Yesterday I learned that dandelions are good at absorbing cessium from contaminated soil

I learned this from the audience at my lecture at the Hiroshima Peace Institute. It was a good crowd and a great discussion after my lecture (and I made it through without crying, although I was choked up several times). Afterwards we had a feast at WASABI with 14 people: fish heads (yum those cheeks!); sardine sashimi + sardine tempura + sardine dumplings (sardine is a Hiroshima specialty); fresh tofu and fried tofu; shisito peppers; yum yum plum wine; bottles and bottles of sake; potato fritters; mountain potatoes and octopus; triangular heaps of tamago (sweet egg) = divine. THANKS to Hiroko for organizing it all and to Suzuki for joining us - he designed my card, and to Larry, JoAnn, Steve + Elizabeth, Michiko + Kiri, Madeleine, Ian + Lily for celebrating with me and welcoming me to Japan. Suzuki made me a calligraphy drawing to congratulate me on my first show in Japan that said "You have bloomed in Japan. Now it is Spring." I hope so!

Here are Ian and Lily from New Zealand with my sister Madeleine in front of the Peace Musem, cenotaph and Dome in the background, yesterday.

Hiroshima 2 nights ago while I was walking over a bridge to get some Agadashi Tofu and Plum Wine
Hiroshima 1, before bombing (from documentary film in museum)

Hiroshima 2, after the bombing, what was destroyed

Hirshima 3, what was destroyed entirely by fire

Hiroshima building after bomb

Shadow of ladder that was incinerated by the A-Bomb

Shadow of a person incinerated by the A-Bomb on a bridge

Hiroshima after the bombing
one of many views of the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima taken by the U.S. military
the result of the bombing - a city gone, 75,000 people immediately disappeared, 75,000 more by the end of the year....

the bomb

the first photograph known to be taken after the bombing, shocked and injured and suffering people on a bridge trying to understand, to survive, to find loved ones

the cenotaph in Peace Park where names are added each year to the registry of the dead of those who died as a result of the A-Bomb
The light in the stairwell of the Former Bank of Japan, right outside my exhibition room
my exhibition room with Ian measuring it by walking, half the walls are up!
Tomorrow morning at 9 I meet an army of 10 to help me bring all my work over to the bank and begin installing at 10am, opening at 3pm! Fast turnaround.......keeping fingers crossed!