Hiroshima

This is the one remnant from both bombs dropped on Japan. It is in Hiroshima, we were told the entire city of Nagasaki was rebuilt. Aside from this one building (and the parks/memorials/museums) you couldn't tell anything ever happened to this city. It has all been rebuilt and looks like your average modern Japanese town.
Apparently the bomb detonated directly above this building, it did not hit the ground and detonate but detonated in the air. The museum described it as a second sun, a few hundred feet in the air.




Parts of buildings found after the bomb.

Above is the before, below is the after. Some buildings mostly survived even though the buildings directly around them were disintegrated. They had another model that showed more of the area, including a mountain range. All the homes behind the range were spared, and it appeared all the damage was line of sight, meaning the bomb didn't go over or around any obstacles.

And this is that same image animated.

Above is one of the many Japanese castles we visited on our trip.This is the Hiroshima dish, Okinaminyaki (yes that is more than likely completely misspelled). Its a Japanese pancake of sorts. You start with a bed of noodles, cabbage, onions and any other topping you want (we had garlic) and pour an egg over it. You cook it on your table and it somewhat takes the form of a pancake until you chopstick it up and it becomes the mess you see above.

Just like starting over.

On the bright side my hand has aged really well.

Welcome to the Xander Zone

Born 2:09PM May 30th, 8 pounds 8 ounces, 20 inches long.




Christine wouldn't let me name him Indiana, so I'll just call him Indy. If I can teach Zoe to say "You call him doctor Jones lady" every time she hears Indy I know I will have succeeded as a father.
Christine and baby are doing well and will hopefully come home today.

Iwakuni

This is one of the two bullet trains we had to take on the trip. The truly do go extremely fast and are very comfortable on the inside, probably about business class on an airplane. There were a lot of tunnels we went through, this was very concerning to Zoe, she would throw her hands up in the air almost asking "Where did everything go?", while looking around. Then as soon as daylight broke though again she would be very happy.


This is Ninja Zoe, wearing the belt that comes with the kimono/bathrobe left in our hotel room.



This is the biggest tourist attraction in Iwakuni, the bridge. Part of its allure is its construction, in that the arches have no support and are held together by magic and green tea. I actually never saw how exactly it supports itself as that part was in Japanese, but the English part did mention how the architects were years ahead of their time.



Tired of the bridge yet?
This was a pond with Swans behind the bridge. The area behind the bridge is somewhat of a tourist trap/center, with parks, a snake habitat and other stuff to walk around and see. There is a cable car that takes you up the mountain to a temple but they were closed by the time we got there.





Zoe on the bridge.

Zoe's dog walking service and the Batmobile

Zoe has taken a liking to just one dog in our neighborhood, one, all the rest are Cujo. She likes this dog so much she even takes her for walks, until a plane flys by or she sees a ball.



Zoe saw this batmobile at a friends house and was all over it. She loved it and it was easy enough for her to operate, just one button makes it go. Now everytime she sees it its like Christmas morning over and over again. One day she will learn to steer and dad won't have to course correct. And yes we often find her with one arm out of her pajamas when she wakes up from her nap. We'll spare you the pictures of todays adventure of dad finding her naked in the crib playing with a diaper, needless to say laundry was involved.


Then she decided to help clean, she gets that from her father. She was actually halfway decent at it too.