima and it's namesake shrine.

The shrine is famous for this "floating torii", which seems to rise from the water when the tide is high.

The torii acts as a gateway to the shrine itself, which is built on stilts over the water.  The shrine was not built on the land because the island itself is sacred.

While we were visiting a traditional Japanese wedding was taking place. 

Not nearly as festive as a western wedding.....very very somber.

The bride, on left, wears this enormous hat.  Not sure what the significance of it is.

Hiroshima

Last stop for Onions (he left and I stayed on another six days) was Hiroshima. We stayed in a traditional ryokan which is run by this charming Japanese lady.  She takes a photo of every guest and places it on the walls.  Onions and I are now on the wall!

Every room in a ryokan has tatami mats and the bedding is a soft mattress that unrolls directly onto the floor. 

Everyone knows Hiroshima as the sight of the atomic bomb being dropped.  Right there in the heart of the city is where it exploded and a large park and memorial is sited there.  This is looking down towards the museum.

I thought it was touching to see Japanese schoolchildren making a visit to the museum.

So I learned that the bomb didn't actually explode on the ground but was programmed to explode about 600 meters in the air.  This is the scale at approximately where the bomb exploded.

What the city looked like.  That building with the dome actually survived and was standing after the explosion and has been preserved in its post explosion state as a symbol of survival.  It's called the atomic dome.

While we were there, the Atomic dome was under inspection for structural issues and to make sure that it will continue to stand.

This tricycle was found.

So....Onions goes CRAZY anytime he sees fish.  He always stops and looks at fish!

At this site, was located a place where bodies were brought for burial.  So this mound memorializes those who were brought here.

This is the children's peace memorial.  Paper cranes are the symbol of peace!

Every day, the memorial receives cranes from all over the world.