Sorry for not adding your link to the site yet. I've been too occupied with Persona 3. I still need to add a K7 SIN version of your blog. Hey, can't blame ya there. The boyfriend has yet to open his, but he recently purchased a Wii...and...well, I guess I'll see him again, lol. Take your time. Thank you again for extending the honor to me. The only segregation that I see in the United States has more to do with Class distinctions between the rich & the poor. I believe that's the one wreaking the most havoc right now. You can't change your ethnicity...but if you're crafty and dedicated, you could be right up there on the Forbes list. It makes everyone equal and incredibly incongruent all at the same time. All I know is, I'm middle class and aspiring to be 'middle-class-with-my-books-published'. Boy, wouldn't it be grand to achieve that, though. It keeps me aloft in the hard times. So IMO, it's not that the Japanese were being more hostile in Hiroshima. It just so happens that Japanese people tend to be more unwelcoming than Okinawans period. I've never noticed any hostilities in Hiroshima myself, but than again I don't bother to visit WW II memorial sites. (Maybe your friends were visiting during the memorial day of the hiroshima bombings. In general the Japanese tend to hold grudges or at least pretend not to.) Now, I've never had the pleasure of traveling outside the U.S. I have a brash road trip planned with some buddies to see the Flaming Lips in Cleveland...but all music aside... My other friends' trip was a part of a 'historical' assignment to study the Japanese culture, so that might be possible for the collision of their trip and the Memorial holiday. You are quite the history/world geography teacher, lol. I grew up with a WWII vet for a grandfather, so I can't say I'd be visiting any of those sites, either. However, if ever visiting a foreign culture I'd imagine I would try not to bring up past ills, or taking photos of something commemorating a less than wonderful part of U.S. history. Now, the cherry blossoms, I would love to see, one day. Not to detract too much from the discussion. If I ever make it big with writing or music, I may just get to tour there...in...Kyoto, is it? That would be pretty cool. Not that I don't have plenty of places to see that I haven't in the States...but, you know...just to add to the list.