Crouching City, Hidden Garden

Adam and I met a very nice elderly gentleman by the river (make up your own jokes here, folks) who showed us this wonderful garden.

This is what the garden looked like after the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima . . .

. . . and below is what it looks like now! Truly, Hiroshima is a city of hope. This theme, by the way, is echoed in many places in the city and hope and peace are two of the most appealing qualities of modern Hiroshima. This bamboo forest is straight out of House of Flying Daggers. Haven't seen House of Flying Daggers?!? We're no longer friends.
Just want to take a second and point out that Adam is an excellent teacher. His teaching skills of Japanese are no exception. He was able to teach me in less than 5 minutes how to say, "Will you please take our picture?". I presented this query to a group of elderly women in a manner probably not unlike a tortoise trying his best to speak english. As you can tell, it worked. I just wish I knew how to ask, "Can you make it less blurry?"!
Seriously though, if I was ever going to learn conversational Japanese, I would definitely ask Adam.

We're no longer friends.

-- Gabe