Korea and the DMZ

 Going to the DMZ in South Korea reminds me that peace that we have in America should be taken for granted.  We were in Seoul South Korea for 6 days and took two tours focusing on the Korea War, but we also eat with and visited today's young Koreans.  Everyone keeps the war in back of their mind and can't forget it may restart anytime.

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

  

 

  

  

9 more days in Japan

 On the cruise ship we stopped at three port cities of Japan, then we traveled over-land on trains to three cities, Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima staying three nights each. Three days from the ship plus 9 days over-land gives us 12 days total in Japan. 

Tokyo is really a large metro area with cities in it's boundary, our AIRBNB was in Shibuya, which is one of the cities in Tokyo.  The first night we saw Godzilla's on top of a building and eat at a wonderful restaurant. We walked across "Shibuya Crossing" the largest crosswalk in the world!  On a Friday night 3,000 people crisscross the road when the light turns green.

   

  

   

 

 

  

Kyoto is known for it's natural beauty and shines, however we found net Japanese things around each corner.  Girls dressed as gil, and cherry trees starting to blomsem.  The bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto took about two hours with speeds reaching 100+ MPH. 

   

 

  

   

  

 

Hiroshima of course is known for the bomb being dropped 80 years ago.  140,000 people died from the bomb and another 100,000 died from the effects of it since.  We took another bullet train and passed Mt. Fuji. The main reason for going to Hiroshima was the A-Bomb Peace Museum and Park, which didn't disappoint us.  The focus of the museum was the human cost the bomb made, leaving everyone thinking never again!