Monday, February 4, 2013

Port Kure

Kure is a port city southeast of Hiroshima.  This city is famous for being a naval center through the end of World War II and for shipbuilding since then.  It's easy to reach from Hiroshima station by JR train.
 The most famous ship ever built in the port of Kure was the Yamato, the largest battle ship ever.  Unfortunately it was sunk north of Okinawa during the war but today you can see a 1/10th model of the ship the Kure Maritime Museum.  The museum is within walking distance of Kure Station.
On display in the museum are original 2D pencil drawings of the Yamato, the drawings used to build this ship.  It's kind of amazing to see these kind of drawings now-a-days, no 3D anything was used in the making of this ship.
In a room adjacent to the Yamato model is a Mitsubishi Zero Type 62.
 From the second floor you can see the flight instruments are still inside the cockpit, which makes me wonder if this plane is still flyable.
 Across the street is a submarine, the Akishio SS-579.  This Submarine was launched in 1985 and decommissioned in 2004.
 You can visit inside the submarine and look through periscopes that were made by Nikon.
The port is very busy today, making large ships for the transport of natural gas and other fuels.  It also has ferries that run from the port to Hiroshima, Matsuyama and other places.
Kind of reminds me of Seattle.

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