JAPAN PHOTOS by Philbert Ono

Etajima island is home to Japan's Naval Academy officially called the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force First Service School (海上自衛隊第1術科学校), akin to Annapolis in the US. It originally opened as the Imperial Naval Academy in 1888. The Naval Academy conducts free guided tours of the school 3 or 4 times a day. The main attraction for me was the display of a midget submarine used in the Pearl Harbor attack. For more info see the academy's Web site here.

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Built in 1622 by Lord Mizuno Katsunari. This is one castle you can see from the bullet train. The castle tower was rebuilt in 1966. A turret and a gate are Important Cultural Assets.

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Scenic Tomonoura is a part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park.

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Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima island is one of Japan's most famous sights and one of Japan's Scenic Trio (Nihon Sankei) and World Heritage Site. Short train ride from Hiroshima Station to Miyajima-guchi and a short ferry ride to the island.

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Hiroshima's No. 1 tourist attraction. The park has the iconic Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Memorial Cenotaph, Peace Flame, and numerous other memorials. Hordes of school kids on class trips visit here.

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Obviously destroyed during the war, the castle was reconstructed after World War II.

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The Yamato Museum's main attraction is a 1/10th scale model of battleship Yamato, Japan's most famous and legendary battleship in World War II. The museum is adjacent to Kure Port.

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The JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) Kure Museum is mainly a submarine museum whose main attraction is the decommissioned sub called Akishio. The museum is conveniently right across the street from the Yamato Museum.

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Only stone walls and a moat remains.

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This Onomichi Castle never existed. It was built in 1964 solely as a local museum and tourist attraction. Sadly, the company that owned the castle went bankrupt and the castle museum closed and became an an abandoned building in 1992. The castle was finally dismantled in 2020-21. A very slow process since heavy duty equipment cannot access the structure.

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