Hiroshima Peace Park

We travelled for 5 hours to get to Hiroshima, arrived just after lunch, checked into our hotel then visited the Peace park, what a great afternoon, the park, museums and memorials were heart wrenching, such a tradegy, 140,000 lives lost, a huge percentage were children, August 6 th 1945, now 70 years on. "have we learnt our lesson".

Replica of bomb dropped onto Hiroshima, an identical one was dropped on Nagasaki, the Americans dropped the atomic bomb to end the war, it worked.

Inside the museum, buildings from Hiroshima.

Collections of pottery, coins, glass bottles etc from bomb site.

This monument reminds me of a covered wagon.

This is a memorial fountain, inside this building is like a resting place for all lives lost in the bombing of Hiroshima.

A diorama of the bombed site.

A memorial to all the children lost, note all the paper cranes, hanging, these cranes have come from all over the world.

This booth was open, so that you can deposit your paper cranes.

The atomic dome, used to be the council chambers.

More paper cranes.

Our wonderful dinner at Caffe Ponte, some Moët and mulled wine, a great evening with DH!  Chris and Esme.

An interesting pet, a raccoon.

DH's entree, prosciutto from another hanging leg.

My snails.

This was in the toilet, how wonderful was this restroom for sitting and some reelection.

Today we are off to Hiroshima castle.

Minato-ku and Sumo.

Look at what at I bought at Yuzawaya, some great fabrics, Ecnino, Yuwa and Koko Seki by Lecre.

Saturday we left Tokyo Dome to travel to Minato-Ku to Shiba Park hotel, so that we were closer to the Sumo wrestling arena. When walking around this prefecture, we discovered a shrine just near the Tokyo tower, we were entertained by a monkey show, a baby's christening and great architecture, with old wooden doors.

Our little travel group,outside the gateway to the shrine.

Hundreds of little statues with bonnets on, holding flowers and incense.

Our monkey show.

Baby's christening 

We all got picked up at 1.30 pm for Sumo, what a wonderful afternoon. The winner wins this cup and lots of other goodies.

A years supply of mushrooms, coke, beef and 10'000,000 yen.

Past champion sumo, note the rope and white aprons.

One of the many matches, we got to see a match that lasted for four mins, so exciting, and very rare for this to happen, after the match the Russian sumo could not feel his hands, the winner of this match with sponsorship won $90,000.

All the competing sumo's on show.

I was taken by our guide to sumo watch as they come out the back door, they were all very obliging when asked to have photos with them.

All sumo's can range from 145kgs to 220kgs and from 170 to 195cm's

An entertaining afternoon was had by all, I highly recommend if in Japan,  to attend a sumo wrestling. Competition. After sumo we had a great meal in a Spanish restaurant, and a jug of sangria, later we all rolled home, note the leg,which prosciutto is thinly sliced from.

Tomorrow we head of on the bullet train to Hiroshima.

Post quilt show and hello Tokyo and Yuzawaya.

Wrapping up after the quilt show.

I have to mention this wonderful lady and her beautiful embroidery work, would you believe pistil stitch could be so interesting and what you can create.

Some of my purchases from the quilt show, I bought some great fabric.

Thursday we had a big day out and went to the Tsukiji fish markets for breakfast

Minced fish, cheese and bacon on a stick, served cold, quite tasty.

The size of some of the tuna and marlin were amazing.

Wandering the streets of Tsukiji looking for somewhere to eat, you could buy any kind of seafood and even an omelette on a stick.

One of the temples in the Tsukiji area.

Another temple.

The Japanese love their dogs, this greyhound was in a onesey and in the pram was another dog, when the dog had a wee, the lady sprayed the area with water.

We also visited the Yuzawaya store, Chris and I had a great time purchasing some cheap and wonderful fabric, lots of Yuwa fabric. Will let you have a peek at what I bought when time permits, we are having fun, filled days.

Tomorrow we move to the Minato area to attend our Sumo competition.

You say More......Quilts at Tokyo Quilt show.

I decieded to give you photos of the quilts in separate posts, so we could all enjoy and appreciate some of the stunning quilts that were on display. Chris and I Decieded to go only one day as there was so much more we wanted to do in Tokyo. The other reason, fighting the crowds were exhausting. The quilts were not too difficult to get to, but the vendor stands were fight to the death.

Below are the grand prize winners. This quilt was extraordinary in it's complexity.

A lot of colour.

I think this was the Grand Prix, a lot of work with indigo drunkard paths, I'm not so sure.

Gorgeous appliqué.

As mentioned in previous post, this years theme was dedicated to "Little house on the Pairie, a number of quilts were made in dedication to Laura Ingalls and the show being on TV in Japan for eight years.

The quilt below was the featured quilt on all the advertising pamphlets, it was cot size and had intricate hand quilting.

Other stunning quilts below.

Hexagon madness

A dedication to Paris.

Until next time.