Museums we visited in Jan

Yamato Museum














The Yamato was a huge battleship made by the Japanese during the second world war. I don’t know all the history but in summary by the time it was built Japan was struggling with a lack of materials so weren’t able to use it, or protect it with air cover so it stayed in port. That was until the US were really closing in on the homeland when it was sent out on what was ultimately a suicide mission (and everyone knew it) and it was sunk by US bombers and torpedo planes. It was built in Kure which is just down the road (ish) and there has been a film made recently about it (not seen it yet) so we thought we should head down and see the museum. All in all it was a bit of a let down- few old planes, suicide torpedoes and an accurate scale model of the Yamato…yawn. Anyway here’s the result of us trying to film Archie jumping- a recent skill he picked up which is handy for the park!


Transportation Museum














In recent years John has become a bit of a history bore (OK so a lot) and in particular trains are a favourite…..trainspotter! Given this (sad) fact it seems strange that it has taken us so long to go to the Hiroshima transportation museum. This was a lot better than the Yamoto museum and had loads of things to look at and Archie to play with. As with most things in Japan they do things thoroughly so even though it doesn’t look it does a roaring trade it still runs and has spent money on producing a model ‘city’. Outside was a track with an array of weird bikes although John committed himself to one that was so small (so you can imagine it was tiny) that his knees were squeezed in between the handle grips so steering was limited and aggressive pedalling was done at the risk of chin injury!