Day 30: Day Trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima
Today we went for a tour of the Mazda plant in Hiroshima. It’s a free tour of the Mazda museum and the assembly plant. It was great and very different from all of the temples and shrines we’ve seen so far.
Directions if you need them (skip this paragraph if you don’t): To get there from Kyoto you take the JR Hikari train to Hiroshima. Then you get on the Sanyo line to Makainuda. Then you walk about 5 minutes from the South exit (just follow everyone else).
Mazda Plant
The crashed car Blake is in front of was crashed into a solid wall at 50km/h. The interior was fine. Definitely reassuring!
The plant in Hiroshima can produce 18,000 vehicles per day but produces most to order so doesn’t always run at full capacity. A car takes just 15 hours to make with 8 of those used up by painting!
Then we went back to Hiroshima to see the war memorials and museum. The kids went to the adult museum. It was very informative and very well done.
Then to the Hiroshima castle which had a bit of a samurai museum in it as well as a great view from the top. Definitely worth the 5 storey climb in the heat!
On food:
The kitchens in Japan are similar to those in Thailand and Cambodia in that whenever the chefs have the food ready it comes out.
The result is that your food is always hot but that everyone is often served separately. Personally I like this but Blake does not … since Blake’s food always comes out last.
He strongly suspects Derek has been calling ahead asking them to delay his order!
Second point on food today: best invention ever: ice cream cone vending machine!!!
Also best dessert ever: Korean ice cream and brownie served over dry ice to keep it cold! Yum!
Also, seriously, how much packaging do 2 apples need? (In this then in another bag to take home….)
Also, always trust a baker 🙂
And lastly on food, I found it interesting that many people here believe in reincarnation and karma. Some monks apparently gently sweep ants out of their way to avoid killing them. And yet many of those same people are not vegetarians.
I asked one of our guides about this and he said that for his family, you thank the animal and pray for it to come back in a higher form in its next life… and then you enjoy your dinner.
We also learned that for monks, you can only keep what you will use today and then you must give the rest away. So if you are given more food than you need today, you cannot save it for tomorrow. Generally you give it to stray dogs, cats, or sometimes tour wat will have a lucky pig and you will use the excess to feed that one.
Tomorrow is a new day where you must hope you will somehow get more food and so you are in effect forced to share all that you have today.
Imagine if we all thought this way!?!?
