The Floating Garden Observatory connects the two towers that comprise Osaka’s Umeda Sky Building. We had a fantastic view from the window of our hotel room at The Westin Osaka that lured us to the top of this building.

Umeda Sky Building

There is an old Japanese saying, “He who never climbs Mount Fuji is a fool, and he who climbs twice is twice the fool”.

A few years back I managed to get myself outside Tokyo and headed to the countryside intent on climbing Mt. Fuji, the tallest and most famous mountain in Japan. Accompanied by a few mates we set out to take on Japan’s greatest mountain.

Mount Fuji, Japan (image credit: webshots)

We planned a night-time ascent, starting the journey at around 9.00pm from the Fifth Station with a goal to get to the top in time to watch the sun rise, which was said to be around 4.53am. The summit of Mount Fuji has an elevation of 3,776 metres above sea-level.

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If you want to juxtapose your emotions, visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It offers a feeling of melancholic gloom for the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima contrasted against a sense of comforting happiness to see present day Hiroshima a bustling and vibrant city literally risen from the ashes.

Hiroshima is the first city in history subjected to nuclear warfare when the nuclear weapon ‘Little Boy’ was dropped on the city by the B-29 bomber Enola Gay on August 6, 1945 during World War II. The city was destroyed and an estimated 80,000 people were directly killed by the bomb.

Following are some of the monuments and memorials found in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park:

A-Bomb Dome

The A-Bomb Dome, almost the hypocenter of the atomic bomb blast, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The uranium bomb detonated almost directly above this building. Surprisingly, the skeletal remains are one of only a few buildings to survive the blast.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome

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